The Fossil Hunter

Download The Fossil Hunter PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : St. Martin's Press
ISBN 13 : 023010097X
Total Pages : 262 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (31 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis The Fossil Hunter by : Shelley Emling

Download or read book The Fossil Hunter written by Shelley Emling and published by St. Martin's Press. This book was released on 2009-10-13 with total page 262 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: At a time when women were excluded from science, a young girl made a discovery that marked the birth of paleontology and continues to feed the debate about evolution to this day. Mary Anning was only twelve years old when, in 1811, she discovered the first dinosaur skeleton--of an ichthyosaur--while fossil hunting on the cliffs of Lyme Regis, England. Until Mary's incredible discovery, it was widely believed that animals did not become extinct. The child of a poor family, Mary became a fossil hunter, inspiring the tongue-twister, "She Sells Sea Shells by the Seashore." She attracted the attention of fossil collectors and eventually the scientific world. Once news of the fossils reached the halls of academia, it became impossible to ignore the truth. Mary's peculiar finds helped lay the groundwork for Charles Darwin's theory of evolution, laid out in his On the Origin of Species. Darwin drew on Mary's fossilized creatures as irrefutable evidence that life in the past was nothing like life in the present. A story worthy of Dickens, The Fossil Hunter chronicles the life of this young girl, with dirt under her fingernails and not a shilling to buy dinner, who became a world-renowned paleontologist. Dickens himself said of Mary: "The carpenter's daughter has won a name for herself, and deserved to win it." Here at last, Shelley Emling returns Mary Anning, of whom Stephen J. Gould remarked, is "probably the most important unsung (or inadequately sung) collecting force in the history of paleontology," to her deserved place in history.

Mary Anning

Download Mary Anning PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Millbrook Press
ISBN 13 : 9781575054254
Total Pages : 56 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (542 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Mary Anning by : Sally M. Walker

Download or read book Mary Anning written by Sally M. Walker and published by Millbrook Press. This book was released on 2000-01-01 with total page 56 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Describes the life of Mary Anning, who discovered many of the best and most complete fossils in nineteenth-century England, yet received little credit for her work.

Fossil Hunter

Download Fossil Hunter PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Macmillan
ISBN 13 : 142991467X
Total Pages : 301 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (299 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Fossil Hunter by : Robert J. Sawyer

Download or read book Fossil Hunter written by Robert J. Sawyer and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 2005-03-01 with total page 301 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Fossil Hunter is hard SF in the tradition of Larry Niven about a world inhabited by the Quintaglios, a dinosaurian species that has evolved a human level of intelligence and culture. Toroca, a Quintaglio geologist, is under attack for his controversial new theory of evolution. But the origins of his people turn out to be more complex than even he imagined, for he soon discovers the wreckage of an ancient starship -- a relic of the aliens who transplanted Earth's dinosaurs to this solar system. Now, Toroca must convince Emperor Dybo that evolution is true; otherwise, the territorial violence the Quintaglios inherited from their tyrannosaur ancestors will destroy the last survivors of Earth's prehistoric past. At the publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management software (DRM) applied.

The First Fossil Hunters

Download The First Fossil Hunters PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Princeton University Press
ISBN 13 : 0691245606
Total Pages : 400 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (912 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis The First Fossil Hunters by : Adrienne Mayor

Download or read book The First Fossil Hunters written by Adrienne Mayor and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2023-04-11 with total page 400 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The fascinating story of how the fossils of dinosaurs, mammoths, and other extinct animals influenced some of the most spectacular creatures of classical mythology Griffins, Centaurs, Cyclopes, and Giants—these fabulous creatures of classical mythology continue to live in the modern imagination through the vivid accounts that have come down to us from the ancient Greeks and Romans. But what if these beings were more than merely fictions? What if monstrous creatures once roamed the earth in the very places where their legends first arose? This is the arresting and original thesis that Adrienne Mayor explores in The First Fossil Hunters. Through careful research and meticulous documentation, she convincingly shows that many of the giants and monsters of myth did have a basis in fact—in the enormous bones of long-extinct species that were once abundant in the lands of the Greeks and Romans. As Mayor shows, the Greeks and Romans were well aware that a different breed of creatures once inhabited their lands. They frequently encountered the fossilized bones of these primeval beings, and they developed sophisticated concepts to explain the fossil evidence, concepts that were expressed in mythological stories. The legend of the gold-guarding griffin, for example, sprang from tales first told by Scythian gold-miners, who, passing through the Gobi Desert at the foot of the Altai Mountains, encountered the skeletons of Protoceratops and other dinosaurs that littered the ground. Like their modern counterparts, the ancient fossil hunters collected and measured impressive petrified remains and displayed them in temples and museums; they attempted to reconstruct the appearance of these prehistoric creatures and to explain their extinction. Long thought to be fantasy, the remarkably detailed and perceptive Greek and Roman accounts of giant bone finds were actually based on solid paleontological facts. By reading these neglected narratives for the first time in the light of modern scientific discoveries, Adrienne Mayor illuminates a lost world of ancient paleontology.

