Surveys the full range of knowledge in the earth and life sciences about how the geology and climate has changed through all the periods of the Earth's history.
Reading the Rocks. Early Days. Wonderful Life. The Proterozoic Eon. Dance of the Plates. Nature's Timepieces. The Cambrian Explosion. Fish, Forest, and Gondwanaland: The Paleozoic Era. From Pangea to (Almost) the Modern World: The Mesozoic Era. Global Catastrophes. Mammals, Mountains, and Ice: The Cenozoic Era. The Great Ice Age. What Comes Next?: Geology and Man. Glossary. Further Reading. Index.
J. D. MACDOUGALL is Director of the Program in Earth Sciences at the University of California, San Diego. He is the author of over one hundred articles in leading professional journals, including Scientific American, and has contributed to the McGraw--Hill Encyclopedia of Science and Technology.