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Skeletons : The Frame of Life

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Title: Skeletons : The Frame of Life
Description: Over half a billion years ago life on earth took an incredible step in evolution, when animals learned to build skeletons. Using many different materials, from calcium carbonate and phosphate, and even silica, to make shell and bone, they started creating the support structures that are now critical to most living forms, providing rigidity and strength. Manifesting in a vast variety of forms, they provided the framework for sophisticated networks of life that fashioned the evolution of Earth's oceans, land, and atmosphere. Within a few tens of millions of years, all of the major types of skeleton had appeared. Skeletons enabled an unprecedented array of bodies to evolve, from the tiniest seed shrimp to the gigantic dinosaurs and blue whales. The earliest bacterial colonies constructed large rigid structures - stromatolites - built up by trapping layers of sediment, while the mega-skeleton that is the Great Barrier Reef is big enough to be visible from space. The skeletons of millions of coccolithophores that lived in the shallow seas of the Mesozoic built the white cliffs of Dover. These, and insects, put their scaffolding on the outside, as an exoskeleton, while vertebrates have endoskeletons. Plants use tubes of dead tissue for rigidity and transport of liquids - which in the case of tall trees need to be strong enough to extend 100 m or more from the ground. Others simply stitch together a coating from mineral grains on the seabed. In Skeletons, Jan Zalasiewicz and Mark Williams explore the incredible variety of the skeleton innovations that have enabled life to expand into a wide range of niches and lifestyles on the planet. Discussing the impact of climate change, which puts the formation of some kinds of skeleton at risk, they also consider future skeletons, including the possibility that we might increasingly incorporate metal and plastic elements into our own, as well as the possible materials for skeleton building on other planets.
Authors: Jan Zalasiewicz, Mark Williams
Resource Type: eBook.
Subjects: Anatomy, Comparative, Spicule (Anatomy), Biology, Evolution (Biology), Skeleton--Evolution, Skeleton, Bones--Evolution, Bones, Science
Categories: SCIENCE / General
Database: eBook Collection (EBSCOhost)
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  – Type: ebook-epub
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Header DbId: nlebk
DbLabel: eBook Collection (EBSCOhost)
An: 1729682
RelevancyScore: 1084
AccessLevel: 6
PubType: eBook
PubTypeId: ebook
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  Data: Skeletons : The Frame of Life
– Name: Abstract
  Label: Description
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  Data: Over half a billion years ago life on earth took an incredible step in evolution, when animals learned to build skeletons. Using many different materials, from calcium carbonate and phosphate, and even silica, to make shell and bone, they started creating the support structures that are now critical to most living forms, providing rigidity and strength. Manifesting in a vast variety of forms, they provided the framework for sophisticated networks of life that fashioned the evolution of Earth's oceans, land, and atmosphere. Within a few tens of millions of years, all of the major types of skeleton had appeared. Skeletons enabled an unprecedented array of bodies to evolve, from the tiniest seed shrimp to the gigantic dinosaurs and blue whales. The earliest bacterial colonies constructed large rigid structures - stromatolites - built up by trapping layers of sediment, while the mega-skeleton that is the Great Barrier Reef is big enough to be visible from space. The skeletons of millions of coccolithophores that lived in the shallow seas of the Mesozoic built the white cliffs of Dover. These, and insects, put their scaffolding on the outside, as an exoskeleton, while vertebrates have endoskeletons. Plants use tubes of dead tissue for rigidity and transport of liquids - which in the case of tall trees need to be strong enough to extend 100 m or more from the ground. Others simply stitch together a coating from mineral grains on the seabed. In Skeletons, Jan Zalasiewicz and Mark Williams explore the incredible variety of the skeleton innovations that have enabled life to expand into a wide range of niches and lifestyles on the planet. Discussing the impact of climate change, which puts the formation of some kinds of skeleton at risk, they also consider future skeletons, including the possibility that we might increasingly incorporate metal and plastic elements into our own, as well as the possible materials for skeleton building on other planets.
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  Data: <searchLink fieldCode="AR" term="%22Jan+Zalasiewicz%22">Jan Zalasiewicz</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="AR" term="%22Mark+Williams%22">Mark Williams</searchLink>
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  Data: <searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Anatomy%2C+Comparative%22">Anatomy, Comparative</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Spicule+%28Anatomy%29%22">Spicule (Anatomy)</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Biology%22">Biology</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Evolution+%28Biology%29%22">Evolution (Biology)</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Skeleton--Evolution%22">Skeleton--Evolution</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Skeleton%22">Skeleton</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Bones--Evolution%22">Bones--Evolution</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Bones%22">Bones</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Science%22">Science</searchLink>
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RecordInfo BibRecord:
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      – Code: 611.71
        Scheme: ddc
        Type: prePub
    Languages:
      – Code: eng
        Text: English
    Subjects:
      – SubjectFull: Anatomy, Comparative
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Spicule (Anatomy)
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Biology
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Evolution (Biology)
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Skeleton--Evolution
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Skeleton
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Bones--Evolution
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Bones
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Science
        Type: general
    Titles:
      – TitleFull: Skeletons : The Frame of Life
        Type: main
  BibRelationships:
    HasContributorRelationships:
      – PersonEntity:
          Name:
            NameFull: Jan Zalasiewicz
      – PersonEntity:
          Name:
            NameFull: Mark Williams
      – PersonEntity:
          Name:
            NameFull: Jan Zalasiewicz
      – PersonEntity:
          Name:
            NameFull: Mark Williams
    IsPartOfRelationships:
      – BibEntity:
          Dates:
            – D: 01
              M: 01
              Type: published
              Y: 2018
            – D: 19
              M: 03
              Type: profile
              Y: 2018
          Identifiers:
            – Type: isbn-print
              Value: 9780198802105
            – Type: isbn-print
              Value: 9780198802112
            – Type: isbn-electronic
              Value: 9780192522450
            – Type: isbn-electronic
              Value: 9780192522467
          Titles:
            – TitleFull: Skeletons : The Frame of Life
              Type: main
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