From Publishers Weekly
An irreverent trip through four billion years of evolution, this freewheeling excursion combines swaths of paleontology, geology and natural history, travel notes and amateur fieldwork from Kansas to British Columbia, amplified by wacky cartoons and colorful, often fantastical mixed-media drawings. Matsen and Troll, who collaborated on Shocking Fish Tales , emphasize that we are descended from fish that came ashore some 375 million years ago, giving rise to land-dwelling vertebrates. Evolution emerges here as a series of mass extinctions, improbable survivals, false starts and unsolved enigmas. Although their jocularity often impedes the narrative, Matsen and Troll bring a sense of awe and excitement to an informative, magical tour that is a lot more fun to read than standard texts and responsibly covers current scientific controversies.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --Ce texte fait référence à l'édition Relié .
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --Ce texte fait référence à l'édition Relié .
From Library Journal
Offering a combination of evolution and paleontology with a large dose of extinction, the authors state that "650 million years ago, give or take a few million years, the sea was mother and father to us all" and that we all have a vertebrate in common from the Pikaia, a walking fish. They thus poke some fun at both creationists and evolutionists. Their writing is clear and entertaining, and the illustrations are similar to their earlier Shocking Fish Tales (Ten Speed Pr., 1993), but Planet Ocean has more variety. Unfortunately, the layout of the illustrations sometimes interrupts the text. Interesting and appealing aesthetically, this book is nevertheless hard to place. The illustrations are art, while the text is closer to science. For larger collections with an interest in current evolutionary theory for the lay reader.
Jean E. Crampon, Hancock Biology & Oceanography Lib., Univ. of Southern California, Los Angeles
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --Ce texte fait référence à l'édition Relié .
Jean E. Crampon, Hancock Biology & Oceanography Lib., Univ. of Southern California, Los Angeles
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --Ce texte fait référence à l'édition Relié .
