AnyBook4Less.com	Find the Best Price on the Web Order from a Major Online Bookstore
Home  |  Store List  |  FAQ  |  Contact Us  |
Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine Save Your Time And Money Keyword AuthorISBN

Title: The Story of Life on Earth by Margaret Munro, Karen Reczuch ISBN: 0-88899-401-X Publisher: Groundwood Books Pub. Date: 30 August, 2000 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $19.95

Your Country USA Canada United Kingdom Australia Austria Belgium France Germany Italy Netherlands Switzerland Currency AutoUSD CAD GBP EUR AUD CHF Delivery Only cheapest delivery All delivery options Include Used Books Are you a club member of: Barnes and Noble Books A Million Chapters.Indigo.ca

Average Customer Rating: 3 (1 review)

Rating: 3
Summary: Great story, but could be more accurate
Comment: The author presents the great story of the history of life, a story that certainly needs telling. Overall the book is a good addition to juvenile literature on the subject, and it deserves a place in the classroom. I would use it, provided I could correct the obsolete terminology and misleading ideas that appear in several places. Few scientists give credibility to the idea that living cells could have arrived on a comet or meteor, although it is more feasible that some molecular building blocks of life came that route. The Archean Eon is not named, but its events are combined with the Proterozoic. The author uses the old name "blue-green algae" instead of cyanobacteria. I take issue with the statement "Winter and summer as we know them today did not yet exist". The tilt of the Earth's axis did exist, even if the wobble changed the angle. The author implies that many changes in life happened very suddenly. I think this gives children a false impression. The description of the first fish implies that fish with jaws appeared as soon as jawless fish. The book states "The first plants sprouted, and the first beetles, bugs, and butterflies hatched." The fossil record shows the first land arthropods were wingless. Butterfly fossils don't appear until around the time the flowering plants evolve. The sail-backed amniotes are described as reptiles - not the worse sin, but these animals were on another line of descent, the one that lead to mammals. The Paleozoic extinction is shown as a sudden event, when it likely was more gradual and had multiple causes. If fungi took over the planet at the end of this extinction, the fossil record doesn't show it. Flying reptiles are described incorrectly as dinosaurs. Text accompaning an illustration of a Plesiosaur-like reptile, which is not a dinosaur, talks about dinosaur fossils. In the Cenozoic section, the implication is that egg-laying mammals evolved for the first time, when paleonologists think that Mesozoic mammals and their ancestors were egg-laying. A grammatical note - the names of genera should be in italics.

I liked the inclusion of the idea that humans are still evolving and that life will continue to change.

Children should know the history of life on Earth. They deserve accurate information. This book would be a better contribution if the author had verified the information she gives.