Skeletons: The Frame of Life

Animals learned to build skeletons over half a billion years ago, which provided the framework for sophisticated networks of life and enabled the evolution of Earth's oceans, land, and atmosphere. Skeletons have evolved in a vast variety of forms, from the tiniest seed shrimp to the gigantic dinosaurs and blue whales. Plants use tubes of dead tissue for rigidity and transport of liquids, while vertebrates have endoskeletons. Skeletons are essential for life to expand into a wide range of niches and lifestyles on the planet, and climate change puts the formation of some kinds of skeleton at risk.

\n Format: Hardback
\n Length: 320 pages
\n Publication date: 22 March 2018
\n Publisher: Oxford University Press
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Over half a billion years ago, a remarkable milestone in the evolution of life on Earth occurred when animals learned to construct skeletons. These intricate structures, made from various materials such as calcium carbonate, phosphate, and silica, served as the foundation for the support systems that are essential to the majority of living organisms. These skeletons, which manifested in diverse forms, provided the framework for sophisticated networks of life that shaped the evolution of Earth's oceans, land, and atmosphere. Within a relatively short period of tens of millions of years, all major types of skeletons had emerged. Skeletons played a pivotal role in enabling an unprecedented range of body types to evolve, spanning from the tiny seed shrimp to the colossal dinosaurs and majestic blue whales. The earliest bacterial colonies, known as stromatolites, constructed massive rigid structures by trapping layers of sediment. Meanwhile, the mega-skeleton of the Great Barrier Reef, which spans an impressive area, is large enough to be visible from space. Millions of coccolithophores that thrived in the shallow seas of the Mesozoic era left behind the white cliffs of Dover, constructed through the accumulation of their skeletons. In contrast, insects and vertebrates possess different types of skeletons: insects have exoskeletons, while vertebrates have endoskeletons. Plants, too, have their unique skeletal adaptations, utilizing tubes of dead tissue for rigidity and the transport of liquids, particularly in the case of towering trees that can extend hundreds of meters from the ground. Some plants create coatings from mineral grains on the seabed to provide structural support. In their book "Skeletons," Jan Zalasiewicz and Mark Williams delve into the awe-inspiring diversity of skeleton innovations that have facilitated life's expansion into a wide array of niches and lifestyles on our planet. They also address the impact of climate change, which poses a threat to the formation of certain types of skeletons. Additionally, the authors contemplate future skeletons, including the potential development of skeletons that can adapt to changing environmental conditions and the integration of advanced materials into skeletal structures.

\n Weight: 552g\n
Dimension: 240 x 158 x 28 (mm)\n
ISBN-13: 9780198802105\n \n