History of Life
4th Edition
Published on 15. August 2004
Book
Paperback/Softback
336 pages
978-1-4051-1756-2 (ISBN)
Description
This text is aimed at students and anyone interested in the history of life on our planet. It explores the 'whys' of events that occurred, and in this newest edition, it takes a closer look at the evolution of the physical earth and the strong interactions between organisms and environment. The book's coverage includes geography, climate, atmosphere, ocean, and land (a changing stage) while following interplay between organisms. Also, new to this edition is a dedicated website which explores additional environmental factors and supplemental topics, and provides interactive exercises, a detailed glossary, key links and all art in downloadable form. The art is also available to instructors on CD-ROM in PowerPoint and Jpeg formats.
Reviews / Votes
Praise for the New Edition: "His material is accessible to even the uninitiated, but is still able to include fairly nuanced arguments. Mr. Cowen's gentle wit is much appreciated. This is a wonderful text, written in an engaging style by an author with both deep and broad knowledge of the history of life." Emily Buchholtz, Wellesley College "...the History of Life is a superb book which has no peer among published texts describing the macroevolution of life on Earth and the abiotic and biotic factors that have influenced the evolutionary history of living organisms." Robert McMahon, U of Texas at Arlington Praise for the Third Edition: Anybody interested in the evolution of the Earth and its living organisms, especially animals, will find the content of this book useful and interesting. [...] I would recommend the book to those readers who would like to gain a basic knowledge on the Earth's evolution accompanied with detailed description of the evolution of animals. L. Natr, Photosynthetica 40 'Should be compulsory for everyone who wants to call him/herself a palaeontologist.' J.W.F Reumer, PalArch's Journal of Vertebrate Palaeontology, (2006)More details
Edition
4th Revised edition
Language
English
Place of publication
Oxford
United Kingdom
Publishing group
John Wiley and Sons Ltd
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Edition type
Revised edition
Illustrations
285 illustrations
Dimensions
Height: 274 mm
Width: 221 mm
Thickness: 18 mm
Weight
992 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-4051-1756-2 (9781405117562)
Copyright in bibliographic data is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or its licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
New editions
Richard Cowen
History of Life
Book
03/2013
5th Edition
Wiley
€122.00
Article exhausted; check different version
Richard Cowen
History of Life
Book
03/2013
5th Edition
Wiley
€59.90
Article exhausted; check for reprint
Previous edition
Richard Cowen
History of Life
Book
03/2000
3rd Edition
Blackwell Science Inc.
€60.31
Article exhausted; check for reprint
Person
Richard Cowen learned how to write and to think critically at Cambridge University, and how to teach and think creatively at the University of California, Davis. He received a Distinguished Teaching Award in 1993 and designed the course "History of Life" there. The book was written specifically for that course, and has gone on to become a best-selling textbook.
Content
Preface.1. The Origin of Life on Earth.2. Earth's Earliest Life.3. Sex and Nuclei: Eukaryotes.4. The Evolution of Metazoans.5. The Cambrian Explosion.6. Changing Life in a Changing World.7. The Early Vertebrates.8. Leaving the Water.9. Tetrapods and Amniotes.10. Early Amniotes and Thermoregulation.11. The Triassic Takeover.12. Dinosaurs.13. The Evolution of Flight.14. The Modernization of Land and Sea.15. The Origin of Mammals.16. The End of Dinosaurs.17. Cenozoic Mammals: Origins, Guilds and Trends.18. Geography and Evolution.19. Primates.20. Evolving Toward Humans.21. Life in the Ice Ages.Glossary.Index