Evolution of the Earth

Donald R. Prothero, Robert H. Dott

530 pages, parution le 26/09/2003 (7^eme édition)

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Résumé

Evolution of the Earth reveals the logical framework of geology, shows relations of the science to the totality of human knowledge, and gives some idea of what it is to be a participant in the discipline. In keeping with the preference for a "How do we know?" rather than "What do we know?" approach, the authors stress what assumptions are made by earth historians, what kinds of evidence (and tools for gathering that evidence), and what processes of reasoning and limitations of hypotheses are involved in reconstructing and interpreting the past.

Each chapter begins with a list of highlights entitled "Major Concepts". Many chapters have a summary timeline that puts the entire sequence of events into a quick visual reference frame. The use of dioramas and reconstructions of extinct animals and plants has been greatly expanded, so that students can get a more vivid concept of typical life in any part of the geologic past. In many places, the authors have supplied a full page of color photos of classic fossils from each period to improve the visual recognition of the organisms that give life its distinctive history. The areas of hottest controversy, such as mass extinctions, dinosaur endothermy, the origin of life, and controversies over late Proterozoic tectonics and glaciation, have been given separate sections so that students can appreciate the different sides of the debates.

Time and Terrestrial Change
Floods, Fossils, and Heresies: "No vestige of a beginning, no prospect of an end?"
Evolution
The Relative Geologic Time Scale and Modern Concepts of Stratigraphy
The Numerical Dating of the Earth
Origin and Early Evolution of the Earth
Mountain Building and Drifting Continents
Cryptozoic History: An Introduction to the Origin of Continental Crust
Early Life and its Patterns
Earliest Paleozoic History: The Sauk Sequence - An Introduction to Cratons and Epeiric Seas
The Later Ordovician: Further Studies of Plate Tectonics and the Paleogeography of Orogenic Belts
The Middle Paleozoic: Time of Reefs, Salt, and Forests
Late Paleozoic History: A Tectonic Climax and Retreat of the Sea
The Mesozoic Era: Age of Reptiles and Continental Breakup
Cenozoic History: Threshold of the Present
Pleistocene Glaciation and the Advent of Humans
The Best of all Possible Worlds?

Appendix I The Classification and Relationships of Life
Appendix II English Equivalents of Metric Measures

Caractéristiques techniques

	PAPIER
Éditeur(s)	Mc Graw Hill
Auteur(s)	Donald R. Prothero, Robert H. Dott
Parution	26/09/2003
Édition	7^eme édition
Nb. de pages	530
Format	22 x 27
Couverture	Broché
Poids	1235g
Intérieur	Quadri
EAN13	9780071216289
ISBN13	978-0-07-121628-9