Gaining Ground: The Origin and Early Evolution of Tetrapods

Book Description

"The journey our ancestors made from the sea to dry land is one of the greatest transformation in the history of life, and Gaining Ground documents it magnificently. This should come as no surprise, since Jennifer Clack has been revolutionizing our understanding of this crucial evolutionary episode for years now. In Gaining Ground, she decodes a wonderful tale encrypted in fossils, genes, and flesh." --Carl Zimmer, author of At the Water's Edge

Around 370 million years ago, a distant relative of a modern lungfish began the most exciting adventure the world had ever seen: it emerged from the sea and lay claim to the land. Over the next 70 million years, this tentative beachhead had become of worldwide colonization by any ever-increasing variety of four-limbed life. These first ãtetrapodsä are the ancestors of all vertebrate life on land. This book tells the story of their emergence and evolution.

Customer Reviews:

One Layman's Experience of .......2005-11-24

Other reviews on this page describe the contents well, so I'll focus on my own experience in the hope that it will be helpful to others with similar backgrounds. I have no formal education in science past the high-school level. I learn about science by reading and Scientific American is my favorite source, although I sometimes read more technical material. Gaining Ground falls into the "more technical" category.

One thing I found is that I can't keep track of all the terminology. For example, Clack describes changes in the structures of skulls and that involves a lot of bones I had never heard of before. But by concentrating on the things that I could keep track of, I could follow her basic points. For example, as our ancestors moved to land, where the buoyancy of water no longer kept their heads from sagging, the many skull bones were consolidated into a smaller number for strength. I'll never remember the names of all the bones, but I'll always remember why they changed. The same is true of the separation of the skull from the shoulder girdle and the formation of the neck, and of various other changes. I was content with the fact that there was much I couldn't follow because there was much that I could follow and learn from. And I enjoyed reading it.

Since I read the book, an article by Clack appeared in Scientific American (Dec. 2005) giving an overview of the origin of tetrapods, without most of the technical detail. It is excellent and I will tuck a copy into the book before I read it the next time. If you're unsure about buying the book, read the article. Then tuck a copy into the book as soon as you get it.

[...].

A humerus tale . . ........2005-05-24

. . . along with some ribs, vertebrae and shoulder bones. But it's the skull that captures the most attention. The multitude of variations that occurred as animals moved in delicate steps from water onto land that make the story most interesting. And Jenny Clack's story of our four-legged forebears is a wondrous tale. Ever since Charles Darwin explained the nature of life's evolution, the question of how sea creatures moved to the land has been an enigma. Consider the many issues involved: walking, breathing air instead of filtering water, hearing in air instead of water, how to feed - and where, and protecting eggs. Clack shows how these topics were addressed by slow, incremental changes in body plan, with changes in one area integrated with those in another.

Walking on land meant not only building bones strong enough to support the body, but muscles to drive them. The humerus, the single bone in your upper arm, not only had to be stronger, it had to have joints for a new form of movement. A stride is far different from the flapping of a fin, so the paddling fin had to change. Clack discounts the older, simpler views that the "lobe-finned" fish just developed better "legs". Moving from the sea requires more than just crawling up the beach. There had to be an intermediate step. Clack finds that step in brackish lagoons and shallow, meandering rivers. There, the new four-legged creatures learned to walk on silty soils and learn to mix air and water breathing methods.

It was a reinforcing cycle as the change in surroundings developed new capacities. Diet went from fish to insects. No longer able to simply swallow prey as fish do, tetrapods began feeding on insects and their own smaller cousins. That meant biting and chewing, requiring stronger jaws and specialised teeth. Skulls once short and narrow became wide and flat. This reorganising of the entire skull required new musclature for support. The more time on land, Clack shows, meant not only stronger legs, but a sturdier backbone. Ribs developed that held muscles for breathing. Although the earliest tetrapods likely gulped air as a fish gulps water, before long they were using their nostrils to fill lungs.

