The New York Times Book of Fossils and Evolution

by Edited by Nicholas Wade

• ISBN13: 9781585742646
• ISBN10: 1585742643
• Edition: Revised
• Format: Trade Paper
• Copyright: 2001-06-01
• Publisher: Lyons Press

Summary

A newly updated edition of the best articles on bird behavior and biology from The New York Times

Table of Contents

Introduction	p. 1
How Life Began
Fossils Prove Life Came About Faster	p. 8
Clues to Fiery Origin of Life Sought in Hothouse Microbes	p. 11
Evidence Puts Date for Life's Origin Back Millions of Years	p. 17
The Comet's Gift: Hints of How Earth Came to Life	p. 20
Evidence Backs Theory Linking Origins of Life to Volcanoes	p. 25
From Dinosaurs to Birds
Fossil of a Terror That Dwarfed T. Rex Is Found	p. 33
Computer Recreates Call of Dinosaur Sound Organ	p. 37
New Dinosaur Exhibit Underscores Disputes Within Paleontology	p. 40
Familiar Dinosaurs May Take New Shape	p. 45
Chemical Traces of Blood Found in Bones of Tyrannosaurus Rex	p. 48
Pity a Tyrannosaur? Sue Had Gout	p. 51
Embryo Sheds Light on Dinosaurs' Origin	p. 54
Fossil of Nesting Dinosaur Strengthens Link to Modern Birds	p. 58
In China, a Spectacular Trove of Dinosaur Fossils Is Found	p. 62
An Early Bird Mars Theory on Dinosaurs	p. 65
Fossil Find Hints at Origin of Flight	p. 68
Global Catastrophes
New Clues to Agent of Life's Worst Extinction	p. 73
Mass Extinction of Permian Era Linked to a Gas	p. 80
Asteroid's Shallow Angle May Have Sent Inferno Over Northern Kill Zone	p. 86
Milestones in Evolution
Three Finds Clarify Life's Murky Origins	p. 95
First Branch in Life's Tree Was Two Billion Years Ago	p. 100
Using Genes as a Clock, Study Traces Animal Life Back a Billion Years	p. 104
Evidence of Bone Shows Vertebrates to Be Far Older Than Once Believed	p. 108
Early Amphibian Fossil Hints of a Trip Ashore Earlier Than Thought	p. 111
Animals Left the Water Earlier Than Thought	p. 115
Long Before Flowering Plants, Insects Evolved Ways to Use Them	p. 117
Which Came First: Bees or Flowers? Find Points to Bees	p. 125
Stories from the Fossil Record
Reconstructing a Galloping Crocodile After a Mere 200 Million Years	p. 131
Legged Snakes? First Reliable Evidence Is In	p. 134
Galapagos Mystery Solved: Fauna Evolved on Vanished Isle	p. 137
How the Whale Lost Its Legs and Returned to the Sea	p. 143
Treasure Trove of Fossils Turns Up in the Gobi	p. 149
Expedition to Far New Jersey Finds Trove of Amber Fossils	p. 154
Reservoir of Living Fossils May Lie Below Ice	p. 158
Clash on Fossil Sales Shadows a Trade Fair	p. 160
"Dwarf" Mammoths May Have Put Off Demise	p. 166
Horses, Mollusks and the Evolution of Bigness	p. 169
The Wizard of Eyes: Evolution Creates Novelty by Varying the Same Old Tricks	p. 174
The Emergence of Humans
New Fossils Take Science Close to Dawn of Humans	p. 182
Tiny Foot Bones May Show a Giant Leap for Mankind	p. 187
New Fossils Reveal the First of Man's Walking Ancestors	p. 191
The Transforming Leap, From Four Legs to Two	p. 196
Fossil Family: Big Guys Join Delicate Lucy	p. 204
Skull in Ethiopia Is Linked to Earliest Man	p. 207
Toolmaker's Thumb Not Unique to Humans	p. 211
Human Ancestors' Earliest Tools Found in Africa	p. 216
Bones in China Put New Light on Old Humans	p. 220
Neanderthals and Modern Humans Co-existed Longer Than Thought	p. 225
Fossils Called Limb in Human Family Tree	p. 228
Three Human Species Co-existed Eons Ago, New Data Suggest	p. 231
Neanderthal DNA Sheds New Light on Human Origins	p. 235
The Latest from the Field
Across a Great Divide of Biology	p. 242
Life's Origins Get Murkier and Messier	p. 246
Skulls on the Out-of-Africa Trail	p. 251
To People the World, Start with 500	p. 254
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