Extreme Survivors: Animals That Time Forgot (How Nature Works)

Extreme Survivors: Animals That Time Forgot (How Nature Works) PDF

Author: Kimberly Ridley

Publisher: Tilbury House Publishers and Cadent Publishing

Published: 2018-06-12

Total Pages: 50

ISBN-13: 0884485781

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Selected for the 2018 Bank Street College of Education Best STEM Children’s Books of the Year What do the goblin shark, horseshoe crab, the “indestructible” water bear, and a handful of other bizarre animals have in common? They are all “extreme survivors,” animals that still look much like their prehistoric ancestors from millions of years ago. Meet ten amazing animals that appear to have changed little in more than 100 million years. They are the rare exceptions to the rule. More than 99 percent of all life forms have gone extinct during the 3.6-billion-year history of life on Earth. Other organisms have changed dramatically, but not our extreme survivors. Evolution may have altered their physiology and behavior, but their body plans have stood the test of time. How have these living links with Earth’s prehistoric past survived? The search for answers is leading scientists to new discoveries about the past—and future—of life on Earth. The survival secrets of some of these ancient creatures could lead to new medicines and treatments for disease. Written in a lively, entertaining voice, Extreme Survivors provides detailed life histories and strange “survival secrets” of ten ancient animals and explains evolution and natural selection. Extensive back matter includes glossary, additional facts and geographic range for each organism and a geologic timeline of Earth. F&P Level V

Extreme Survivors

Extreme Survivors PDF

Author: Kimberly Ridley

Publisher:

Published: 2021-04-06

Total Pages: 48

ISBN-13: 9780884487432

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More than 99 percent of all life forms have gone extinct during the 3.6-billion-year history of life on Earth. Other organisms have changed dramatically, but not our extreme survivors. Evolution may have altered their physiology and behavior, but their body plans have stood the test of time. How have these living links with Earth's prehistoric past survived? The search for answers is leading scientists to new discoveries about the past--and future--of life on Earth. The survival secrets of some of these ancient creatures could lead to new medicines and treatments for disease. Written in a lively, entertaining voice, Extreme Survivors provides detailed life histories and strange "survival secrets" of ten ancient animals and explains evolution and natural selection. Extensive back matter includes glossary, additional facts and geographic range for each organism and a geologic timeline of Earth.F&P Level V

Catching Air: Taking the Leap with Gliding Animals (How Nature Works)

Catching Air: Taking the Leap with Gliding Animals (How Nature Works) PDF

Author: Sneed B. Collard

Publisher: Tilbury House Publishers and Cadent Publishing

Published: 2017-03-28

Total Pages: 42

ISBN-13: 0884485390

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*Junior Library Guild Selection 2017* Only a few dozen vertebrate animals have evolved true gliding abilities, but they include an astonishing variety of mammals, reptiles, and amphibians. North America’s flying squirrels and Australia’s sugar gliders notwithstanding, the vast majority of them live in rainforests. Illustrated with arresting photographs, Catching Air takes us around the world to meet these animals, learn why so many gliders live in Southeast Asia, and find out why this gravity-defying ability has evolved in Draco lizards, snakes, and frogs as well as mammals. Why do gliders stop short of flying, how did bats make that final leap, and how did Homo sapiens bypass evolution to glide via wingsuits and hang gliders—or is that evolution in another guise? Fountas & Pinnell Level R

Chasing Guano: The Discovery of a Penguin Supercolony (How Nature Works)

Chasing Guano: The Discovery of a Penguin Supercolony (How Nature Works) PDF

Author: Helen Taylor

Publisher: Tilbury House Publishers and Cadent Publishing

Published: 2024-07-30

Total Pages: 42

ISBN-13: 1668944979

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When scientist Heather Lynch came across a satellite image of the Antarctic Peninsula's remote Danger Islands streaked with pink, she knew exactly what she was looking at. . . . Poop—guano, to be more specific—and a lot of it. The culprit, she suspected, was a previously unnoticed colony of penguins. A big one. And their favorite food appeared to be pink krill. For a closer look, Heather built a team for an expedition to the Danger Islands, an area notorious for its unpredictable sea ice. Their mission was to count the penguins, determine how long ago the colony was established, and make a case for protecting their habitat from overfishing and other threats. Penguins are particularly important to study because, as indicator species, they can alert scientists to issues affecting the larger ecosystem. Join Heather and her team on a fascinating exploration of these remote islands as they discover a “supercolony” home to one of the world’s largest populations of Adélie penguins. Features team photos from the expedition!