As should be obvious, this isn't a simple narrative. The fossil bones are meticulously detailed - when they are available. Clack's task is rendered more difficult by the paucity of fossils. She has been lucky in her own finds in Greenland and Scotland. Others have encountered Carboniferous fossils in the Ohio Valley, Nova Scotia and Australia. The real treasures should be in coal seams where plant remains have become burnable stone. However, mining operations leave little opportunity for discovery. What has been found has often been misinterpreted. In order to depict what happened to tetrapod bodies over time, she is meticulous in describing individual bone types and how they changed. She helps the description with photographs and a wealth of line drawings. Still, this isn't a book for the uninitiated. It requires careful reading and no little back-flipping of the pages. The endeavour is well worth the effort, however. Clack has established an new foundation for understanding where and how creatures like ourselves originated. [stephen a. haines - Ottawa, Canada]

Fills a Large Gap in Early Tetrapod Evolution.......2004-08-28

Dr. Clack has really come up with a winning book. I envy her personal experiences finding Paleozoic fossils in Greenland. She goes into considerable detail with fish and amphibian osteology which is difficult to non-exitant to find in popular literature. But this book is no dry scientific text. It is an exciting subject and she does an excellent job of handling the task. I found her understanding of chemistry a little weak in a couple of places but the other information is superb. I had to give this book five stars because it is well presented and it is alone in its class. I am glad I purchased the book because it will make a great reference for my library. Thank you Jennifer Clack for a wonderful book!

First step on land.......2003-02-19

This is the book to be read. There's no reason to hesitate, neither to read the commentaries to decide. As far as books of prehistoric animals are concerned, those of dinosaurs occupy most of them. And maybe this is the first, and the best I insist, to be written on the primitive form of tetrapods. Detailed investigations show us before and after the first members of tetrapods including their environmental conditions, soft tissues such as respiratory, sensory and reproductive systems and interpretation inferred based on the existent animals whose morphological character is insinuating. And, of course, their relationship analysed by cladistics comes in later chapter.
The most important point the author puts emphasis on is to urge our public image or concept on the early members of tetrapods. She intentionally avoids the word "amphibians" for them. You'll see why through the text. This is a superb book! Why don't you take a close look at their intriguing story?

Gaining Ground: The Origin & Evolution of Tetrapods.......2003-02-11

Gaining Ground: The Origin and Evolution of Tetrapods written by Jennifer A. Clark is a book on comparative anatomy of tetrapods on Earth.

The origin and evolution of tetrapods started about 370 million years ago, something strange and significant happened on Earth. That time, part of an interval of Earth's history called the Devonian Period by scientists such as geologists and paleontologists, is known popularly as the Age of Fishes. After about 200 million years of earlier evolution, the vertebrates... animals with backbones... had produced an explosion of fishlike animals that lived in the lakes, rivers, lagoons, and estuaries of the time. The strange thing that happened during the later parts of the Devonian period is that some of these fishlike animals evolved limbs with digits, fingers and toes. Over the ensuing 350 million years or so, these so-caled tetrapods gradually evolved from their aquatic ancestry into walking terrestrial vertebrates, and these have dominated the land since their own explosive radiation allowed them to colonize and exploit the land and its opportunities. The tetrapods, with limbs, fingers, and toes, include humans, so this distant Devonian event is profoundly significant for humans as well as for the planet.

This book tells the story of the evolution of tetrapods from their fish ancestry and puts the sequence of events into its ecological context. The story if founded on an understanding of the evolutionary relationships between tetrapods and their fishy relatives... their phylogeny... and traces the family tree of tetrapods from its roots to the point at which the major groups of modern tetrapods branch off from its original trunk. The tetrapod family tree is in fact more like a bush, with several main branches, some of which have died out during the course of evolution and some of which have become large and important from small beginnings.

This book looks at the changes that occured in the transition from creatures with fins and scales to those with limbs and digits in an attempt to understand how, as well as when, these changes occurred, and to do this, it is necessary to understand something of the anatomy of the animals involved. Chapters 2 & 3 are devoted to these parts of the story. Chapters 4,5,& 6 set out what is currently known of the earliest tetrapods and their lifestyles. By careful analysis of what is known of them from fossils, and by comparison with modern animals that live at the transition between water and land, it may be possible to understand a little of how the early tetrapods worked as animals. After the tetrapods had become established, they radiated into a ranges of forms requiring modification of the original tetrapod pattern. Chapters 7,8,& 9 carry the story forward from the origin of tetrapods to their ultimate conquest of terrestrial living. The final chapter drws together some of the threads that have been taken up in the preceding chapters and shows how they impact the study and understanding of tetrapods today.

