Feeding The Dinosaur Gene

This collection of recipes from the authors of Taming the Dinosaur Gene presents 160 dishes designed to combat the ill effects of the genetic disorder the authors believe affects 50 percent of the world’s population. The disorder is caused when the body produces too much insulin, causing weight gain, high triglycerides, high blood pressure, high blood glucose, and low levels of the good cholesterol HDL. These easy-to-follow recipes restore nutritional well being, state of mind, spiritual balance, and overall health and energy levels.

This beautifully illustrated exploration of the diversity, anatomy, and evolution of dinosaur feeding adaptations is the first and only in-depth look at this crucial aspect of paleoecology. In An Illustrated Guide to Dinosaur Feeding Biology, experts Ali Nabavizadeh and David B. Weishampel bring dinosaurs to life on the page by exploring and illustrating their feeding adaptations. Whether dinosaurs were carnivorous, herbivorous, or omnivorous, their evolution produced a multitude of specialized adaptations that helped shape their ecologies. Dinosaur skulls show a variety of bone and joint specializations ideal for withstanding stresses and strains induced by high bite forces with strong jaw musculature. The bladed, steak-knife dentition of many carnivorous dinosaurs was well-suited for slicing meat and crushing bones, while the leaf-shaped, sometimes tightly packed dentition of many herbivorous dinosaurs was ideal for grinding up a variety of plant material. The first book of its kind, An Illustrated Guide to Dinosaur Feeding Biology is a synthesis of over a century of dinosaur feeding biology research, from the earliest hypotheses in the 1800s to today's studies using advanced techniques. Intended for both researchers and dinosaur enthusiasts alike, this book discusses functional morphological studies highlighting comparative anatomy, tooth wear, muscle reconstruction, and biomechanical analysis using modeling techniques like finite element analysis and multibody dynamics analysis. In addition to the feeding apparatus, Nabavizadeh and Weishampel explore postcranial adaptations and discuss the evolution of dinosaurs and their paleoecology more broadly. Integrating these various factors improves our understanding of dinosaurs as the living beings they were in their ecosystems millions of years ago and ultimately expands our knowledge and perspective of today's ecosystems by framing them in a broader evolutionary context.

"The best general-audience dinosaur book since the Dinosaur Renaissance began in the 1970s."—Philip J. Currie, coeditor of Encyclopedia of Dinosaurs, from the foreword “Dinosaur Odyssey is not only a personable and highly accessible tour of the up-to-date discoveries about the gigantic and famous. It also builds on dinosaur paleontology to far-ranging topics like extinction, climate change, and the possibility of life on Mars. The gift to the reader is both fascination and enlightenment.”—Michael Novacek, author of Terra and Dinosaurs of the Flaming Cliffs "An odyssey indeed! One of the world's leading dinosaur paleontologists, Sampson draws on a wide variety of sciences, from astronomy and cosmology to microbiology and ecology, in order to portray dinosaurs as living animals. The reader is in for a treat and will emerge with fresh and valuable insights."—Peter Dodson, author of The Horned Dinosaurs

