William Stout: Prehistoric Life Murals by William Stout with an introduction by Ray Harryhausen $39.95 Hardcover: 144 pages Flesk Publications ISBN10: 1933X65 105 ISBN13: 978-1933865102 A good friend to PT. William Stout is one of America's foremost dinosaur illustrators. Of course he is known for his art of many subjects in film, comics, posters books and about everything you can think of but certainly we at PT love his prehistoric animal art the most. William Stout: Prehistoric Life Murals is an amazing look at prehistoric animals and their worlds. This beautifully illustrated volume contains all of Stout's stunning murals for The Houston Museum of Natural Science, Walt Disney World's Animal Kingdom, and his work at the San Diego Natural History Museum. Stout's murals and commentary take us on a journey deep into Earth's prehistoric past. Stout admits in the book that murals are his favorite form of artwork and Stout's murals of extinct predators and prey dramatically capture our imaginations. Incorporating the latest paleontological science, he brings to life these prehistoric creatures that are both scientifically accurate and beautifully portrayed. Stout's detailed commentary guides readers through his creative process. He is not afraid to tell us exactly how he created each mural from pencil sketch to rough painting to finished piece and is the first to admit mistakes and problems that he encountered along the way. As well as the animals, the backgrounds are so vivid and colorful. Stout creates grand vistas of a world that existed millions of years ago. The focus of the hook is Stout's recent twelve mural commission by the San Diego Natural History Museum, which includes oil paintings up to thirty-four feet long. Through Paleozoic llsh and reptiles. Mesozoic dinosaurs and sea creatures, to Ice Age mastodons and saber-toothed cats, vast panoramas of prehistoric worlds unfold in this oversized coffee table, full color collection. Like Knight and Zallinger before him. Stout has created murals that will amaze viewers, inspire future generations of artists, and enthrall dinosaur fans of all ages for decades to come. These are Stout's legacies and he has every right to be as proud as he is of his accomplishments.
Evolution: The First Four Billion Years by Michael Ruse (Editor) and Joseph Travis ( Editor) $39.95 Hardcover: 1 008 pages Belknap Press ISBN1 0: 067403 1 75X ISBN-13: 978-0674031753 Spanning evolutionary science from its inception to its latest findings, from discoveries and data to philosophy and history, this book is the most complete, authoritative, and inviting one-volume introduction to evolutionary biology available. "Evolution" opens with a series of major essays dealing with the history and philosophy of evolutionary biology, with major theoretical questions in the science, from paleontology to evolutionary development (evo devo). and concluding with essays on the social and political significance of evolutionary biology today. A second encyclopedic section travels the spectrum of topics in evolution with concise, informative, and accessible entries on individuals from Aristotle to Louis Leakey and on subjects from amphibians to Piltdown Man to the Scopes trial. Readers will find the latest word on the history and philosophy of evolution, the nuances of the science itself, and the intricate interplay among evolutionary study, religion, philosophy, and society. Appearing at the beginning of the Darwin Year of 2009 — the 200th anniversary of the birth of Charles Darwin and the 150th anniversary of the publication of the Origin of Species this volume is a fitting tribute to the science Darwin set in motion.
Dinosaurs: A Concise Natural History (Paperback) by David E. Fastovsky and David B. Weishampel $70.00 379 pages Cambridge University Press ISBN-10: 052171902X ISBN-13: 978-0521719025 From the authors of "The Evolution and Extinction of the Dinosaurs" comes another edition to this introduction to the study of dinosaurs for non-specialists; designed to interest readers in paleontology by using dinosaurs to illustrate and discuss geology, natural history and evolution. While focusing on dinosaurs it also conveys other aspects of the natural sciences, including fundamental concepts in evolutionary biology, physiology, life history, and systematic!.. Considerable attention is devoted to the nature of science itscll and how science can be used to investigate particular types of questions. "Dinosaurs" attempts to fills a gap between the glossy, fact-driven dinosaur books and the higher-level academic hooks, addressing the paleontology of dinosaurs exactly as professionals in the field do. Very much with the feel of a college or high school text book, this latest edition of this book has most of the answers to common questions on the subject and is worth every penny, if for no other reason than the amazing John Sibbick line drawings that fill the book.
