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Poinar

What Bugged the Dinosaurs?

Medium: Buch
ISBN: 978-0-691-12431-5
Verlag: Princeton University Press
Erscheinungstermin: 31.12.2007
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Millions of years ago in the Cretaceous period, the mighty Tyrannosaurus rex--with its dagger-like teeth for tearing its prey to ribbons--was undoubtedly the fiercest carnivore to roam the Earth. Yet as What Bugged the Dinosaurs? reveals, T. rex was not the only killer. George and Roberta Poinar show how insects--from biting sand flies to disease-causing parasites--dominated life on the planet and played a significant role in the life and death of the dinosaurs. The Poinars bring the age of the dinosaurs marvelously to life. Analyzing exotic insects fossilized in Cretaceous amber at three major deposits in Lebanon, Burma, and Canada, they reconstruct the complex ecology of a hostile prehistoric world inhabited by voracious swarms of insects. The Poinars draw upon tantalizing new evidence from their amazing discoveries of disease-producing vertebrate pathogens in Cretaceous blood-sucking flies, as well as intestinal worms and protozoa found in fossilized dinosaur excrement, to provide a unique view of how insects infected with malaria, leishmania, and other pathogens, together with intestinal parasites, could have devastated dinosaur populations. A scientific adventure story from the authors whose research inspired Jurassic Park, What Bugged the Dinosaurs?? offers compelling evidence of how insects directly and indirectly contributed to the dinosaurs' demise.


Produkteigenschaften


  • Artikelnummer: 9780691124315
  • Medium: Buch
  • ISBN: 978-0-691-12431-5
  • Verlag: Princeton University Press
  • Erscheinungstermin: 31.12.2007
  • Sprache(n): Englisch
  • Auflage: Erscheinungsjahr 2007
  • Produktform: Gebunden
  • Gewicht: 739 g
  • Seiten: 296
  • Format (B x H x T): 162 x 231 x 23 mm
  • Ausgabetyp: Kein, Unbekannt
Autoren/Hrsg.

Autoren

Preface ix

Acknowledgments xi

Introduction 1

Chapter 1: Fossils: A Time Capsule 7

Chapter 2: The Cretaceous: A Time of Change 17

Chapter 3: Herbivory 37

Chapter 4: Dinosaurs Competing with Insects 50

Chapter 5: Did Dinosaurs or Insects "Invent" Flowering Plants? 55

Chapter 6: Pollination 57

Chapter 7: Blights and Diseases of Cretaceous Plants 63

Chapter 8: The Cretaceous: Age of Chimeras and Other Oddities 72

Chapter 9: Sanitary Engineers of the Cretaceous 79

Chapter 10: The Case for Entomophagy among Dinosaurs 91

Chapter 11: Gorging on Dinosaurs 102

Chapter 12: Biting Midges 110

Chapter 13: Sand Flies 116

Chapter 14: Mosquitoes 122

Chapter 15: Blackflies 127

Chapter 16: Horseflies and Deerflies 131

Chapter 17: Fleas and Lice 135

Chapter 18: Ticks and Mites 141

Chapter 19: Parasitic Worms 147

Chapter 20: The Discovery of Cretaceous Diseases 157

Chapter 21: Diseases and the Evolution of Pathogens 171

Chapter 22: Insects: The Ultimate Survivors 185

Chapter 23: Extinctions and the K/T Boundary 192

APPENDIX A: Cretaceous Hexapoda 203

APPENDIX B: Key Factors Contributing to the Survival of Terrestrial Animals 219

APPENDIX C: Problems with Evaluating the Fossil Record and Extinctions 221

References 225

Index 253