- Hardcover: 304 pages
- Publisher: Simon & Schuster Ltd; illustrated edition edition (6 July 1998)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0684834901
- ISBN-13: 978-0684834900
- Product Dimensions: 23.6 x 15.7 x 2.8 cm
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 846,563 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- See Complete Table of Contents
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Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
Macroevolution is the interesting part of evolution: the rise and fall of major groups like dinosaurs or horses, the development of whole new organs (like eyes) and ways of life (like pollination). Such changes are difficult to study, and harder still to prove. Carl Zimmer looks at metamorphoses across the boundary between land and sea: how fish learned to walk on land, and how whales went back to the ocean. "The story of each of these transformations hides its own unexpected details, as startling as the skyward eyes that sat on top of our ancestors' heads or the delicate toes that turned up in the equation of a whale." Zimmer's account is accurate yet lively, covering recent discoveries in taxonomy and dolphin intelligence, embryology and eight-toed fossil fish. --Mary Ellen Curtin
Product Description
Evolution is one of the most hotly debated areas of popular science. Zimmer's account of cutting-edge scientific research and fieldwork helps to illuminate this particular chapter in the history of ideas.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
4.4 out of 5 stars (9 customer reviews)
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Good on the main points and history, low on detail, 19 Feb 1999
By A Customer - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: At the Water's Edge: Macroevolution and the Transformation of Life (Hardcover)
There seem to be a number of really big macroevolutionary events in natural history, and Zimmer does well in explaining what happened and why with the fish-tetrapod event, the blind alleys, and people involved. I would have liked more detail in anatomy, DNA relationships, and the like, but that probably would have bored most people. The land animal-whale transition feels closer to home, but seems to be to be a side-show to the major events in evolutionary history. Zimmer writes well but it would be good to have a technical volume to go with it. Footnotes / endnotes would also be pleasant addition for the reader that wants to follow up, but they are missing.
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Awesome!!!!, 2 Aug 2001
By John McGinn - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: At the Water's Edge: Macroevolution and the Transformation of Life (Hardcover)
This book does a remarkable job of covering two major transitions in evolution. First the transition from fish to the first terrestrial tetrapods and secondly from terrestrial mammals to whales. A kind of out of the water and back in scenario.The book covers the transitional specimens that have been found to date very well and goes over most of the difficulties of changing from one extreme environment to the other.
I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in evolution.
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Complete Failure as a sedative - could not put it down, 23 May 2001
By Don - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: At the Water's Edge: Macroevolution and the Transformation of Life (Hardcover)
Informative, well written. This book is a delight to read.
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