
Time Machines
Scientific Explorations in Deep Time
Peter D. Ward(Author)
Springer (Publisher)
Published on 27. September 2012
Book
Paperback/Softback
XIX, 241 pages
978-1-4612-7239-7 (ISBN)
Description
I n modem times, science has brought the past-and so many of its creatures-back to life via intellectual inquiry, application of the scientific method, and some extraordinary technology that has recently been devel oped. The wonder of the process is that such a rich and vivid understanding of the deep past has been generated from such scanty evidence: broken bones, lithified shells, fossil leaves, and even simple layered rocks. The sci entists who have contributed to this work have woven rich tapestries of an cient times, and their weaving, which is an adventure in itself, is the subject of this book. It is as if true time machines existed, enabling us to retreat through time's mists into the past, to examine the then-living as though liv ing still, to visit ancient worlds and reconstruct the lives their denizens led. vii TIME MA[HINES The past tantalizes us; it is part of our nature to seek clues about an cient times and our origins. Yet the past is far more than just some moment in time. In our own lives, for instance, it is also place, people (and other liv ing things), and history. Take the first day of school: the desks and posters, the windows and chalkboards, the people who left us there, the people we met. So, too, for paleontologists and archeologists is the deep past a conver gence of time, place, inhabitants, and their history or biological interactions.
More details
Edition
Softcover reprint of the original 1st ed. 1998
Language
English
Place of publication
New York
United States
Target group
Popular/general
Illustrations
XIX, 241 p.
Dimensions
Height: 235 mm
Width: 155 mm
Thickness: 15 mm
Weight
406 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-4612-7239-7 (9781461272397)
DOI
10.1007/978-1-4612-1672-8
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

Book
09/1998
Springer
€37.44
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Content
One: Finding Time.- 1 Fossils and the Birth of the Geological Time Scale.- 2 Radiometric Clocks.- 3 Magnetic Clocks.- Two: Place.- 4 Baja British Columbia.- 5 Ancient Environments and the Level of the Sea.- Three: Inhabitants.- 6 The Bite of a Mosasaur.- 7 Virtual Ammonites.- 8 The Ancestry of the Nautilus.- 9 Of Inoceramids and Isotopes.- Four: The Time Machine.- 10 Cretaceous Park.- Afterword.- References.