Ray Harryhausen Master of the Majicks (Volume 2) by Mike Hankin. Jim Danforth (Introduction, Hardcover: 370 pages Archive Editions LLC: ISBN-10: 0981782906 ISBN-13: 97X098 1 782904 This is an amazing new coffee table book on the amazing career of the special effects wizard. Written and produced over the past 10 years with Ray Harryhausen's cooperation, the complete 3-volume 295.000-word career/biography features interviews with Ray and his colleagues and is profusely illustrated with hundreds of rare photographs, art. and posters (much of which has never been previously published). Interview material with visual effects technicians, actors, directors, writers, producers and others involved in the production of the films include historian and Ray's life-long friend Forrest J Ackerman. producer Hal Chester, cinematographer Wilkie Cooper, writers Ray Bradbury and Bernard Gordon. 7th Voyage of Sinbad "skeleton sequence" stunt supervisor Enzo Musumeci-Greco. author Leslie Halliwell. director Nathan Juran. actors Paul Christian. Kerwin Mathews and Paula Raymond. King Kong creator Willis O'Brien's wife Darlyne O'Brien. author Neil Pettigrew. producer Charles H. Schneer. author of the Amazing Stories novelization of 20 Million Miles to Earth Henry Slesar. and many others, some of whom have since passed away. PLUS-Animation stills, live action/production photos, and "behind-the-scenes" candids. frame enlargements from Harryhausen's own reel of outtakes. featuring unused animation from The Beast from 20.000 Fathoms and It Came From Beneath the Sea. obscure advertising art & posters from many different countries. Ray Harryhausen "Timeline" charting key dates in Ray's life and career, the official story synopses originally issued by the studios, filmographies of key cast and crew, the actual forms submitted by the studios for Academy Award consideration of the visual effects for the individual films, essays on the music for the films, including pages of David Buttolph's original hand-written manuscript of his score for The Beast from 20.000 Fathoms. Harryhausen collectibles from the 8mm editions to laserdiscs to resin kits and toys. Volume 1 and 3 will he released soon.
The Paleontology of New Mexico (Hardcover) by Barry S. Kues (Author) $45.00 Hardcover: 432 pages University of New Mexico Press ISBN-10: 0826341365 ISBN-13: 978-0826341365 In this updated and expanded \ersion of his 1982 hook Fossils of New Mexico. Kues (University of New Mexico) offers a detailed overview of the fauna and flora of New Mexico through the past 500 million years, from Cambrian through Pleistocene time. An explosion in our knowledge of the state's fossil record has occurred in the past twenty-five years, and in this comprehensive examination Kues thoroughly discusses new discoveries and interpretations as well as the classic New Mexico fossil assemblages that are known worldwide. After an introductory section covering basic paleontological concepts and a survey of the major groups of animals, plants, and protozoans, each chapter focuses on the state's fossil record for an individual geological period or epoch. Numerous illustrations portray the important fossils known from the state. This book demonstrates not only how rich and diverse New Mexico's record of past life is. but also documents ongoing studies that will lead to new discoveries.
How to Build a Dinosaur: Extinction Doesn't Have to Be Forever (Hardcover) 246 pages Dutton Adult ISBN-10: 0525951040 ISBN-13: 9780525951049 by Jack Homer and James Gorman $25.95 World-renowned paleontologist Homer with his constant coauthor Gorman takes readers all oxer the globe to reveal a new science that trumps science fiction: how humans can recreate a dinosaur. In movies, in novels, in comic strips, and on television, we've all seen dinosaurs — or at least somebody's educated guess of what they would look like. But what if it were possible to build, or grow, a real dinosaur, without finding ancient DNA? Horner began using CAT scans to look inside fossilized dinosaur eggs, and he and his colleagues have been delving deeper ever since. At North Carolina State University, Mary Schweitzer has extracted fossil molecules — proteins that survived 68 million years — from a Tyrannosaurus rex fossil excavated by Horner. These proteins show that T. rex and the modern chicken are kissing cousins. At McGill University, Hans Larsson is manipulating a chicken embryo to awaken the dinosaur within: starting by growing a tail and eventually prompting it to grow the forelimbs of a dinosaur. All of this is happening without changing a single gene. This incredible research is leading to discoveries and applications so profound they're scary in the power they confer on humanity. How to Build a Dinosaur (and the TV documentary) show how scientists soon hope to give the common chicken (or emu etc), teeth, greater size, a tail, scales instead of feathers, etc to "evolve" them back to when their ancestors were dinosaurs. Fascinating!
