A Natural History of Shells (Princeton Science Library)
By: Geerat J. Vermeij (author)Paperback
4 - 6 days availability
Geerat Vermeij wrote this "celebration of shells" to share his enthusiasm for those supremely elegant creations and what they can teach us about nature. Most popular books on shells emphasize the identification of species, but Vermeij uses shells as a way to explore major ideas in biology. How are shells built? How do they work? How did they evolve? The author lucidly and charmingly demonstrates how shells give us insights into the lives of animals in our own day as well as in the distant geological past.
PrefaceCh. 1Shells and the Questions of Biology3Pt. IThe Rules of Shell ConstructionCh. 2Themes and Variations: The Geometry of Shells9Ch. 3The Economics of Construction and Maintenance39Pt. IILife in a Dangerous World: How Shells WorkCh. 4The Mechanics of Shells61Ch. 5Predators and Their Methods94Ch. 6Coping with Enemies: The Shell as Protection113Pt. IIIThe Dimension of TimeCh. 7A Historical Geography of Shells153Ch. 8Evolutionary Economics: The Rise and Fall of Adaptive Themes174Index203
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- ID: 9780691001678
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