Book Description

Fully one-sixth of Boston is built on made land. Although other waterfront cities also have substantial areas that are built on fill, Boston probably has more than any city in North America. In Gaining Ground historian Nancy Seasholes has given us the first complete account of when, why, and how this land was created.

The story of landmaking in Boston is presented geographically; each chapter traces landmaking in a different part of the city from its first permanent settlement to the present. Seasholes introduces findings from recent archaeological investigations in Boston, and relates landmaking to the major historical developments that shaped it. At the beginning of the nineteenth century, landmaking in Boston was spurred by the rapid growth that resulted from the burgeoning China trade. The influx of Irish immigrants in the mid-nineteenth century prompted several large projects to create residential land--not for the Irish, but to keep the taxpaying Yankees from fleeing to the suburbs. Many landmaking projects were undertaken to cover tidal flats that had been polluted by raw sewage discharged directly onto them, removing the "pestilential exhalations" thought to cause illness. Land was also added for port developments, public parks, and transportation facilities, including the largest landmaking project of all, the airport.

A separate chapter discusses the technology of landmaking in Boston, explaining the basic method used to make land and the changes in its various components over time. The book is copiously illustrated with maps that show the original shoreline in relation to today’s streets, details from historical maps that trace the progress of landmaking, and historical drawings and photographs.

Customer Reviews:

Fascinating history.......2007-08-13

If one lives and Boston and was curious about what the city looked like 100, 200, 300, or 400 years ago this is the book for you. I discovered that somewhere between 1837 and 1851 the street I lived in was filled and went from being underwater to land.
An incredibly well-researched history of how people altered the landscape of Boston.

A Spectacular Work. .......2007-04-01

Disclaimer: I was very fortunate to take the Harvard University class tought by the author, which uses this book as the class text.

This book is a spectacular work of research and writing. The author truly shows her passion for the subject.
The text presents a unique view of Boston history, with stunning detail and even intrigue. The historical and original maps are without equal, and the photographs and illustrations are superb selections.
Pardon the cliché, but truly I found myself unable to put this book down!

Her recent book Walking Tours of Boston's Made Land is also a must-have for anyone who wants to get close-up and personal with Boston history.

Gaining Ground.......2005-08-04

This is a wonderful book about how Boston changed in the last 200+ years. It is very readable, but I especially enjoyed the pictures and maps. It is an excellent book for anyone interested in the subject.

Encyclopedic, entertaining, extraordinary - simply the best!.......2003-10-13

Seasholes must have combed every archive and walked every inch of Boston to produce this monumental book. Not only is it exhaustive, but it is entertaining as well. Although this is a handsome book it is not a cooffe table enterprise. This is a book you will want to take with you as you walk the streets of Boston. This book is destined to become dog eared and underlined. It is simply a must for anyone interested in the history of this great city.

Average customer rating:

Gaining Ground
Joan Barfoot
Manufacturer: Women's Press Ltd,The
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Gaining Ground: Prayer Strategies for Transforming Your Community

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Gaining Ground: Prayer Strategies for Transforming Your Community
Martin Scott
Manufacturer: Chosen Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0800793609

Gaining Ground: Dramatic Landscaping Solutions to Reclaim Lost Garden Spaces

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Fantastic Ideas!
Dramatic solutions--absolutely--and not much else
Classic re-do's
High-end, but worth it
Best thing is the title

Gaining Ground: Dramatic Landscaping Solutions to Reclaim Lost Garden Spaces
Maureen Gilmer
Manufacturer: Contemporary Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0809227770

Amazon.com

A gardening reality that everyone faces up to, usually sooner rather than later, is that anyone who loves plants never, ever has enough garden space. That is why a book such as Gaining Ground is as useful for gardeners trying to squeeze one more tree or shrub into their half-acre backyard as it is for those learning to garden in pots on the deck of their new condominium. So many of our gardening books are from England, where anything smaller than an acre or two is considered to be a tiny garden. We need more American gardening books like Gaining Ground, which deal with gardening on suburban plots and apartment-house balconies.

Author Maureen Gilmer, host of the new PBS show Backyard Living, has written a book filled with creative and practical ideas on how to make the most of whatever space you have. How to shield out street noise, plant narrow privacy walls, use color to create the illusion of space, and personalize even the smallest garden are clearly illustrated in both photos and text. The color photographs feature the designs of Michael Glassman, Gilmer's cohost on Backyard Living, whose dramatic style and attention to detail is well suited to small spaces and urban living. The use of water to bring noise and movement to the garden and lighting to capture night views are signature Glassman, as are pots filled with flowers and expert hardscaping.

