Product Description

This text is aimed at students and anyone interested in the history of life on our planet. It explores the ′whys′ of events that occurred, and in this newest edition, it takes a closer look at the evolution of the physical earth and the strong interactions between organisms and environment. The book’s coverage includes geography, climate, atmosphere, ocean, and land (a changing stage) while following interplay between organisms. Also new to this edition is a dedicated website which explores additional environmental factors and supplemental topics, and provides interactive exercises, a detailed glossary, key links and all art in downloadable form. The art is also available to instructors on CD–ROM in PowerPoint and Jpeg formats.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #370234 in Books
• Published on: 2004-08-15
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 336 pages

Review
Praise for the New Edition:

"His material is accessible to even the uninitiated, but is still able to include fairly nuanced arguments. Mr. Cowen′s gentle wit is much appreciated. This is a wonderful text, written in an engaging style by an author with both deep and broad knowledge of the history of life."
Emily Buchholtz, Wellesley College

"...the History of Life is a superb book which has no peer among published texts describing the macroevolution of life on Earth and the abiotic and biotic factors that have influenced the evolutionary history of living organisms."
Robert McMahon, U of Texas at Arlington

Praise for the Third Edition:

Anybody interested in the evolution of the Earth and its living organisms, especially animals, will find the content of this book useful and interesting. [...] I would recommend the book to those readers who would like to gain a basic knowledge on the Earth′s evolution accompanied with detailed description of the evolution of animals.
L. Natr, Photosynthetica 40

′Should be compulsory for everyone who wants to call him/herself a palaeontologist.′ J.W.F Reumer, PalArch′s Journal of Vertebrate Palaeontology, (2006)

From the Back Cover
The living world today contains all kinds of creatures that do unexpected things–– we have come to expect that there were complex and unusual ways of life in the past, and that evolution took some unexpected turns at times. Entertainingly written for students, History of Life 4th Edition takes you to the edge of current knowledge.

This text is aimed at students and anyone interested in the history of life on our planet. It explores the "whys" of events that occurred and, in this newest edition, it takes a closer look at the evolution of the physical earth and the strong interactions between organisms and environment. The book’s coverage includes geography, climate, atmosphere, ocean, and land (a changing stage) while following the interplay between organisms. Also new to this edition is a dedicated website which explores additional environmental factors and supplemental topics, and provides interactive exercises, a detailed glossary, key links and all art in downloadable form. The art is also available to instructors on CD–ROM in PowerPoint and Jpeg formats.

About the Author
Richard Cowen learned how to write and to think critically at Cambridge University, and how to teach and think creatively at the University of California, Davis. He received a Distinguished Teaching Award in 1993 and designed the course "History of Life" there. The book was written specifically for that course, and has gone on to become a best–selling textbook.

Customer Reviews

Must have for Geology students
UP to date information and theories on how we came to become the pinnacle of evolution. Starting off with the precambrian and how the first skeletons evolved and finishing with a amusing outlook to the future even thought it makes it a apocolyptic forecast!

cranky and out-dated
A largely morphological overview of evolution, concentrating onvertebrates, including humans and other primates. Nicely written, withsome amusing doggerel and good illustrations