The Life of a Fossil Hunter

Download The Life of a Fossil Hunter PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 370 pages
Book Rating : 4.:/5 (41 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis The Life of a Fossil Hunter by : Charles Hazelius Sternberg

Download or read book The Life of a Fossil Hunter written by Charles Hazelius Sternberg and published by . This book was released on 1909 with total page 370 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Fossil Hunter

Download Fossil Hunter PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : HarperCollins
ISBN 13 : 0358396026
Total Pages : 128 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (583 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Fossil Hunter by : Cheryl Blackford

Download or read book Fossil Hunter written by Cheryl Blackford and published by HarperCollins. This book was released on 2022-01-25 with total page 128 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “This in-depth, beautifully illustrated biography of Mary Anning sings with the passion and perseverance of the woman herself, who from girlhood on scoured the shifting cliffs of her native Dorset to dig out prehistoric mysteries and make sense of them—altering forever our view of the past.” —Joyce Sidman, Newbery Honor winner and Sibert Medal winner A fascinating, highly visual biography of Mary Anning, the Victorian fossil hunter who changed scientific thinking about prehistoric life and would become one of the most celebrated paleontologists of all time. Perfect for children learning about woman scientists like Ada Lovelace, Jane Goodall, and Katherine Johnson. Mary Anning grew up on the south coast of England in a region rich in fossils. As teenagers, she and her brother Joseph discovered England’s first complete ichthyosaur. Poor and uneducated, Anning would become one of the most celebrated paleontologists ever, though in her time she supported herself selling by fossils and received little formal recognition. Her findings helped shape scientific thinking about extinction and prehistoric life long before Darwin published his famous work on evolution. With engaging text, photographs, and stunning paleoart, Fossil Hunter introduces this self-taught scientist, now recognized as one of the greatest fossilists the world has ever known.

Fossil Legends of the First Americans

Download Fossil Legends of the First Americans PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Princeton University Press
ISBN 13 : 1400849314
Total Pages : 489 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (8 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Fossil Legends of the First Americans by : Adrienne Mayor

Download or read book Fossil Legends of the First Americans written by Adrienne Mayor and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2013-10-24 with total page 489 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The burnt-red badlands of Montana's Hell Creek are a vast graveyard of the Cretaceous dinosaurs that lived 68 million years ago. Those hills were, much later, also home to the Sioux, the Crows, and the Blackfeet, the first people to encounter the dinosaur fossils exposed by the elements. What did Native Americans make of these stone skeletons, and how did they explain the teeth and claws of gargantuan animals no one had seen alive? Did they speculate about their deaths? Did they collect fossils? Beginning in the East, with its Ice Age monsters, and ending in the West, where dinosaurs lived and died, this richly illustrated and elegantly written book examines the discoveries of enormous bones and uses of fossils for medicine, hunting magic, and spells. Well before Columbus, Native Americans observed the mysterious petrified remains of extinct creatures and sought to understand their transformation to stone. In perceptive creation stories, they visualized the remains of extinct mammoths, dinosaurs, pterosaurs, and marine creatures as Monster Bears, Giant Lizards, Thunder Birds, and Water Monsters. Their insights, some so sophisticated that they anticipate modern scientific theories, were passed down in oral histories over many centuries. Drawing on historical sources, archaeology, traditional accounts, and extensive personal interviews, Adrienne Mayor takes us from Aztec and Inca fossil tales to the traditions of the Iroquois, Navajos, Apaches, Cheyennes, and Pawnees. Fossil Legends of the First Americans represents a major step forward in our understanding of how humans made sense of fossils before evolutionary theory developed.

