What bugged the dinosaurs? : insects, disease, and death in the Cretaceous /
This book reveals that T. rex was not the only killer in the Cretaceous: insects--from biting sand flies to disease-causing parasites--dominated life on the planet and played a significant role in the life and death of the dinosaurs. Analyzing exotic insects fossilized in Cretaceous amber at three m...
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| Format: | Electronic eBook |
| Language: | English |
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Princeton, N.J. :
Princeton University Press,
©2008.
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | Connect to this title online (unlimited users allowed) |
| Summary: | This book reveals that T. rex was not the only killer in the Cretaceous: insects--from biting sand flies to disease-causing parasites--dominated life on the planet and played a significant role in the life and death of the dinosaurs. Analyzing exotic insects fossilized in Cretaceous amber at three major deposits in Lebanon, Burma, and Canada, the authors reconstruct the complex ecology of a hostile prehistoric world inhabited by voracious swarms of insects. They draw upon tantalizing new evidence from their discoveries of disease-producing vertebrate pathogens in Cretaceous blood-sucking flies, as well as intestinal worms and protozoa found in fossilized dinosaur excrement, to provide a unique view of how insects infected with malaria, leishmania, and other pathogens, together with intestinal parasites, could have devastated dinosaur populations.--From publisher description. |
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| Physical Description: | 1 online resource (x, 264 pages, 16 pages of plates) : illustrations (some color), maps |
| Bibliography: | Includes bibliographical references (pages 225-252) and index. |
| ISBN: | 9781400835690 1400835690 1282531662 9781282531666 9786612531668 6612531665 |