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Lädt ... Spying on Whales: The Past, Present, and Future of Earth's Most Awesome Creatures (2018)von Nick Pyenson
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Melde dich bei LibraryThing an um herauszufinden, ob du dieses Buch mögen würdest. Keine aktuelle Diskussion zu diesem Buch. I hoped for something different from this book. Whales are so interesting, but this book was written in a way that made me forget that. Almost like this was a book about a man researching whales with tidbits about the history of whales and whaling sprinkled in. None of this was particularly engaging or cohesive , possibly because of my own false expectations. Whatever the case, this left me pretty underwhelmed. ( ) Nick Pyenson, the marine mammal curator at the Smithsonian, discusses whales, the focus of his academic study. Both recounting his own milestones in his academic career focusing on whales of the past and present, and also relating other information known (and not known) about whales, Pyenson's book was extremely interesting to me. I loved learning all sorts of things that I had never even thought to ask about whales and the ocean--I had no idea how much we (still!) don't know about whales--and I really enjoyed it. I found the book really engaging, and it also made me aware of possible repercussions of climate change (on marine ecosystems) that I hadn't ever considered before. I listened to this on my commute over the past few weeks, so one thing that I didn't mind (and actually really enjoyed) about this book was that it didn't have a super clear narrative--it felt much more like an old friend telling you about their interests, which worked really well for how I read this book. As with many of the books that I've been reading lately, I picked this up on a complete whim when I found it in the library catalog, and I'm so happy that I did. It was a super interesting dive into a world that I know little about, and it definitely has made me want to read more about the ocean. If you are looking about a general book about all sorts of whales you might want to pass. Although I was disappointed that the author focused on particular whales, I appreciated the scientific insight on their evolution, what bones reveal, a different outlook on whaling, and other things. So if you really want the science, this has a lot of cool information. What I didn’t like was the lack of focus of the book, I didn’t know what his point was- how everything was supposed to tie in. It felt like it was just a mish mash of random topics yet he’d never focus on anything so I was left wondering what I missed. Also, there was no excitement or passion in his tone, the book I read on Seeds was way more enthusiastic. Felt like a general bio teacher talking to me the whole time. So overall, great book! Just not what I was expecting. Learned a lot about whale biology and evolution as well as the unique challenges facing those who devote their lives to studying them. I particularly enjoyed the discussion about animal culture, species-specific anatomy, and language dialects. The woodcut illustrations were a nice addition. Some photographs of Cerro Ballena dig site and/or the whaling ships, etc, would have been interesting to see too. keine Rezensionen | Rezension hinzufügen
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Nature.
Science.
Nonfiction.
HTML:??A palaeontological howdunnit?[Spying on Whales] captures the excitement of?seeking answers to deep questions in cetacean science.? ??Nature Called ??the best of science writing? (Edward O. Wilson) and named a best book by Popular Science, a dive into the secret lives of whales, from their four-legged past to their perilous present. Whales are among the largest, most intelligent, deepest diving species to have ever lived on our planet. They evolved from land-roaming, dog-sized creatures into animals that move like fish, breathe like us, can grow to 300,000 pounds, live 200 years and travel entire ocean basins. Whales fill us with terror, awe, and affection??yet there is still so much we don't know about them. Why did it take whales over 50 million years to evolve to such big sizes, and how do they eat enough to stay that big? How did their ancestors return from land to the sea??and what can their lives tell us about evolution as a whole? Importantly, in the sweepstakes of human-driven habitat and climate change, will whales survive? Nick Pyenson's research has given us the answers to some of our biggest questions about whales. He takes us deep inside the Smithsonian's unparalleled fossil collections, to frigid Antarctic waters, and to the arid desert in Chile, where scientists race against time to document the largest fossil whale site ever found. Full of rich storytelling and scientific discovery, Spying on Whales spans the ancient past to an uncertain future??all to better understand the most Keine Bibliotheksbeschreibungen gefunden. |
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Google Books — Lädt ... GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)599.5Natural sciences and mathematics Zoology Mammals Cetacea, Sirenia: Whales, etc.Klassifikation der Library of Congress [LCC] (USA)BewertungDurchschnitt:
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