The Dinosaur Artist

Download The Dinosaur Artist PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Hachette Books
ISBN 13 : 0316382507
Total Pages : 476 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (163 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis The Dinosaur Artist by : Paige Williams

Download or read book The Dinosaur Artist written by Paige Williams and published by Hachette Books. This book was released on 2018-09-11 with total page 476 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this 2018 New York Times Notable Book,Paige Williams "does for fossils what Susan Orlean did for orchids" (Book Riot) in her account of one Florida man's attempt to sell a dinosaur skeleton from Mongolia--a story "steeped in natural history, human nature, commerce, crime, science, and politics" (Rebecca Skloot). In 2012, a New York auction catalogue boasted an unusual offering: "a superb Tyrannosaurus skeleton." In fact, Lot 49135 consisted of a nearly complete T. bataar, a close cousin to the most famous animal that ever lived. The fossils now on display in a Manhattan event space had been unearthed in Mongolia, more than 6,000 miles away. At eight-feet high and 24 feet long, the specimen was spectacular, and when the gavel sounded the winning bid was over $1 million. Eric Prokopi, a thirty-eight-year-old Floridian, was the man who had brought this extraordinary skeleton to market. A onetime swimmer who spent his teenage years diving for shark teeth, Prokopi's singular obsession with fossils fueled a thriving business hunting, preparing, and selling specimens, to clients ranging from natural history museums to avid private collectors like actor Leonardo DiCaprio. But there was a problem. This time, facing financial strain, had Prokopi gone too far? As the T. bataar went to auction, a network of paleontologists alerted the government of Mongolia to the eye-catching lot. As an international custody battle ensued, Prokopi watched as his own world unraveled. In the tradition of The Orchid Thief, The Dinosaur Artist is a stunning work of narrative journalism about humans' relationship with natural history and a seemingly intractable conflict between science and commerce. A story that stretches from Florida's Land O' Lakes to the Gobi Desert, The Dinosaur Artist illuminates the history of fossil collecting--a murky, sometimes risky business, populated by eccentrics and obsessives, where the lines between poacher and hunter, collector and smuggler, enthusiast and opportunist, can easily blur. In her first book, Paige Williams has given readers an irresistible story that spans continents, cultures, and millennia as she examines the question of who, ultimately, owns the past.

Remarkable Creatures

Download Remarkable Creatures PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Penguin
ISBN 13 : 1101152451
Total Pages : 210 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (11 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Remarkable Creatures by : Tracy Chevalier

Download or read book Remarkable Creatures written by Tracy Chevalier and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2010-01-05 with total page 210 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the New York Times bestselling novelist, a stunning historical novel that follows the story of Mary Anning and Elizabeth Philpot, two extraordinary 19th century fossil hunters who changed the scientific world forever. On the windswept, fossil-strewn beaches of the English coast, poor and uneducated Mary learns that she has a unique gift: "the eye" to spot ammonites and other fossils no one else can see. When she uncovers an unusual fossilized skeleton in the cliffs near her home, she sets the religious community on edge, the townspeople to gossip, and the scientific world alight. After enduring bitter cold, thunderstorms, and landslips, her challenges only grow when she falls in love with an impossible man. Mary soon finds an unlikely champion in prickly Elizabeth, a middle-class spinster who shares her passion for scouring the beaches. Their relationship strikes a delicate balance between fierce loyalty, mutual appreciation, and barely suppressed envy, but ultimately turns out to be their greatest asset. From the author of At the Edge of the Orchard and Girl With a Pearl Earring comes this incredible story of two remarkable women and their voyage of discovery.

The Fossil Hunter

Download The Fossil Hunter PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : HarperCollins Australia
ISBN 13 : 1489299602
Total Pages : 303 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (892 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis The Fossil Hunter by : Tea Cooper

Download or read book The Fossil Hunter written by Tea Cooper and published by HarperCollins Australia. This book was released on 2021-11-01 with total page 303 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A fossil discovered at London's Natural History Museum leads one woman back in time to nineteenth century Australia and a world of scientific discovery and dark secrets in this compelling historical mystery. The Hunter Valley 1847 The last thing Mellie Vale remembers before the fever takes her is running through the bush as a monster chases her - but no one believes her story. In a bid to curb Mellie's overactive imagination, her benefactors send her to visit a family friend, Anthea Winstanley. Anthea is an amateur palaeontologist with a dream. She is convinced she will one day find proof the great sea dragons - the ichthyosaur and the plesiosaur - swam in the vast inland sea that millions of years ago covered her property at Bow Wow Gorge. Soon, Mellie shares that dream for she loves fossil hunting too... 1919 When Penelope Jane Martindale arrives home from the battlefields of World War I with the intention of making her peace with her father and commemorating the death of her two younger brothers in the trenches, her reception is not as she had hoped. Looking for distraction, she finds a connection between a fossil at London's Natural History museum and her brothers which leads her to Bow Wow Gorge. But the gorge has a sinister reputation - 70 years ago people disappeared. So when PJ uncovers some unexpected remains, it seems as if the past is reaching into the present and she becomes determined to discover what really happened all that time ago...

