Atlas of the Prehistoric World - Hardcover

Palmer, Douglas

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1563318296 ISBN 13: 9781563318290

Publisher: Random House, Inc., 1999

Synopsis

From it's beginnings as an accumulation of molten space debris over 4.6 billion years ago, the Earth has undergone astounding transformations, both geological and biological, to arrive at its familiar look today.  The Discovery Channel's Atlas of the Prehistoric World is a dynamic portrait of the Earth and the interplay among the various forces that shaped both the planet and the life upon it.

Atlas of the Prehistoric World is divided into three major sections, each of which offers a distinctive look at our planet's pre-history.

In "The Changing Globe" computer -generated global maps track the Earth's shift in topography during eighteen different geological periods.... From the rise of mountain ranges to the creation of new oceans, the world takes on its different faces through the course of eons.

"Life on Earth" chronicles the evolution of plant and animal life, from the first single-celled microbes to land-dwelling mammals. Each of the Earth's major geological eras is profiled in its own chapter, which depicts the life forms that developed as continents drifted, volcanoes erupted, and meteorites crashed to the surface. Specially commissioned panoramic illustrations take "snapshots" of life at a particular time and place....These...reflect the latest scientific thinking about how creatures from each period would have appeared, bringing to life animals and plantlife we can otherwise see only as fossils.

"Earth Fact File," an indispensable gazetteer, explains important Earth science concepts and provides a useful tool for understanding prehistory. Accompanied by over 250 full-color photographs and illustrations and 68 maps, the Discovery Channel's Atlas of the Prehistoric World is a unique must-have resource for any family member.

About this title

Review:

The earth is not the spring chicken it was 4.6 billion years ago. With the passing of the millennia, earth's face, weathered by heat and ice and subject to tectonic friction, has erupted, wrinkled, and sagged, as do all our faces ultimately, only more so. Continents have shifted, merged, and split apart. Seas have turned to land and land has been submerged by seas. And microorganisms have evolved into the vast diversity of flora and fauna that exists today. Douglas Palmer's Atlas is a digest of what is known so far about the history of the earth, enhanced with brilliant maps, photographs, and illustrations, and explained in lucid, enjoyable prose.

The Atlas starts off with "The Changing Globe," 36 beautiful pages of maps that chart the changing face of the earth from Vendian Times some 620 million years ago, when land was massed in two continents called Northern and Southern Gondwana. Flipping through the vivid pages, one sees how Siberia, during Early Cambrian Times, began to move north from its South Pole location, how in Odovician Times (460 million years ago) the Iapetus Ocean was beginning to close while the Rheic Ocean was starting to open, and how a volcano in what's now Virginia spewed volcanic ash as far away as what's now Minnesota, while in Carboniferous Times (a mere 354 million years ago), there were swampy forests in Nova Scotia that are the coal fields of today.

"Ancient Worlds," the next section of the atlas, charts life, from the aquatic microbes formed 3.5 billion years ago and the multicelled organisms of the Vendian Period, the early-Cambrian brachiopods and the Silurian spiny trilobites, on through to the Jurassic and Cretaceous dinosaurs, the Tertiary mammals, and the entrance of hominids just 5 million years ago. The extinction of the dinosaurs is explained, the Ice Age is described, and, in the "Earth Fact File," 200 years of scientific discovery are chronicled.

Douglas Palmer, a professor of natural and earth sciences at Cambridge University, also writes science articles for Science and New Scientist, and is the author of many books on paleontology. His Atlas is an excellent layperson's reference for families and students, rendering a vast amount of history and science in a highly accessible, entertaining format. --Stephanie Gold

From the Back Cover:

BACK COVER COPY:
When is there magic in a rock? When it carries within it the Earth's mysterious story. The Discovery Channel's Atlas of the Prehistoric World uncovers the secrets of our planet's rocks and fossils to reveal an ever-changing world more intriguing than any science fiction.

Dazzling computer-generated maps, dramatically unveil the Earth's major transformations from the origins of life 620 million years ago up to the last ice age and the dawn of human kind. In each chapter of prehistory, beautifully rendered panoramas depict a continually evolving world in which giant mountain chains are thrust up from the surface, seas shift, and dinosaurs, reptiles, and mammals flourish or perish. Like a time machine, Atlas of the Prehistoric World transports you into the past and examines the forces that will create the future.

About this edition

• Publisher: Random House, Inc.
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 1563318296
• ISBN 13: 9781563318290
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 224