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Evolving Eden: An Illustrated Guide to the Evolution of the African Large-Mammal Fauna - Paperback | Diverse Reads

Evolving Eden: An Illustrated Guide to the Evolution of the African Large-Mammal Fauna

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The Garden of Eden as the ideal and untouched site of life's creation persists in popular thought, even as we have uncovered a lengthy fossil record and developed a scientific understanding of evolution. The continent of Africa is a good candidate for Eden: its generally warm climate, rich vegetation, and variety of animal species lend themselves easily to such a comparison. Yet in the time since the first primates appeared millions of years ago, Africa has undergone profound alterations in physical geography, climate, and biota.

Linking the evidence of the past with that of the present, this exquisitely illustrated guide examines the evolution of the mammalian fauna of Africa within the context of dramatic changes over the course of more than 30 million years of primate presence. The book covers such topics as dating, continental drift, and global climate change and the likely motors of evolution as well as the physical evolution of the African continent, including present and past climates, and the major determinants of plant and mammal distributions. The authors discuss human evolution as a part of the larger pattern of mammalian evolution while responding to the unique interest that we have in our own past.

The meticulous reconstructions of fossil mammals in this book are the result of detailed anatomical research. Restorations of mammalian musculature and appearance take into account the affinities between fossil forms and extant species in order to make well-founded inferences about unpreserved animal attributes. Environmental reconstructions benefit from the authors' visits to more than a dozen wildlife preserves in five African countries as well as the use of an extensive database of published studies on the evolution of landscapes on the continent. A fascinating read and a visual feast, Evolving Eden lays the foundation for a deeper appreciation of contemporary African wildlife.

ISBN-13: 9780231119450

Media Type: Paperback

Publisher: Columbia University Press

Publication Date: 07-03-2007

Pages: 304

Product Dimensions: 7.00(w) x 10.00(h) x (d)

Age Range: 18 Years

Alan Turner is professor of Vertebrate paleontology at John Moores University in Liverpool, England, and former senior curator of paleontology at the Transvaal Museum in Pretoria, South Africa. He is the author, with Mauricio Antón, of The Big Cats and Their Fossil Relatives. Mauricio Antón is a paleontological artist based at the National Museum of Natural Sciences in Madrid. His work has appeared in National Geographic and Natural History, among other magazines. He has collaborated with the Discovery Channel and the BBC, most recently for the series Walking with Prehistoric Beasts. He is the author, with Jordi Agustí, of Mammoths, Sabertooths, and Hominids.

What People are Saying About This

F. Clark Howell

Evolving Eden expansively documents, in text and singular illustrations, the context and nature of emergence, over some thirty million years, of the species-rich, distinctively African mammal fauna. It highlights its foreign and indigenous roots, innumerable species appearances and extinctions, all within the framework of often massive, far-reaching physical and environmental transformations of that vast, and ancient pan-equatorial landmass. In addition to its important illumination of natural history, past and present, of the ill-named 'dark continent,' this book clearly examines the emergence and subsequent evolution of humans. This is an exceptionally useful and stimulating volume.

— F. Clark Howell, professor emeritus of anthropology, University of California, Berkeley

Table of Contents

1. Dating, Continental Drift, Climate Change, and the Motor of Evolution
2. The Background to Mammalian Evolution in Africa
3. African Mammals, Past and Present
4. Fossil Sites in Africa
5. The Evolving African Mammalian Fauna
Epilogue
Further Reading
Index