On a back road in Saranac Lake, New York, is Petrova Avenue, where a small rock shop owned by the Bristol family was located. As a young boy, I remember going to that rock shop every summer when my family traveled to visit my grandparents in Lake Placid. That rock shop had treasures, lots of treasures. There were fossils that were millions of years old and geodes that you could buy and have cut open. The geodes were my favorite. It would take half an hour to cut open those big round grapefruit-sized rocks, and when they split, you could hear a thump inside the oil cutting saw tank. Then they would open the saw lid, and you would see what kind of treasure was inside the geode. That was fifty years ago. I can still see the sparkling light shining off the oil-covered hollow inside and the purple crystals of amethyst that shined back. The geodes with large dark-purple amethyst crystals were the most valuable. I still have those same geodes today. Perhaps because of this experience, my favorite color became purple, and I went on to college and majored in geology. How, I wondered as a young boy, could anyone be certain that those fossils were, indeed, millions of years old? Geology teaches us that the world is 4.75 billion years old, and that the Grand Canyon represents 1.8 billion years of earth’s history with an average depth of over one mile in thickness (six thousand feet). According to https://www.ocean.washington.edu, it also tells us that the average thickness of land on our planet is 2,755 feet, and 75 percent of the surface rocks are sedimentary (https://digitalatlas.cose.isu.edu/). Sedimentary rocks are rocks that have been broken down from other rocks by the action of water. Where did all the water come from to create so many sedimentary rocks that are even found 2,755 feet above sea level? Virtually all scientific sources agree that if all the ice on the planet melted, North Pole, South Pole, glaciers etc., the ocean would only rise 200–230 feet above sea level. So where did all the water come from to make those sedimentary rocks that are over thousands of feet above sea level? Science does not have an answer. Did you know if you apply common rates of ocean sedimentation to how long it would take the sedimentary layers in the Grand Canyon to form, it will only take 5.4 million years or less to form the sedimentary layers of the Grand Canyon instead of 1,800 million years? There are very pronounced errors in the theory of evolution that can be proven with simple math and common sense explanations. That is what this book is about—common sense rebuttals of what has become a worldwide philosophy—evolution. There are simple answers to the questions of why the earth is not extremely old and where all the water came from that formed sedimentary rocks at such high elevations above sea level. These answers are not taught in our school classrooms. In this book, I attempt to write from a less complicated stance, explaining in layman’s terms, truths that refute the theory of evolution.

A world-renowned paleontologist reveals groundbreaking science that trumps science fiction: how to grow a living dinosaur. Over a decade after Jurassic Park, Jack Horner and his colleagues in molecular biology labs are in the process of building the technology to create a real dinosaur. Based on new research in evolutionary developmental biology on how a few select cells grow to create arms, legs, eyes, and brains that function together, Jack Horner takes the science a step further in a plan to "reverse evolution" and reveals the awesome, even frightening, power being acquired to recreate the prehistoric past. The key is the dinosaur's genetic code that lives on in modern birds- even chickens. From cutting-edge biology labs to field digs underneath the Montana sun, How to Build a Dinosaur explains and enlightens an awesome new science.

Many of the characteristics that distinguish plants from other living organisms can be traced to their bacterial origin early in the history of life. These features-such as a multicellular haploid life stage, prevalent hermaphroditism, self-fertilization, and general dependence on biotic and abiotic vectors for reproduction-stem directly from the plant's ability to obtain energy from the sun. This novel mode of energy capture had far-ranging implications for plant evolution. It not only fueled the tremendous diversification of life on Earth that followed, but also had far-ranging implications for the evolution of photosynthetic microorganisms and eventually for land plants. Understanding the evolutionary processes for the proliferation and diversification of plants requires an appreciation of their unique biological features. While the processes of mutation, selection, genetic drift, and gene flow remain the same for both plants and animals, there are specific characteristics of plants that modify the way their evolution is implemented. Unique traits of plants affect everything from the fate of mutations, through exposure to selection in a haploid life phase, to the distribution of genetic variation within populations, and ultimately the rates and patterns of diversification. This book examines the origins of the unique evolutionary features of plants, as well as their implications for evolutionary processes. Author Mitchell B. Cruzan provides contemporary discussion of subjects including population genetics, phylogeography, phylogenetics, ecological genetics, and genomics. The book fills a need for modern coverage of these topics, all of which are essential to a wide range of advanced courses in plant biology.

“Original and awe-inspiring . . . an exhilarating tour of some of the most profound and important ideas in biology.”—New Scientist Where does DNA come from? What is consciousness? How did the eye evolve? Drawing on a treasure trove of new scientific knowledge, Nick Lane expertly reconstructs evolution’s history by describing its ten greatest inventions—from sex and warmth to death—resulting in a stunning account of nature’s ingenuity.