Gilmer gives clear and thorough advice to aid in plant choices. If your space is limited, it is especially important to choose trees, shrubs, and flowers that look their best most of the year or are so fabulous that they earn their garden space through sheer flamboyance.

Gardening is a game of choices, and this book should help us play "less is more" thoughtfully and intelligently, without a sense of deprivation. --Valerie Easton

Book Description

Gardening guru Maureen Gilmer offers design ideas that translate well into any garden for every budget--even a postage-stamp backyard or terrace can become an urban oasis of water and color. Amazing before-and-after shots prove that garden fantasies can--and have--become reality.

Customer Reviews:

Fantastic Ideas!.......2006-01-29

I would highly recommend this book. It has great pictures and wonderful ideas. I see one person commented that the concepts were too broad; my feeling is, with any design book, these are ideas. No one buys a design book, takes it home and does exactly what is pictured. This book gets the creative juices flowing. Enjoy!

Dramatic solutions--absolutely--and not much else.......2002-04-17

This book may appeal to a small niche audience: folks with sub-urban homes in planned communities who have a great deal of money and want "instant beauty." No doubt, the pictures are lovely and the spaces shown have been creatively transformed, but I found the examples out of reach for one with a mortal-size wallet. The authors have suggestions in getting around CC&R's in planned communities, which are helpful. However, this book seems to be a portfolio of Glassman's work, rather than a plantsman's book. In an early edition I had, the index was non-existent and some of the plant labeling was incorrect. The title held such promise (good job, editor!), but the book failed to do its job.

Classic re-do's.......2001-07-13

Michael Glassman's landscaping ideas, which are presented in this book, take their inspiration from very classical sources. There is nothing kitschy or trendy here, so if dramatic to you means 'funky' you should look to other sources. The designs show immense skill and judgment. The examples for seemingly hopeless spaces are a joy to behold, and the problem yards are both small and large. If you can't afford a landscape designer of Glassman's stature (and many of us can't) you will still enjoy reading the book many times over, and probably will find at least one or two ideas that you can adapt for your own yard.

High-end, but worth it.......2001-06-24

In northern California -- where we pay a fortune for a small plot of land -- we want to maximize every inch, regardless of the cost. I found "Gaining Ground" inspirational and extremely useful for maximizing my tiny little plot. The pictures are beautiful and the text does a good job describing the design and the use of the different objects in the design. These are not inexpensive gardens, but they are beautiful!

Best thing is the title.......2001-03-26

I was inspired by past reviews and the great title to order this book. I was disappointed, and, sadly, have to agree at least in part with the critic from Rochester MN. Whether this book appeals to you may depend ultimately on what you think of as gardening, or, perhaps, what you think of as "Ground." This is a book with suggestions on how to make your garden more usable by filling it with stuff--tables, pots, statues, etc. My own idea of gardening is filling it with plants.

Gaining Ground? Rights and Property in South African Land Reform

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Gaining Ground? Rights and Property in South African Land Reform
Deborah James
Manufacturer: Routledge Cavendish
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Law | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0415420318

Gaining Ground: Land Reform & The Constitution Of Community (Thela Latin America Series)

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Gaining Ground: Land Reform & The Constitution Of Community (Thela Latin America Series)
Gemma Van Der Haar
Manufacturer: Purdue University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Book Description

This book explores a much-neglected field in the contemporary history of Chiapas. Land reform is generally believed to have played only a minor role in this state and in debates on the Zapatista uprising of 1994, the lack of land reform typically features

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GAINING GROUND
J. BARFOOT
Manufacturer: WOMENS
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000S63RUQ

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Gaining Ground
Cathleen Cake
Manufacturer: Newbury House Pub
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0883773147

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Gaining Ground
J. Tevere Macfayden
Manufacturer: Ballantine Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback

Book Description

The natural world is illuminated with the same flair and fun Ruth Heller brings to language. In Plants that Never Ever Bloom, rich, colorful illustrations and informative, rhyming verse unlock a world where mushrooms glow at night and seaweed grows to be gigantic--without a flower in sight! "A feast for the eyes." -- San Francisco Examiner

Customer Reviews:

Magical ...............2006-08-21

Beautiful illustrations accompany this magical world where the imagination knows that just maybe little elves hide amongst these plants that "never ever bloom" using them as umbrellas to shelter them from the rain.....

