Life Sculpted: Tales of the Animals, Plants, and Fungi That Drill, Break, and Scrape to Shape the Earth | Agenda Bookshop Skip to content
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A01=Anthony J. Martin
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Life Sculpted: Tales of the Animals, Plants, and Fungi That Drill, Break, and Scrape to Shape the Earth

English

By (author): Anthony J. Martin

There is much to love between this books covers. . . . There are many eureka moments in Life Sculptedand some truly beautiful ones.Eugenia Bone, Wall Street Journal

Meet the menagerie of lifeforms that dig, crunch, bore, and otherwise reshape our planet.

 
Did you know elephants dig ballroom-sized caves alongside volcanoes? Or that parrotfish chew coral reefs and poop sandy beaches? Or that our planet once hosted a five-ton dinosaur-crunching alligator cousin? In fact, almost since its fascinating start, life was boring. Billions of years ago bacteria, algae, and fungi began breaking down rocks in oceans, a role they still perform today. About a half-billion years ago, animal ancestors began drilling, scraping, gnawing, or breaking rocky seascapes. In turn, their descendants crunched through the materials of life itselfshells, wood, and bones. Today, such bioeroders continue to shape our planetfrom the bacteria that devour our teeth to the mighty moon snail, always hunting for food, as evidenced by tiny snail-made boreholes in clams and other moon snails.
 
There is no better guide to these lifeforms than Anthony J. Martin, a popular science author, paleontologist, and co-discoverer of the first known burrowing dinosaur. Following the crumbs of lichens, sponges, worms, clams, snails, octopi, barnacles, sea urchins, termites, beetles, fishes, dinosaurs, crocodilians, birds, elephants, and (of course) humans, Life Sculpted reveals how bioerosion expanded with the tree of life, becoming an essential part of how ecosystems function while reshaping the face of our planet. With vast knowledge and no small amount of whimsy, Martin uses paleontology, biology, and geology to reveal the awesome power of lifes chewing force. He provokes us to think deeply about the past and present of bioerosion, while also considering how knowledge of this history might aid us in mitigating and adapting to climate change in the future. Yes, Martin concedes, sometimes life can be hardbut life also makes everything less hard every day. See more
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A01=Anthony J. MartinAge Group_UncategorizedAuthor_Anthony J. Martinautomatic-updateCategory1=Non-FictionCategory=PSAFCategory=RBXCategory=WNACOP=United StatesDelivery_Delivery within 10-20 working daysLanguage_EnglishPA=AvailablePrice_€20 to €50PS=Activesoftlaunch
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Product Details
  • Weight: 739g
  • Dimensions: 152 x 229mm
  • Publication Date: 02 Jun 2023
  • Publisher: The University of Chicago Press
  • Publication City/Country: United States
  • Language: English
  • ISBN13: 9780226810478

About Anthony J. Martin

Anthony J. Martin is teaching professor in the Department of Environmental Sciences at Emory University where he has taught classes in geology paleontology and environmental sciences for more than thirty years. He has a PhD in geology and his research specialty is ichnology the study of modern and ancient traces caused by animal behavior such as tracks burrows and borings. He is the author of numerous books including Dinosaurs Without Bones The Evolution Underground and Tracking the Golden Isles.

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