City Fish Country Fish: How Fish Adapt to Tropical Seas and Cold Oceans (Second Edition) (How Nature Works)

City Fish Country Fish: How Fish Adapt to Tropical Seas and Cold Oceans (Second Edition) (How Nature Works) PDF

Author: Mary M. Cerullo

Publisher: Tilbury House Publishers and Cadent Publishing

Published: 2017-03-28

Total Pages: 50

ISBN-13: 0884485366

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* School Library Journal Starred Review * * Honor Book SSLI (Society of School Librarians International) * *Skipping Stones Honor Book* Fish that live in tropical seas are like city dwellers, packed into reefs and surrounded by life in great variety and urgent motion,Fish that live in tropical seas are like city dwellers, packed into reefs andsurrounded by life in great variety and urgent motion, day and night. Through color, shape,size, and other adaptations, city fish and country fish have evolved to survive in their particular habitats.In City Fish, Country Fish, Mary Cerullo uses this powerful analogy and Jeffrey Rotman’s vibrant underwater photos to captivate young readers with the wild variety of ocean life. The second edition of this popular book includes new information about the effects of climate change on fish and their habitats and about great white sharks, who are among the few species who roam back and forth between cold and tropical waters. Fountas & Pinnell Level T

Don't Mess with Me: The Strange Lives of Venomous Sea Creatures (How Nature Works)

Don't Mess with Me: The Strange Lives of Venomous Sea Creatures (How Nature Works) PDF

Author: Paul Erickson

Publisher: Tilbury House Publishers and Cadent Publishing

Published: 2018-12-04

Total Pages: 50

ISBN-13: 0884485536

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The role of venoms in nature … and in human medicine Why are toxins so advantageous to their possessors as to evolve over and over again? What is it about watery environments that favors so many venomous creatures? Marine biologist Paul Erickson explores these and other questions with astounding images from Andrew Martinez and other top underwater photographers. GREAT for teaching STEM Marine Biology Scorpions and brown recluse spiders are fine as far as they go, but if you want daily contact with venomous creatures, the ocean is the place to be. Blue-ringed octopi, stony corals, sea jellies, stonefish, lionfish, poison-fanged blennies, stingrays, cone snails, blind remipedes, fire urchins—you can choose your poison in the ocean. Venoms are often but not always defensive weapons. The banded sea krait, an aquatic snake, wriggles into undersea caves to prey on vicious moray eels, killing them with one of the world’s most deadly neurotoxins, which it injects through fangs that resemble hypodermic needles.

One Iguana, Two Iguanas: A Story of Accident, Natural Selection, and Evolution (How Nature Works)

One Iguana, Two Iguanas: A Story of Accident, Natural Selection, and Evolution (How Nature Works) PDF

Author: Sneed B. Collard III

Publisher: Tilbury House Publishers and Cadent Publishing

Published: 2018-12-04

Total Pages: 42

ISBN-13: 0884486516

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KIRKUS STARRED REVIEW 2020 Outstanding Science Trade List A Junior Library Guild Selection Natural selection and speciation are all but ignored in children’s nonfiction. To help address this glaring deficiency, award-winning children’s science writer Sneed Collard traveled to the Galapagos Islands to see for himself, where Charles Darwin saw, how new species form. The result is this fascinating story of two species of iguana, one land-based and one marine, both of which developed from a single ancestor that reached the islands millions of years ago. The animals evolved in different directions while living within sight of one another. How is that possible? Collard uses the iguanas to explore Charles Darwin’s great discovery. F&P Level V

A Gap in Nature

A Gap in Nature PDF

Author: Tim Fridtjof Flannery

Publisher: Atlantic Monthly Press

Published: 2001

Total Pages: 212

ISBN-13: 9780871137975

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A short description of the extinct animal along with a color drawing.

The Secret Pool

The Secret Pool PDF

Author: Kimberly Ridley

Publisher: Tilbury House Nature Book

Published: 2016-03-15

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9780884484943

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You might walk right by a vernal pool and not notice it. Often mistaken for mere puddles in the woods, vernal pools are the source of life for many interesting creatures. These secret pools form every year when low places on the forest floor fill up with rain and melted snow. They soon become home to hatching wood frogs, spotted salamanders, and fairy shrimp. Even in late summer and fall, creatures such as turtles and snakes rely on these places for shelter and food.

Nature’s Deadliest Animals

Nature’s Deadliest Animals PDF

Author: Frankie Stout

Publisher: The Rosen Publishing Group, Inc

Published: 2008-01-01

Total Pages: 34

ISBN-13: 9781404241596

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Killer instincts help this group of animals to thrive in the wild. This book explores what makes an animal especially deadly and how they live to kill.