Rhyming text, great colorful illustrations. WONDERFUL!.......2004-02-27

Rhyming, concise text makes learning about non-blooming plants and trees effortless. Each double page spread is grouped in either a logical flow format or grouped by color. The result is vibrant color. The range of plant colors is amazing. An appropriate animal, fish or bird accompanies the illustration.

Book Description

More than 450 trees, shrubs, and nonflowering plants depicted in meticulous, specially drawn full-color illustrations. At-a-glance identification capsules pinpoint the characteristic textures, shapes and colors, and other distinguishing features. Also included are over 145 mushrooms.

Customer Reviews:

Pocket Guide.......2007-08-09

Good for quick identification of various woodland trees, plants and mushrooms. Descriptions are short and undetailed and maps are innacurate.
Ok for use as a pocket guide on a hike but can be a little frustrating as it is fairly general and many trees & plants are not shown.

Michigan Flora : Part 1 Gymnosperms and Monocots

Average customer rating:

Still out there
Voss rocks!

Michigan Flora : Part 1 Gymnosperms and Monocots
Edward G. Voss
Manufacturer: Cranbrook Institute of Science
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 087737032X

Customer Reviews:

Still out there.......2000-11-04

Although out of print, I just recieved a copy of this great flora only a week or two after ordering. It seems like there should be other copies of it out there. Also, look for a new edition that includes all three volumes in one binding. This is a great ref. for most of the Mid-West, not only Michigan.

Voss rocks!.......2000-08-13

As a student of plant biology, it is essential to have a manual that makes fine distinctions by species and describes them as they occur in that area. Voss does this wonderfully in Michigan Flora (all three volumes), giving concise descriptions of the plants of Michigan along with some natural history notes (edibility, how often the plant has been found, etc.). If you live in or around Michigan, and would like a guide to the plants of the area, Voss' three volumes are the best guide you can get for your money (Gleason and Conquist is good, too, but more expensive, and no drawimngs and photos unless you buy the $125 companion volume).

Flora of Florida: Pteridophytes and Gymnosperms (Flora of Florida)

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Flora of Florida: Pteridophytes and Gymnosperms (Flora of Florida)
Richard P. Wunderlin , and Bruce F. Hansen
Manufacturer: University Press of Florida
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0813018056

Mushrooms and Other Non-Flowering Plants (Golden Guide)

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Mushrooms and Other Non-Flowering Plants (Golden Guide)
Floyd Stephen Shuttleworth
Manufacturer: Golden Pr
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Baby-3 | Children's Books | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 0307240142

Catalogue of the Flowering Plants And Gymnosperms of Peru / Catalogo De Las Angiospermas Y Gimnospermas Del Peru (Monographs in Systematic Botany Fro)

Average customer rating:

An excellent tool for teaching and research.

Catalogue of the Flowering Plants And Gymnosperms of Peru / Catalogo De Las Angiospermas Y Gimnospermas Del Peru (Monographs in Systematic Botany Fro)
Lois Brako
Manufacturer: Missouri Botanical Garden
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Spanish | Foreign Language Nonfiction | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0915279193

Customer Reviews:

An excellent tool for teaching and research........2001-01-22

The study of Peruvian flora have been the theme for several complex and broad studies as well as expeditions since Bentham & Hooker and Ruiz & Pavon in the eighteen century, untill McBride in 1936. Dozens of outstanding botanists have made contributions to the knowledge of this flora which is still incomplete: McBride, Weberbauer, Weddell, Ferreyra, Cuatrecasas, Smith and Gentry among others. The outcome of this is a huge amount of information and classification which is always not so easy to deal with.

The merit of this book is try to compile all the knowledge of the peruvian plants in a catalogue sorted by families, genera, location, synonimia, and holotype information (mainly herbaria availability). Actually the Brako's effort is the best one until now, to ordering all the information about peruvian flora, becoming as an excellent tool for herbarium and plant material management and as a good support for researchers not only of peruvian flora, but South American flora too.

This contribution is not only this at all. The authors Brako and Zarucchi gift us with a short overview study about peruvian flora, its distribution and composition by Alwyn Gentry, which is an excellent material for all of us who are related with teaching and education.

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