Out of Thin Air: Dinosaurs, Birds, and Earth's Ancient Atmosphere
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Out of Thin Air: Dinosaurs, Birds, and Earth's Ancient Atmosphere by Peter Douglas Ward
For 65 million years dinosaurs ruled the Earth--until a deadly asteroid forced their extinction. But what accounts for the incredible longevity of dinosaurs? A renowned scientist now provides a startling explanation that is rewriting the history of the Age of Dinosaurs. Dinosaurs were pretty amazing creatures--real-life monsters that have the power to fascinate us. And their fiery Hollywood ending only serves to make the story that much more dramatic. But fossil evidence demonstrates that dinosaurs survived several mass extinctions, and were seemingly unaffected by catastrophes that decimated most other life on Earth. What could explain their uncanny ability to endure through the ages? Biologist and earth scientist Peter Ward now accounts for the remarkable indestructibility of dinosaurs by connecting their unusual respiration system with their ability to adapt to Earth's changing environment--a system that was ultimately bequeathed to their descendants, birds. By tracing the evolutionary path back through time and carefully connecting the dots from birds to dinosaurs, Ward describes the unique form of breathing shared by these two distant relatives and demonstrates how this simple but remarkable characteristic provides the elusive explanation to a question that has thus far stumped scientists. Nothing short of revolutionary in its bold presentation of an astonishing theory, Out of Thin Air is a story of science at the edge of discovery. Ward is an outstanding guide to the process of scientific detection. Audacious and innovative in his thinking, meticulous and thoroughly detailed in his research, only a scientist of his caliber is capable of telling this surprising story.
Ward, Peter: - Peter Ward was born in London in 1980. He was educated at William Torbitt Primary School and Ilford Country High School in Essex, before studying English Literature at the University of Southampton. He started writing his first book Time Rep in 2002, which took six years to complete. He then left it in a drawer for three years before putting the first draft of it on the internet in 2011. After being downloaded 60,000 times and receiving (mostly) positive reviews, he thought it would be wise to approach a literary agent. This led to a new and improved draft of Time Rep being published by Diversion Books in 2013. A German translation is due later in the year through Piper Verlag GmbH. He began writing his second book Note to Self just as Time Rep was being completed in 2008. The final draft was completed in February 2013 and is due to be published by Diversion Books later this year.
He lives in London with his partner Lucy and a very small cat.
He lives in London with his partner Lucy and a very small cat.
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9780309100618 |
| ISBN 10 | 0309100615 |
| Title | Out of Thin Air: Dinosaurs, Birds, and Earth's Ancient Atmosphere |
| Author | Peter Douglas Ward |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding Type | Hardback |
| Publisher | National Academies Press |
| Year published | 2006-09-26 |
| Number of pages | 296 |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |