Fossil History

Allosaurus and its relatives were fierce and dangerous predators. Dinosaurs in this group had deadly claws and razor-sharp teeth.

A fascinating, comprehensive, accessible account of conodont fossils—one of paleontology's greatest mysteries. Simon J. Knell takes the listener on a journey through 150 years of scientific thinking, imagining, and arguing. Slowly the animal begins to reveal traces of itself: its lifestyle, its remarkable evolution, its witnessing of great catastrophes, its movements over the surface of the planet, and finally its anatomy. Today the conodont animal remains perhaps the most disputed creature in the zoological world.

Raptors like Velociraptors were small, deadly dinosaurs. These carnivores and omnivores may have looked like birds, but they couldn't get off the ground. Go back to a time when these deadly hunters walked the earth.

We have long been taught that humanity’s relationship with energy is one of progress, with wood superseded by coal, coal by oil, oil by nuclear—until at some future point everything will be replaced by “green” energy. But the long-held belief in transition and sustainability is completely untrue, Jean-Baptiste Fressoz argues. More and More and More demolishes this disastrous fallacy, showing how our industrial age and beyond has in fact been powered by an ever-greater accumulation of each major energy source feeding off the others.

Could griffins have been real? When Adrienne Mayor carefully read the ancient Greek and Roman descriptions, this mythic hybrid of a lion and an eagle sounded like something people had actually seen. What could explain that evidence? After a decade of hunting through myths, poring over old maps, and tracing the discoveries of modern dinosaur hunters, she found the answer: awesome dinosaur fossils observed by ancient gold hunters in the Gobi desert.

Edmontosaurus and other duckbilled dinosaurs had beaks and strong teeth to eat tough plants. Many of these plant-eaters could communicate with other dinosaurs using the crests on their heads.

Dinosaurs such as Triceratops had deadly horns, bony frills, and sharp beaks. Some of these powerful plant eaters were so strong, they could knock down trees.

If you think dinosaurs are cool, wait till you learn what covered Earth 430 million years ago. That’s long before dinos even existed. There wasn’t much on land - some really tiny plants and even smaller animals like millipedes and mites. But offshore life was another story. Six-foot-long relatives of modern scorpions roamed the open water, gobbling up smaller creatures. Fish were out there, too. There just weren’t many of them, and they were much different than today’s fish.

Ankylosaurus and other armored dinosaurs were the tanks of the prehistoric world. Sharp spikes and rock-hard plates protected these plant eaters from dangerous predators.

In this Very Short Introduction audiobook, David Norman discusses how dinosaurs were first discovered and interpreted and how our understanding of them has changed over the past 200 years. He looks at some of the amazing discoveries that have enabled us to gain new and unexpected insights into dinosaurs as animals with natural histories and behaviors and considers some of the biggest questions in dinosaur biology, such as the implications of them having warm blood.

Dinosaurs like Stegosaurus had stiff plates on their bodies. Some used their plates to heat themselves up or cool themselves off. This book takes listeners back to a time when these scaly herbivores walked the earth.

Darwin gathers his large ape family to tell them a tale, the ascent of man is retold once more in the eyes of the apes, he teaches them many tricks which they can use to outwit man and remove him from his current place of dominion, "they can't do anything without their witchcraft," he tells them, he even gives them secret plans to cause mayhem in the peoples households."

Bird-footed dinosaurs like Iguanodon were plant-eaters that could walk on two legs. Many of the dinosaurs in this group could run away from hungry predators. Others traveled in large herds to stay safe.

Tyrannosaurus rex and its relatives were fearsome meat eaters and deadly predators. Their strong teeth and jaws could crush bone. Go back to a time when these mighty carnivores walked the earth.

Brains Through Time examines how vertebrate nervous systems evolved in conjunction with other organ systems and the planet's ecology. Surveying an enormous range of information on genes and proteins, sensory and motor systems, central neural circuits, physiology, and animal behavior, the authors reconstruct the major changes that occurred as vertebrates emerged and then diversified.

Long-necked dinosaurs like Brachiosaurus looked down on the earth from above the treetops. These mighty plant eaters had long tails, necks, and bodies.

Twelve million years ago, rhinos, elephants, and camels roamed North America. They would gather at nearby watering holes - eating, drinking, and trying not to become someone else’s lunch. But one day, in what we now know as Nebraska, everything changed. The explosion of a supervolcano a thousand miles away sent a blanket of ash that buried these animals for millennia. Until 1953, when a 17-year-old farm worker made an unbelievable discovery.

Deckard O'Shea has come to terms with his family's birthright, even if it is one he would've never chosen. His world as he knows it is in shambles as King Arthur's true nemesis, Jakobus, has orchestrated mayhem and panic. Along with the newly formed Keepers Division of the military, Deckard dons the legendary sword Excalibur in a war torn England and struggles to survive against ruthless axis powers and special forces known as Harvesters led by the devil himself.

As a woman raised in the 1950s, Henrietta Ballantine has always had to prove herself. Homeschooled to challenge her intellectually, Henrietta spent her childhood with a strict Russian tutor and an overbearing mother for whom she could do nothing right. It’s her science-driven father who finally manages to give Henrietta refuge within the Smithsonian’s glorious walls. There she learns a love of ancient things, of secrets hidden in the ground. Of fossils.

Did someone say dinosaurs? Some of their names are long and funny-sounding, and scientists are learning new facts about dinosaurs every day. There is still so much to know about why they went extinct 65 million years ago. Create some one-on-one time with your kids that will foster a bond of learning. Spark curiosity and imagination. Increase your child's confidence and learning skills. Gain knowledge to impress your friends and family. Don't miss out on more facts and trivia!