Resurrecting the Shark

Resurrecting the Shark
Author: Susan Ewing
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 311
Release: 2017-04-04
Genre: Science
ISBN: 1681773929

A prehistoric mystery. A fossil so mesmerizing that it boggled the minds of scientists for more than a century—until a motley crew of modern day shark fanatics decided to try to bring the monster-predator back to life. In 1993, Alaskan artist and paleo-fish freak Ray Troll stumbled upon the weirdest fossil he had ever seen—a platter-sized spiral of tightly wound shark teeth. This chance encounter in the basement of the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County sparked Troll's obsession with Helicoprion, a mysterious monster shark from deep time. In 2010, tattooed amateur strongman and returning Iraq War veteran Jesse Pruitt was also severely smitten by a Helicoprion fossil in a museum basement in Idaho. These two bizarre-shark disciples found each other, and an unconventional band of collaborators grew serendipitously around them, determined to solve the puzzle of the tooth whorl once and for all. Helicoprion was a Paleozoic chondrichthyan about the size of a modern great white shark, with a circular saw of teeth centered in its lower jaw—a feature unseen in the shark world before or since. For some ten million years, long before the Age of Dinosaurs, Helicoprion patrolled the shallow seas around the supercontinent Pangaea as the apex predator of its time. Just a few tumultuous years after Pruitt and Troll met, imagination, passion, scientific process, and state-of-the-art technology merged into an unstoppable force that reanimated the remarkable creature—and made important new discoveries. In this groundbreaking book, Susan Ewing reveals these revolutionary insights into what Helicoprion looked like and how the tooth whorl functioned—pushing this dazzling and awe-inspiring beast into the spotlight of modern science

Discovering Sharks

Discovering Sharks
Author: Donna Parham
Publisher: Applesauce Press
Total Pages: 94
Release: 2016-05-10
Genre: Juvenile Nonfiction
ISBN: 1604336048

With a unique book cover that looks and feels like actual shark skin, DISCOVERING SHARKS is the ultimate guide to the fiercest, most fascinating predators that lurk the ocean deep! This action-packed, full-color book features dozens of different types of sharks, with captivating photographs and illustrations throughout. From the Great White to the Hammerhead, learn about those razor-sharp teeth and prominent fins, mysterious behavior patterns, and even their unique diets. DISCOVERING SHARKS is jam-packed with gripping facts and fun tidbits, as well as breath-taking images that nearly jump off the page and right into your lap! Featuring a one-of-a-kind textured book cover that feels like shark skin, this book is a must-have for any child fascinated by the fiercest creatures who lurk the ocean deep!

The Great Shark Hunt

The Great Shark Hunt
Author: Hunter S. Thompson
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 626
Release: 2003-11-06
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 0743250451

The first volume of the Gonzo papers shows the brilliant, ranting observations and cultural commentary of Thompson at his best.

Sea Dragons

Sea Dragons
Author: Richard Ellis
Publisher:
Total Pages: 336
Release: 2003
Genre: Nature
ISBN: 9780700612697

In the days when dinosaurs dominated the earth, their marine counterparts - every bit as big and ferocious - reigned supreme in prehistoric seas. In this book, Richard Ellis takes us back to the Mesozoic era to resurrect the fascinating lives of these giant seagoing reptiles. fierce predators, speculates on their habits, and tells how they eventually became extinct - or did they? He traces the 200-million-year history of the great ichthyosaurs, plesiosaurs and mosasaurs who swam the ancient oceans - and who may, according to some, still frequent the likes of Loch Ness. animal that looked like a crocodile crossed with a shark the size of a small yacht. With its impossibly long neck, Plesiosaurus conybeari has been compared to a giant snake threaded through the body of a turtle. At a length of nearly 60 feet, Mosasaurus hoffmanni boasted powerful jaws that could crunch up even the hardest-shelled giant sea turtle. And Kronosaurus queenslandicus, perhaps the most formidable of the lot, had a skull nine feet long - more than twice that of Tyrannosaurus rex - with teeth to match. reconstruct their lives and habitats. Their fossils have been found all over the world - in Europe, Australia, Japan and even Kansas - in lands that once lay on the floors of Jurassic and Triassic seas. Along the way, the book also provides intriguing insights into and entertaining tales about the work, discoveries and competing theories that compose the world of vertebrate paleontology. The text is also accompanied by Ellis' own illustrations of how these creatures probably appeared and, through these likenesses, we are invited to speculate on their locomotion, their predatory habits and their lifestyles.

