The Song of the Dodo: Island Biogeography in an Age of Extinctions - Softcover

Quammen, D.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0684827123 ISBN 13: 9780684827124

Publisher: Simon & Schuster, 1997

Synopsis

Thirty years ago, two young biologists named Robert MacArthur and Edward O. Wilson triggered a far-reaching scientific revolution. In a book titled The Theory of Island Biogeography, they presented a new view of a little-understood matter: the geographical patterns in which animal and plant species occur. Why do marsupials exist in Australia and South America, but not in Africa? Why do tigers exist in Asia, but not in New Guinea? Influenced by MacArthur and Wilson's book, an entire generation of ecologists has recognized that island biogeography - the study of the distribution of species on islands and islandlike patches of landscape - yields important insights into the origin and extinction of species everywhere. The new mode of thought focuses particularly on a single question: Why have island ecosystems always suffered such high rates of extinction? In our own age, with all the world's landscapes, from Tasmania to the Amazon to Yellowstone, now being carved into islandlike fragments by human activity, the implications of island biogeography are more urgent than ever. Until now, this scientific revolution has remained unknown to the general public. But over the past eight years, David Quammen has followed its threads on a globe-circling journey of discovery. In Madagascar, he has considered the meaning of tenrecs, a group of strange, prickly mammals native to that island. On the island of Guam, he has confronted a pestilential explosion of snakes and spiders. In these and other places, he has prowled through wild terrain with extraordinary scientists who study unusual beasts. The result is The Song of the Dodo, a book filled with landscape, wonder, and ideas. Besides being a grandoutdoor adventure, it is, above all, a wake-up call to the age of extinctions.

About this title

Product Description:

In Darwin's time, island biogeography was the science that opened Victorian minds to the wonder of evolution. Today with all the world's wild landscape being chopped into island-like fragments, it's the science of jeopardy and extinction. This book combines science, historical narrative and travel.

Review:

"Not only is this book compulsively readable - a masterpiece - it is maybe the masterpiece of science journalism" (Bill Mckibben Audobon Magazine)

"A moving book... Quammen is a good writer who has taken the time to master an important subject and do it justice" (Richard Dawkins The Times)

"Not since Gerald Durrell's books 30 years ago have I encountered such writing about the natural world. The witty, pithy, modest prose and the clever interweaving of science and storytelling are of a quality unrivalled in th field" (Matt Ridley Sunday Telegraph)

"Impressive and deeply moving...blends first-rate science journalism with superb travel and nature writing" (Financial Times)

"David Quammen is a brilliant young star of nature writing... His book is an important example of the genre, written in an enchanting style. His knowledge, based on years of research and adventure around the world, is truly impressive" (Edward O. Wilson, author of 'The Diversity of Life')

About this edition

• Publisher: Simon & Schuster
• Publication date: 1997
• ISBN 10: 0684827123
• ISBN 13: 9780684827124
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 704