Neptunes Ark From Ichthyosaurs to Orcas [Paperback]

Neptune's Arkilluminates the dramatic saga of evolution spanning 500 million years of marine life along the magnificent Pacific coast of western North America. In an engaging narrative that artfully blends elements of science, history, folklore, and personal observation, renowned naturalist David Rains Wallace reveals a marvelous diversity of creatures, not only modern ones, but those from the far prehistoric past. Mysterious forms have aboundedfrom giant sea cows, oyster bears, and flightless toothed birds to the orcas, elephant seals, and sea otters of modern times. Wallace tells a story about evolution as well as a tale of the storms, scurvy, and shipwrecks that plagued the coast's explorers, naturalists, and scientists, many of whom led turbulent or tragic lives, with themes reflected in the wonder and danger of the coast itself.Neptune's Arkis full of vivid charactersfrom explorers like Sir Francis Drake and Captain James Cook, to pioneer naturalists including Georg Steller and Charles Scammon, to early paleontologists Othniel Marsh and Edward Cope, and to recent scientists and ecological visionaries.

David Rains Wallaceis the author of sixteen books, includingBeasts of Eden: Walking Whales, Dawn Horses, and Other Enigmas of Mammal Evolution(UC Press), ANew York TimesNotable Book;The Klamath Knot: Explorations of Myth and Evolution(Twentieth Anniversary Edition, UC Press), winner of the John Burroughs Medal;The Bonehunter's Revenge: Dinosaurs, Greed, and the Greatest Scientific Feud of the Gilded Age;andThe Monkey's Bridge: Mysteries of Evolution in Central America,ANew York TimesNotable Book.

List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments

Prologue. Stellers Sea Ape

1 / Reefs in the Desert
2 / Amphibious Ambiguities
3 / Bird Teeth and Reptile Necks
4 / Tail Tales
5 / Copes Elusive Ophidians
6 / Hooves into Flippers
7 / Marsl“K