Eye of the Shoal

Eye of the Shoal
Author: Helen Scales
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Total Pages: 321
Release: 2018-05-03
Genre: Nature
ISBN: 1472936833

'Scales's genuine appreciation and awe for fish are contagious.'- Science 'Delightful' - New Scientist Seventy per cent of the earth's surface is covered by water. This vast aquatic realm is inhabited by a multitude of strange creatures and reigning supreme among them are the fish. There are giants that live for centuries and thumb-sized tiddlers that survive only weeks; they can be pancake-flat or inflatable balloons; they can shout with colours or hide in plain sight, cheat and dance, remember and say sorry; some rarely budge while others travel the globe restlessly. And yet the mesmerising and complex lives of fish remain largely underrated and unseen, living hidden beneath the waterline, out of sight and out of mind. Helen Scales is our guide on an underwater journey, as we fathom the depths and watch these animals going about the glorious business of being fish. As well as the fish, we meet devoted fishwatchers past and present, from voodoo zombie potion hunters and scientists who taught fish how to walk to nonagenarian explorers of the deep sea. Woven throughout are vignettes of Helen's own aquatic explorations, from eerie nighttime dives with glowing fish and up-close encounters with giant manta rays, to floating in the middle of a swirling shoal being watched by thousands of inquisitive eyes. As well as being a rich and entertaining read, this book will inspire readers to think again about these animals and the seas they inhabit, and to go out and appreciate the wonders of fish, whether through the glass walls of an aquarium or, better still, by gazing into the fishes' wild world and swimming through it. 'Engaging and informative' The Economist

Gnomon

Gnomon
Author: Nick Harkaway
Publisher: Vintage
Total Pages: 689
Release: 2018-01-09
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1524732095

From the widely acclaimed author of The Gone-Away World and Tigerman, comes a virtuosic new novel set in a near-future, high-tech surveillance state, that is equal parts dark comedy, gripping detective story, and mind-bending philosophical puzzle. "A Pynchonesque mega-novel that periodically calls to mind the films of Inception and The Matrix…. What a ride!" —The Washington Post In the world of Gnomon, citizens are constantly observed and democracy has reached a pinnacle of 'transparency.' Every action is seen, every word is recorded, and the System has access to its citizens' thoughts and memories—all in the name of providing the safest society in history. When suspected dissident Diana Hunter dies in government custody, it marks the first time a citizen has been killed during an interrogation. The System doesn't make mistakes, but something isn't right about the circumstances surrounding Hunter's death. Mielikki Neith, a trusted state inspector and a true believer in the System, is assigned to find out what went wrong. Immersing herself in neural recordings of the interrogation, what she finds isn't Hunter but rather a panorama of characters within Hunter's psyche: a lovelorn financier in Athens who has a mystical experience with a shark; a brilliant alchemist in ancient Carthage confronting the unexpected outcome of her invention; an expat Ethiopian painter in London designing a controversial new video game, and a sociopathic disembodied intelligence from the distant future. Embedded in the memories of these impossible lives lies a code which Neith must decipher to find out what Hunter is hiding. In the static between these stories, Neith begins to catch glimpses of the real Diana Hunter—and, alarmingly, of herself. The staggering consequences of what she finds will reverberate throughout the world. A dazzling, panoramic achievement, and Nick Harkaway's most brilliant work to date, Gnomon is peerless and profound, captivating and irreverent, as it pierces through strata of reality and consciousness, and illuminates how to set a mind free. It is a truly accomplished novel from a mind possessing a matchless wit infused with a deep humanity.

