Aquagenesis
Subtitle: The Origin and Evolution of Life in the Sea
Publisher: Viking Adult
Published: September 27, 2001
Language: eng
Format: Hardcover
Number of pages: 320
ISBN-13: 9780670030231
Subjects: Science/Mathematics; Origin; Life Sciences - Evolution; Science; Life Sciences - Biology - Marine Biology; Science / General; Life Sciences - Human Anatomy & Physiology; Evolution; Life; Marine animals
First sentence: There may be a place on Earth-albeit somewhat inaccessible-where we might be able to see conditions not unlike those that the earliest life forms saw.
Description: "Ellis's detailed drawings bring animals to life that have not been seen for 400 million years, some that rival science fiction monsters for sheer weirdness. Early crocodiles and turtles were three times larger than they are today: and there was once a manatee that was 30 feet long and had no bones below the elbow.

There were the trilobites, jointed animals with complex eyes that dominated the seas for 200 million years and then completely disappeared: sharks with teeth on their backs: and others, 50 feet long, with teeth the size of your hand.".

"Fifty million years ago, some land-dwelling mammals reentered the water and began the process of modification that turned them into whales. It was the most astonishing transformation in mammalian history. In Aquagenesis, you will track these changes and meet the paleontologists who have found the links between the terrestrial mammals and the first semiaquatic whales - creatures that probably looked like hyenas, huge shrews, or fat otters.

Today the only animal on earth that regularly walk in an upright, two-legged stance are penguins and people. It is possible that our size, shape, stride, intelligence, and hair (or lack thereof) can also be explained by the provocative theory of the aquatic ape."--BOOK JACKET.