The Long-Lost Secret Diary Of The World's Worst Knight

Download The Long-Lost Secret Diary Of The World's Worst Knight PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : The Salariya Book Company
ISBN 13 : 1912006677
Total Pages : 196 pages
Book Rating : 4.9/5 (12 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis The Long-Lost Secret Diary Of The World's Worst Knight by : Tim Collins

Download or read book The Long-Lost Secret Diary Of The World's Worst Knight written by Tim Collins and published by The Salariya Book Company. This book was released on 2021-02-02 with total page 196 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: These hilarious fictional diaries put us inside the heads of hapless figures from history. Meet Roderick – a scrawny, unremarkable teenager keeping a diary of his life in the Middle Ages. When he’s chosen to become a knight on a quest to find a holy relic (the fingers of St Stephen), Roderick is determined to prove his honour and graduate from zero to hero. ‘Get Real’ fact boxes feature throughout, providing historical context and further information, as well as a timeline, historical biographies and a glossary in the end matter.

My Awesome Field Guide to Rocks and Minerals

Download My Awesome Field Guide to Rocks and Minerals PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Sourcebooks, Inc.
ISBN 13 : 1641528737
Total Pages : 379 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (415 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis My Awesome Field Guide to Rocks and Minerals by : Gary Lewis

Download or read book My Awesome Field Guide to Rocks and Minerals written by Gary Lewis and published by Sourcebooks, Inc.. This book was released on 2019-11-12 with total page 379 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Become a rock hound with this field guide for kids ages 7 to 10 The world of rocks and minerals is massive, amazing, and full of cool new things to uncover! My Awesome Field Guide to Rocks and Minerals teaches you the skills you need to collect, identify, and catalog your own treasures. Explore 150 different rocks and minerals, and get step-by-step guidelines for testing and identifying the ones you encounter out in the field. There's also plenty of notebook space so you can record data about your finds. So get out there, gather cool looking samples, and discover what they are! My Awesome Field Guide to Rocks and Minerals includes: An intro to earth science—Explore the layers of the earth, how rocks and minerals are formed, the periodic table, and more essential information for young scientists. Handy fact sheets—Learn more about all kinds of unique rocks and minerals with fact sheets that are conveniently organized to help with identification. A field notebook—Record all your rock-hunting sample data on pages that include cut-out numbers for cataloging. Identify and catalog rocks and minerals with this fascinating field guide that has everything you need to get started.

Journal of a Fossil Hunter

Download Journal of a Fossil Hunter PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Capstone Classroom
ISBN 13 : 9781410919540
Total Pages : 36 pages
Book Rating : 4.9/5 (195 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Journal of a Fossil Hunter by : Louise Spilsbury

Download or read book Journal of a Fossil Hunter written by Louise Spilsbury and published by Capstone Classroom. This book was released on 2006 with total page 36 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Describes how and where fossils are found and what they represent using examples of real fossils, from the point of view of a paleontologist.

Assembling the Dinosaur

Download Assembling the Dinosaur PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Harvard University Press
ISBN 13 : 067473758X
Total Pages : 337 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (747 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Assembling the Dinosaur by : Lukas Rieppel

Download or read book Assembling the Dinosaur written by Lukas Rieppel and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2019-06-24 with total page 337 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A lively account of how dinosaurs became a symbol of American power and prosperity and gripped the popular imagination during the Gilded Age, when their fossil remains were collected and displayed in museums financed by North America’s wealthiest business tycoons. Although dinosaur fossils were first found in England, a series of dramatic discoveries during the late 1800s turned North America into a world center for vertebrate paleontology. At the same time, the United States emerged as the world’s largest industrial economy, and creatures like Tyrannosaurus, Brontosaurus, and Triceratops became emblems of American capitalism. Large, fierce, and spectacular, American dinosaurs dominated the popular imagination, making front-page headlines and appearing in feature films. Assembling the Dinosaur follows dinosaur fossils from the field to the museum and into the commercial culture of North America’s Gilded Age. Business tycoons like Andrew Carnegie and J. P. Morgan made common cause with vertebrate paleontologists to capitalize on the widespread appeal of dinosaurs, using them to project American exceptionalism back into prehistory. Learning from the show-stopping techniques of P. T. Barnum, museums exhibited dinosaurs to attract, entertain, and educate the public. By assembling the skeletons of dinosaurs into eye-catching displays, wealthy industrialists sought to cement their own reputations as generous benefactors of science, showing that modern capitalism could produce public goods in addition to profits. Behind the scenes, museums adopted corporate management practices to control the movement of dinosaur bones, restricting their circulation to influence their meaning and value in popular culture. Tracing the entwined relationship of dinosaurs, capitalism, and culture during the Gilded Age, Lukas Rieppel reveals the outsized role these giant reptiles played during one of the most consequential periods in American history.