Cruisin' the Fossil Coastline

Cruisin' the Fossil Coastline
Author: Kirk R. Johnson
Publisher: Chicago Review Press - Fulcrum
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2018
Genre: Nature
ISBN: 9781555917432

"In this long-awaited sequel Kirk Johnson and Ray Troll are back on a road trip - driving, flying, and boating their way from Baja, California to northern Alaska in search of the fossil secrets of North America's Pacific coast. They hunt for fossils, visit museums, meet scientists and paleonerds, and sleuth out untold stories of extinct worlds. As one of the oldest coasts on earth, the west coast is a rich ground for fossil discovery. Its wonders include extinct marine mammals, pygmy mammoths, oyster bears, immense ammonites, shark-bitten camels, polar dinosaurs, Alaskan palms, California walruses, and a lava-baked rhinoceros. Join in for a fossil journey through deep time and discover how the west coast became the place it is today."--Provided by publisher.

Boy Wonder (Valancourt 20th Century Classics)

Boy Wonder (Valancourt 20th Century Classics)
Author: James Robert Baker
Publisher:
Total Pages: 468
Release: 2020-01-14
Genre:
ISBN: 9781954321175

Told in the form of interviews with those who knew and hated him, this hilarious and irreverent mockumentary recounts the rise and fall of notorious Hollywood producer Shark Trager. As a young man, Shark had dreams of directing artistic movies, but when his film school project is savaged by a snobby French critic, Shark turns instead to producing exploitative trash, the more shocking and outrageous the better. Fueled by a nonstop supply of sex and drugs, Shark's life and work become increasingly bizarre and erratic. Yet we meet a different side of Shark too, as we learn how he saved a group of Sunday school teachers held hostage by terrorists, prevented a horrific attack on Nancy Reagan by a sex-crazed donkey, and single-handedly took out a squad of dangerous neo-Nazis posing as disabled schoolchildren. It all leads up to a wild and explosive finale when, against all odds, one of Shark's films finds itself a contender for the Academy Awards--but the ceremony doesn't go exactly according to plan ... Riotously funny, wickedly politically incorrect, and completely impossible to put down, James Robert Baker's satire of the film industry Boy Wonder (1988), long revered as a cult classic, returns to print at last in this new edition, which includes an afterword by his partner, Ron Robertson. "[A]mphetamine-drenched, violence-riddled, sex-steeped . . . an exhilarating read." -- John Keilman, Chicago Tribune "Wild invention, bizarre plot twists . . . a raunchy, funny, savvy tale." -- Kirkus Reviews

Life Through the Ages II

Life Through the Ages II
Author: Mark P. Witton
Publisher: Indiana University Press
Total Pages: 167
Release: 2020-04-07
Genre: Science
ISBN: 0253048141

A paleontologist shows what life was like on our planet long before the early humans emerged through words and illustrations. Paleontologist Dr. Mark P. Witton draws on the latest twenty-first century discoveries to re-create the appearances and lifestyles of extinct, fascinating species, the environments they inhabited, and the challenges they faced living on an ever-changing planet. A worthy successor to Charles Knight’s beloved 1946 classic, Life through the Ages II takes us on an unforgettable journey through the evolution of life on Earth. Dozens of gorgeous color illustrations and meticulously researched, accompanying commentary showcase the succession of lost worlds, defining events, and ancient creatures that have appeared since the earth was formed, creating an indispensable guide to explore what came before us. “When it comes to modern palaeoartists, Mark Witton has become a leading light. Life Through the Ages II is a beautiful palaeoart portfolio that pushes the envelope where realistic compositions and reconstructions are concerned.” —The Inquisitive Biologist

A Fish Caught in Time

A Fish Caught in Time
Author: Samantha Weinberg
Publisher: Harper Collins
Total Pages: 242
Release: 2001-02-06
Genre: Science
ISBN: 0060932856

The coelacanth (see-lo-canth) is no ordinary fish. Five feet long, with luminescent eyes and limb like fins, this bizarre creature, presumed to be extinct, was discovered in 1938 by an amateur icthyologist who recognized it from fossils dating back 400 million years. The discovery was immediately dubbed the "greatest scientific find of the century," but the excitement that ensued was even more incredible. This is the entrancing story of that most rare and precious fish -- our own great-uncle forty million times removed.