Evolution of The Earth

by Donald R. Prothero, Robert H. Dott Jr.

"Evolution of the Earth" reveals the logical framework of geology, shows relations of the science to the totality of human knowledge, and gives some idea of what it is to be a participant in the discipline. In keeping with the preference for a "How do we know?" rather than "What do we know?" approach, the authors stress what assumptions are made by earth historians, what kinds of evidence (and tools for gathering that evidence), and what processes of reasoning and limitations of hypotheses are involved in reconstructing and interpreting the past. Each chapter begins with a list of highlights entitled "Major Concepts". Many chapters have a summary timeline that puts the entire sequence of events into a quick visual reference frame. The use of dioramas and reconstructions of extinct animals and plants has been greatly expanded, so that students can get a more vivid concept of typical life in any part of the geologic past. In many places, the authors have supplied a full page of color photos of classic fossils from each period to improve the visual recognition of the organisms that give life its distinctive history. The areas of hottest controversy, such as mass extinctions, dinosaur endothermy, the origin of life, and controversies over late Proterozoic tectonics and glaciation, have been given separate sections so that students can appreciate the different sides of the debates.

Genres: Geology, Science, Evolution, History, Biology, Nonfiction

672 pages, Paperback

First published June 8, 2001

About the author

Donald R. Prothero is a Professor of Geology at Occidental College and Lecturer in Geobiology at the California Institute of Technology. He teaches Physical and Historical Geology, Sedimentary Geology, and Paleontology. His specialties are mammalian paleontology and magnetic stratigraphy of the Cenozoic. His current research focuses on the dating of the climatic changes that occurred between 30 and 40 million years ago, using the technique of magnetic stratigraphy. Dr. Prothero has been a Guggenheim and NSF Fellow, a Fellow of the Linnean Society, and in 1991 received the Schuchert Award of the Paleontological Society for outstanding paleontologist under the age of 40, the same award won by the renowned paleontologist Stephen Jay Gould. He has authored or co-edited numerous books, including Horns, Tusks, Hooves and Flippers: The Evolution of Hoofed Mammals, the best-selling textbook from McGraw-Hill, Evolution of the Earth, Evolution: What the Fossils Say & Why it Matters, Bringing Fossils to Life, After the Dinosaurs, and the textbook Sedimentary Geology. He is also a Technical Editor of the Journal of Paleontology.

Reviews

[Michael Helm · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very good historical geology book with its own long history.
It does become very North American - centered after a while, which may reflect the knowledge
bases of Dr Prothero & Dr Dott.
If you want a taste of what coverage of other areas - those other books - might be like,
see the TV series "Voyage of the Continents", still on Amazon Prime as of this writing,
French origin.

I was watching Neil Shubin's show Our Inner Fish & the story of the discovery of Tiktaalik.
In one scene Shubin & his advisor opened their undergrad geology book & used a map in it to find the
next place to go prospecting (which is where their tetrapod was eventually found).
That map is still in this book - I was able to find it while watching.

[Mohammed Alzahrani · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked the parts that explained the evolution of life, but I hated that the book was giving extensive examples only for North America.
Also I would have liked little introductions about the time scale of each period and their subdivisions.