Owen's Ape and Darwin's Bulldog: Beyond Darwinism and Creationism (Paperback) by Christopher E. Cosans $21.95 200 pages Indiana University Press ISBN10: 02532205 1 3 ISBN13: 978-0253220516 With the debate between Richard Owen and Thomas Huxley on the differences between the ape and human brains as its focus, this book explores some of the ways in which philosophical ideas and scientific practice influenced the discussion of evolution in the years before and after Darwin's publication of "Origin of Species" in 1859. It also shows how this episode can shed light on current philosophical notions of scientific practice and how they in turn influence our understanding of the history of science. The book advances the current historical discussion of the Owen-Huxley debate claiming that Owen's anatomical claims had much more support than most historians and philosophers of science assume.
Kronos (Paperback) by Jeremy Robinson $7.99 423 pages Variance Publishing LLC (January 20, 2009) ISBN-10: 1935142011 ISBN-13: 9781935142010 Two years after his wife's death, oceanographer and former navy SEAL, Atticus Young, attempts to reconcile with his rebellious daughter, Giona, by taking her on the scuba dive of a lifetime-swimming with a pod of peaceful humpback whales in the Gulf of Maine. But the beauty of the sea belies a terror from the deep-a horrific creature as immense as it is ancient. There is no blood, no scream, no fight. Giona is swallowed whole by the massive jaws. Only Atticus remains to suffer the shame of the survivor and his inconsolable grief turns to an unquenchable thirst for revenge. Drawn by the spectacle, Trevor Manfred, a ruthless billionaire, approaches Atticus with a proposition: Trevor will make available all the advanced technology of his heavily armed mega-yacht, the Titan, to aid Atticus in his deathquest. In return, Trevor is to receive the beast's corpse as the ultimate hunting trophy. But in the midst of the hunt, Atticus makes a terrifying discovery that changes the way he sees the ocean's creatures and begs the question: what is Kronos? The answer sets him on a new and much more deadly course.
Why Evolution Is True by Jerry A. Coyne Hardcover: 304 pages Viking Adult ISBN-10: 0670020532 ISBN-13: 978-0670020539 According to "Why Evolution Is True" in all the current highly publicized debates about creationism and its descendant "intelligent design," there is an clement of the controversy that is rarely mentioned--the evidence, the empirical truth of evolution by natural selection. Even Richard Dawkins and Stephen Jay Gould, while extolling the beauty of evolution and examining case studies, have not focused on the evidence itself. Yet the proof is vast, varied, and magnificent, drawn from many different fields of science. Scientists are observing species splitting into two and are finding more and more fossils capturing change in the past— -dinosaurs that have sprouted feathers, fish that have grown limbs. Author Coyne (University of Chicago) weaves together the many threads of modern work in genetics, paleontology, geology, molecular biology, and anatomy that demonstrate the "indelible stamp" of the processes first proposed by Darwin. In crisp, lucid prose accessible to a wide audience. Why Evolution Is True dispels common misunderstandings and fears about evolution and attempts to confirm that this amazing process of change has been firmly established as a scientific truth.
