Living Fossils

Living Fossils PDF

Author: N. Eldredge

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

Published: 2012-12-06

Total Pages: 445

ISBN-13: 1461382718

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

The case history approach has an impressive record of success in a variety of disciplines. Collections of case histories, casebooks, are now widely used in all sorts of specialties other than in their familiar appli cation to law and medicine. The case method had its formal beginning at Harvard in 1871 when Christopher Lagdell developed it as a means of teaching. It was so successful in teaching law that it was soon adopted in medical education, and the collection of cases provided the raw material for research on various diseases. Subsequently, the case history approach spread to such varied fields as business, psychology, management, and economics, and there are over 100 books in print that use this approach. The idea for a series of Casehooks in Earth Science grew from my experience in organizing and editing a collection of examples of one variety of sedimentary deposits. The prqject began as an effort to bring some order to a large number of descriptions of these deposits that were so varied in presentation and terminology that even specialists found them difficult to compare and analyze. Thus, from the beginning, it was evident that something more than a simple collection of papers was needed. Accordingly, the nearly fifty contributors worked together with George de Vries Klein and me to establish a standard format for presenting the case histories.

Coelacanth

Coelacanth PDF

Author: Peter L. Forey

Publisher: Forrest

Published: 2009

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9780955074097

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

The purpose of this book is to give an account of the life and times of a single species of fish, Latimeria chalumnae- the coelacanth (or are there now two species?). Before the discovery of the modern Latimeria, relationships of the coelacanths were thought to lie with the rhipidistians, a group of fossil fishes that many think are tetrapod ancestors. Hence, by looking at the modern coelacanth and assuming conservatism we may be able to reconstruct the life of the 'missing link' between fishes and tetrapods. The coelacanth is the only living animal to retain some structuralcharacteristics that were certainly present in the tetrapod ancestors, such as the intracranial joint. Therefore it is of some interest to try and find out how this joint works and what it is there for. The gene pool of the coelacanth has been separated from that of all other living vertebrates for at least 360 million years. Therefore, it is of some interest to find out how much deviation from contemporaneous fishes there has been. Coelacanths have often been used as the classic example of a particular evolutionary pattern whereby evolution is very fast in the early years and then slows down to stability and finally stagnation. This needs to be evaluated in the light of what we now know of the history of the coelacanths as a genetic lineage.

Evolution and Development of Fishes

Evolution and Development of Fishes PDF

Author: Zerina Johanson

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2019-01-10

Total Pages: 283

ISBN-13: 1107179440

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

World-class palaeontologists and biologists summarise the state-of-the-art on fish evolution and development.

Living Fossil: The Story of the Coelacanth

Living Fossil: The Story of the Coelacanth PDF

Author: Keith Stewart Thomson

Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company

Published: 1992-07-17

Total Pages: 256

ISBN-13: 0393245357

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

"An engrossing tale of obsession, adventure and scientific reasoning." —Betty Ann Kevles, Los Angeles Times In the winter of 1938, a fishing boat by chance dragged from the Indian Ocean a fish thought extinct for 70 million years. It was a coelacanth, which thrived concurrently with dinosaurs and pterodactyls—an animal of major importance to those who study the history of vertebrate life. Living Fossil describes the life and habitat of the coelcanth and what scientists have learned about it during fifty years of research. It is an exciting and very human story, filled with ambitious and brilliant people, that reveals much about the practice of modern science.

A Fish Caught in Time

A Fish Caught in Time PDF

Author: Samantha Weinberg

Publisher: Harper Collins

Published: 2001-02-06

Total Pages: 242

ISBN-13: 0060932856

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

The coelacanth (see-lo-canth) is no ordinary fish. Five feet long, with luminescent eyes and limb like fins, this bizarre creature, presumed to be extinct, was discovered in 1938 by an amateur icthyologist who recognized it from fossils dating back 400 million years. The discovery was immediately dubbed the "greatest scientific find of the century," but the excitement that ensued was even more incredible. This is the entrancing story of that most rare and precious fish -- our own great-uncle forty million times removed.

History of the Coelacanth Fishes

History of the Coelacanth Fishes PDF

Author: Peter Forey

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

Published: 1997-11-30

Total Pages: 478

ISBN-13: 9780412784804

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

This book evaluates the reputation of the coelacanth, presenting up-to-date accounts of the structure of fossil coelacanths, and suggests a family history to show that there have been subtle but significant changes in coelacanth history.

The Annotated Old Four Legs

The Annotated Old Four Legs PDF

Author: Mike Bruton

Publisher: Penguin Random House South Africa

Published: 2017-11-01

Total Pages: 304

ISBN-13: 177584501X

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

When the famous South African fish scientist Professor JLB Smith published Old Fourlegs – The Story of the Coelacanth in 1956 he created an international sensation. After all, this 400-million-year-old fish, known only from fossil remains, was thought to have become extinct around 66 million years ago! JLB Smith’s dramatic account of the discovery of the first and second coelacanths in 1938 and 1952 turned him into a cult figure and put South African science on the world map. His book was eventually published in six English editions and translated into nine foreign languages. Mike Bruton’s The Annotated Old Fourlegs includes a facsimile reprint of the original book, to which he has added notes and images in the margins that provide an interesting and revealing commentary on Smith’s text, as well as new introductory and explanatory chapters that bring the coelacanth story up to date.