Tales Told By Fossils

UK: The World's Work. Very Good/Good. 1967. Hard Cover. 8vo 0437052001 Dust jacket complete, unclipped, slight fade to spine, some loss to top edge. Original cloth covered boards bright gilt titling. Light marking to ffep. Inscription from David Elliot of World's Work. Illustrated with 200 drawings and photographs . 182 pages. When fossils are mentioned we often think of dinosaurs, shaggy mammoths, or petrified logs from ancient trees. Actually, these are only a few of the things that lived and died during the "prehistoric" past. Their remains and traces, now found in rocks, record life's story through i,600 to 2,700 million years. This book presents highlights of that story. Dr. Fenton explains what fossils arc, how they are found, what they reveal, and how they divide the Earth's history into an orderly series of ages. Four chapters survey life in early seas, beginning with creatures too simple to rank as plants and ending with "lilies" that were animals. Then comes the perilous move from fresh water to land, and the long succession of amphibians, reptiles, and birds, and the warm-blooded mammals that prospered after dinosaurs died out. The tale of mankind begins, not with men, but with apes and man-apes of Ice-Age Africa. Then came "ape-men" who really were human, though their discoverer dismissed them as oversized gibbons. Through Neanderthalers - once called idiots - the story leads on to men of our own species who killed mammoths and painted world-famous pictures as the Ice Age came to an end. The book closes with a survey of fossils to be seen in museums, a glossary, and a list of books for adults and young readers who want still more information. .