The 10,000 Year Explosion: How Civilization Accelerated Human Evolution (Hardcover) by Gregory Cochran & Henry Ilarpending $27.00 288 pages Basic Books ISBN10: 0465002218 ISBN-13: 978-0465002214 Resistance to malaria. Blue eyes. Lactose tolerance. These traits have emerged in the last 10,000 years. Scientists have long believed that the "great leap forward" that occurred some 40.000 to 50,000 years ago in Europe marked the end of significant biological evolution in humans. In this interesting new account of our evolutionary history, Cochran and Harpending reject this and reveal that the human species has undergone a storm of genetic change much more recently. Human evolution in fact accelerated after civilization arose, they contend, and these ongoing changes have played a pivotal role in human history. They argue that biology explains the expansion of the Indo-Europeans, the European conquest of the Americas, and European Jews' rise to intellectual prominence. In each of these cases, the key was recent genetic change: adult milk tolerance in the early Indo-Europeans that allowed for a new way of life, increased disease resistance among the Europeans settling America, and new versions of neurological genes among European Jews. Covering many other subjects too, Cochran and Harpending's analysis demonstrates convincingly that human genetics have changed and can continue to change much more rapidly than scientists have previously believed. A new look at human evolution that turns conventional wisdom on its head.
 Dinothesaurus: Prehistoric Poems and Paintings (Hardcover) by Douglas Florian (Illustrator) 56 pages Beach Lane Books ISBN10: 1416979786 ISBN-13: 978-1416979784 Florian, whose previous picture-book poetry collections have covered the animal kingdom, takes a few evolutionary steps back with his new verse collection on prehistoric animals. Florian's blend of clever wordplay and collage art will please children. The twists of language evident in the title continue throughout each of the selections spotlighting different dino species, including the Triceratops ("Tryscare-a-tops. / Try-wouldn't-want-to-dare-a-tops"). As children laugh at the lines' silliness, they will learn dino facts. Your PT editor is not a big fan of poetry and the selections aren't all completely successful but this is a nicely done title on a popular subject that has inspired surprisingly few poetry collections for kids.
Bambiraptor and Other Feathered Dinosaurs by Dixon Dougal, 24 pages Picture Window Books ISBN-10: 1404840133 ISBN-13: 978-1404840133 Toward the end of the Age of Dinosaurs, some of the meat eating dinosaurs became birdlike and were covered in feathers. Learn how these dinosaurs lived and how they compared to modern day animals. Award winning author Dougal Dixon has written more than 120 books, including many on dinosaurs, fossils, and Earth science subjects and describes feathered dinosaurs to children ages 4-8 in his book.
Primeval: Volume 1 DVD (Series 1 and 2 on 4 discs) Primeval was created by Britain's ITV as a big-budget primetime Saturday rival to the success of the BBC's Doctor Who. The show surrounds a series of strange creatures from both the future and the past who become trapped here in the present day. What can be done about these prehistoric creatures, big insects, and assorted parasitic life forms that are suddenly roaming the Earth? That's where professor Nick Cutter and his team come in, and the great adventure begins. A well made action-drama, Primeval has special effects that are very nicely accomplished, and also a half-decent script at the heart of things. The DVD includes the first and second season. (The third season has just begun on the BBC.) The second season finds Cutter and his team once again dealing with creatures out of their time, but this time there are monsters from the future to worry about as well as the past. But don't worry, you'll still see a woolly mammoth on the freeway, and a raptor chase around a shopping center, etc. Primeval is fun, well done, and suitable for the whole family.
Jurassic Fight Club: Season One DVD set Starring: George Biasing Jurassic Fight Club examines the various fighters of the Mesozoic age with top notch CG effects and entertaining tales of their daily lives. This box set offers all 12 episodes (on four discs) from this first season of the popular History Channel series. This isn't science class (as much as it tries to be), it's entertainment, and it's both engaging and informative. The show's episodes focus on particular dinosaurs, including their environments, their prey, and their adversaries. Thus we get Madagascar's Majungatholus, the "Cannibal Dinosaur"as well as Allosaurus, the enormous "Terror of the Jurassic." We see Megalodon, the 50-foot ancestor of the great white shark, attacked by an entire pod of sperm whales from the Miocene era, and the fearsome raptors, who hunted in packs and were smarter and stealthier than other hunters. All of this is delivered quite realistically by way of computer recreations of the "combat" scenes (often VERY graphic), charts, graphs, film footage of actual paleontologists and interviews with numerous experts (principally "Dinosaur George" Biasing who states mere theories and possibilities as though they were known facts but does add "color" to the show's narrative). This DVD is a "Must' for dino fans! Bonus material includes some additional footage on one disc.