Naturalist and Assistant Director of the Museum of Zoology at the University of Cambridge, Jack Ashby shares his love for the platypus and other Australian mammals, including wombats, echidnas, and kangaroos. Informed by stories of his experiences meeting living marsupials and egg-laying mammals on fieldwork in Tasmania and mainland Australia and his close contact with thousands of zoological specimens collected for museums over the last 200 years, Ashby's book explains historical mysteries and debunks myths about these mammals and especially the platypus-which lays eggs, feeds its young on milk, has venom spurs, and sports a bill that can detect electricity. In evaluating how humans have considered these special mammals, he makes clear that calling these animals "weird" or "primitive"- or incorrectly implying that Australia is an "evolutionary backwater"-has only added to the challenges for their conservation. One outcome of these descriptions is that Australia now has the worst mammal extinction rate of anywhere on Earth. Ashby argues that many of the ways that the world thinks about Australia's mammals can be traced back to the country's colonial history"--
From a single beginning, countless millions of stories from the animal kingdom have – and continue to – run their course. Museum objects allow us to investigate some of those stories. Animal Kingdom journeys through both the evolutionary history of animals, and the ways that people have interpreted them in museums. Animals in museums are not only representatives of their entire species, but they also tell us something about the time in which they were collected. They provide windows into the past as well as data for the present. They embody centuries of natural ecosystems and human cultures. Through a selection of 100 objects, telling 100 stories, this beautifully illustrated book explores the diversity of animal life over the past 600 million years, and delves into some of the most exciting mechanisms in evolution. By understanding some of the key stories of how nature operates, we can gain amazing insight into the systems underlying life itself.
Each wonderful Underfoot book contains two hilarious stories about the little cat who is always underfoot and causing trouble. Jimmy takes Underfoot to visit his friend at a new contruction site, but Underfoot escapes and leads them on a breathless chase. Then, Jimmy's cousin Edgar comes to visit, and he eventually makes friends with Underfoot after a rocky introduction.
Here are two action-filled stories about a loveable trouble-making cat named Underfoot. In Trouble, Underfoot somehow gets into the Clarks' apartment while it is being painted and leaves blue pawprints everywhere. In More Trouble, Underfoot creates havoc on a trip to the vet.
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