- 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: 479,767 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- See Complete Table of Contents
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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
At the Water's Edge delves into evolution's most dramatic transitions -- the journey of animal life from water to land, and the return of some land creatures to the sea. In a story that encompasses four billion years, Carl Zimmer describes the changes -- in bodies, minds, and living habits -- that occurred as descendants of fish evolved to become a dynasty of animals ranging from dinosaurs and snakes to elephants and human beings. He then tells the mirror tale of how wolf-like mammals took to the sea and became today's whales and dolphins.
With first-person accounts by scientists in the forefront of these macroevolutionary studies, and detailed drawings of fossils, this entertaining, accessible book demonstrates how newly discovered ecological, developmental, and behavioral evidence is shedding new light on the patterns and processes of nature. Like The Song of the Dodo and The Beak of the Finch, At the Water's Edge presents fascinating and authoritative answers to age-old questions.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
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9 reviews
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful
Awesome!!!!
2 Aug 2001
Format: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.
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful
Good on the main points and history, low on detail
19 Feb 1999
Format: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
Interesting and and very informative.
20 Dec 1999
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
The author takes you along the path from the earliest animals to the evolution of whales in an account that is detailed , yet is an enjoyable read and one that does not lose you in all its intricacies. At the end I felt very satisfied that he had done an excellent account of explaining everything,
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