Rare Treasure

Download Rare Treasure PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
ISBN 13 : 0547349106
Total Pages : 36 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (473 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Rare Treasure by : Don Brown

Download or read book Rare Treasure written by Don Brown and published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. This book was released on 2003-06-16 with total page 36 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Before the word dinosaur was even invented, an English girl discovered a remarkable skeleton on the rocky beach at Lyme Regis. Thus began a lifelong passion for the woman who became one of the first commercial fossil collectors. Mary Anning (1799–1847) spent her lifetime teaching herself about fossils and combing the rugged shore for ancient treasures. Her collection thrilled the public, excited the scientific community, and proved that a woman could overcome danger and social limitations to accomplish great things.

The Lost World of Fossil Lake

Download The Lost World of Fossil Lake PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : University of Chicago Press
ISBN 13 : 0226922960
Total Pages : 438 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (269 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis The Lost World of Fossil Lake by : Lance Grande

Download or read book The Lost World of Fossil Lake written by Lance Grande and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2013-06-14 with total page 438 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The landscape of southwestern Wyoming around the ghost town of Fossil is beautiful but harsh; a dry, high mountain desert with cool nights and long, cold winters inhabited by a sparse mountain desert community. But during the early Eocene, more than fifty million years ago, it was a subtropical lake, surrounded by volcanoes and forests and teeming with life. Buried within the sun-baked limestone is spectacular evidence of the lush vegetation and plentiful fauna of the ancient past, a transitional ecosystem giving us clues to how North America recovered from a great extinction event that wiped out dinosaurs and the majority of all species on the planet. Paleontologists have been conducting excavations at Fossil Butte for more than 150 years, and with The Lost World of Fossil Lake, one of the world’s leading experts on the fossils from this spectacular locality takes readers on a fascinating journey through the history of the discovery and exploration of the site. Deftly mixing incredible color photographs of the remarkable fossils uncovered at the site with an explanation of their evolutionary significance, Grande presents an unprecedented, comprehensive portrait of the site, its treasures, and what we’ve learned from them. Grande presents a broad range of fossilized organisms from Fossil Lake—from single-celled algae to palm trees to crocodiles—and together they make this long-extinct community come to life in all its diversity and splendor. A field guide and atlas round out the book, enabling readers to identify and classify the majority of the known fossils from the site. Lavishly produced in full color, The Lost World of Fossil Lake is a stunning reminder of the intellectual and physical beauty of scientific investigation—and a breathtaking window onto our planet’s long-lost past.

The Star-Crossed Stone

Download The Star-Crossed Stone PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : University of Chicago Press
ISBN 13 : 0226514714
Total Pages : 281 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (265 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis The Star-Crossed Stone by : Ken McNamara

Download or read book The Star-Crossed Stone written by Ken McNamara and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2010-11-15 with total page 281 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Throughout the four hundred thousand years that humanity has been collecting fossils, sea urchin fossils, or echinoids, have continually been among the most prized, from the Paleolithic era, when they decorated flint axes, to today, when paleobiologists study them for clues to the earth’s history. In The Star-Crossed Stone, Kenneth J. McNamara, an expert on fossil echinoids, takes readers on an incredible fossil hunt, with stops in history, paleontology, folklore, mythology, art, religion, and much more. Beginning with prehistoric times, when urchin fossils were used as jewelry, McNamara reveals how the fossil crept into the religious and cultural lives of societies around the world—the roots of the familiar five-pointed star, for example, can be traced to the pattern found on urchins. But McNamara’s vision is even broader than that: using our knowledge of early habits of fossil collecting, he explores the evolution of the human mind itself, drawing striking conclusions about humanity’s earliest appreciation of beauty and the first stirrings of artistic expression. Along the way, the fossil becomes a nexus through which we meet brilliant eccentrics and visionary archaeologists and develop new insights into topics as seemingly disparate as hieroglyphics, Beowulf, and even church organs. An idiosyncratic celebration of science, nature, and human ingenuity, The Star-Crossed Stone is as charming and unforgettable as the fossil at its heart.