SKELETONS /ANGLAIS

by Andrew Kirk

Evolving from fish scales 500 million years ago, bone is a remarkable material that is capable of strength, lightness and flexibility; in a range of skeletal arrangements it can support the weight of an elephant or a bird in flight and provide the dexterity of a human hand. Through a series of line drawings and extended captions, this accessible introduction examines the different forms and structures that have evolved across the animal kingdom.

Genres: Science

256 pages, Paperback

Published August 1, 2016

Reviews

[shiqin]

i would like to quote tom phillips in his book "humans : a brief history of how we fucked it all up"

"evolution gets results from not by planning ahead, but rather by simply hurling a ridiculously large number of hungry, horny organisms at a dangerous unforgiving world and seeing who fails the least"

✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:* *:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:*　*:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:*

i think that this rather sums up the evolution of a lot of the modern day animals, and was sort of a more in depth and specific view from an anatomy point of view and bones/skeletons
i thought this book was really interesting, and kinda showed me how even though some of the animals now are kinda wacky, the ones that our modern day animals are descended from are even more mind blowing (the megafauna?! giant ground sloths?! animals with tusks going straight down?! what happens if it nods its head and accidentally pokes itself (or did i miss something?))
anyways it was really cool and i learnt a bunch of things about bones and the practicality of skeletal development both from a environmental or man made influence
also things i never even thought of considering

- frogs don't have rib cages
- diplodocuses are 27.4 m long (IMAGINE)
- australasia had a 3.5m flightless bird (imagine that coming at you :o )
- a zoologist realised that the prevalance of larger animals were seen during the ice age, as a larger size allowed animals to retain more heat
- skeletons can tell us where they have similar ancestors, or similar evolutionary patterns even if the environmental conditions are different (it mentioned that even though one continent was an island at the time or something animals from the same period ended up having the same evolutionary adaptations even though their environment was really different which i just think is so cool)
-also just considering the fact that our modern day animals are descended from those things just blows my mind

anyways, i actually quite enjoyed it, there was a fair amount of new vocabulary, and can i just have a moment dedicated to the drawings/figures? they were so cool and so well done i loved it
this book would definitely be for people who are interested in evolutionary history, even for a skim or proper read

ps. i never thought there would be so many creatures that i didnt know about which ik sounds weird but its true (i really thought i'd seen it all hm)

[Jack Laschenski · Rating 5 out of 5]

An amazing study of the skeletons of all mammels.

Birds, whales, lions apes - we all have the same frame.

Beautifully illustrated.

[Judith Richmond]

wonderfully interesting - especially to see the commonalities of bone structure between vary different animals.

[Kai Charles(Fiction State Of Mind) · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating look at the skeletal systems of Humans snd animals.

[Keisha Adams · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lots of info in small chunks. Beautiful illustrations of various skeletons