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Blights, Rusts, and Rots Never Sleep: A Look at Forestry and Agriculture, Biological Warfare, and the Global Impact of Fungal Disease

Nicholas P. Money

in Triumph of the Fungi: A Rotten History

This chapter explores the future of the ongoing competition between humans and fungi for control of the biosphere. The emerging diseases of white pine blister rust, sudden oak death, jarrah dieback, ... More

This chapter explores the future of the ongoing competition between humans and fungi for control of the biosphere. The emerging diseases of white pine blister rust, sudden oak death, jarrah dieback, soybean rust, and rice blast offer useful perspectives on the planet’s rotten present and rotten future. The use of fungi as agents of agricultural and biological warfare is also featured. The global impact of fungal disease is highlighted, with the idea that a fungal super-pathogen of Cretaceous plants may have contributed to the extinction of the dinosaurs.Less

Subjective Local Preferentism about Happiness

Fred Feldman

in What Is This Thing Called Happiness?

Preferentism is the view that the concept of happiness can be explicated by appeal to the concepts of desire and satisfaction. There are subjective as well as objective forms. According to a typical ... More

Preferentism is the view that the concept of happiness can be explicated by appeal to the concepts of desire and satisfaction. There are subjective as well as objective forms. According to a typical objective form of preferentism, a person's level of happiness is equal to the extent to which his desires are satisfied. In this chapter a form of subjective preferentism due to Wayne Davis is explained. Arguments are presented to show that this form of preferentism goes wrong in certain types of case. Happiness involves more than just the belief that things are going as you want them to be going. Preferentism confronts a near‐paradox. This involves a person who has one desire: the desire to be unhappy. Davis's theory seems to imply (given certain natural assumptions) that this person believes he is happy if and only if he believes he is unhappy.Less

EPILOGUE: New Deal Landscapes in the Environmental Era

Neil M. Maher

in Nature's New Deal: The Civilian Conservation Corps and the Roots of the American Enviromental Movement

The final chapter traces the CCC's legacy into the post–World War II period. It does so by focusing on the controversy, during the mid-to-late 1940s, surrounding the Bureau of Reclamation's plan to ... More

The final chapter traces the CCC's legacy into the post–World War II period. It does so by focusing on the controversy, during the mid-to-late 1940s, surrounding the Bureau of Reclamation's plan to construct a hydroelectric dam in Dinosaur National Monument's Echo Park, which straddles the Utah—Colorado border. While environmental historians have long viewed the defeat of the Echo Park dam as one of the founding moments of the American environmental movement, this chapter argues that this victory by environmentalists was predicated on the Corps and its conservation work during the New Deal period. For instance, during the 1930s the CCC developed Dinosaur National Monument for outdoor recreation, a process that later brought outdoor enthusiasts into the anti-dam camp. Criticism of Corps conservation work during the early 1940s, however, raised public concern about the destruction of wilderness and ecological balance in the region as well. When the federal government announced plans for the Echo Park dam during the late 1940s, these concerns resurfaced and guided environmentalist opposition. This chapter ends by discussing the declining power of the federal government within postwar conservation, and concludes, somewhat ironically, that the strong hand of the New Deal helped make what eventually became environmentalism a more democratic movement.Less

The Legacies of Hetch Hetchy

Robert W. Righter

in The Battle Over Hetch Hetchy: America's Most Controversial Dam and the Birth of Modern Environmentalism

The legacies of Hetch Hetchy are numerous. Without the fight, American national parks might be administered by the US Forest Service. The fight was instrumental in the passage of the National Parks ... More

The legacies of Hetch Hetchy are numerous. Without the fight, American national parks might be administered by the US Forest Service. The fight was instrumental in the passage of the National Parks Act of 1916, establishing the National Park Service and defining the mission of American national parks. Also without the Hetch Hetchy fight, dams may have been built in Yellowstone and Glacier National Parks, Dinosaur National Monument, and on either end of Grand Canyon National Park. Over the years, the Hetch Hetchy fight has raised the consciousness of a nation. For the first time the nation questioned the meaning of progress, and in a sense, Hetch Hetchy was a national awakening. Since 1913, the fight has often been used by conservationists as an example of what should not happen to a spectacular mountain valley located in a national park.Less

Apart from Universes

David Deutsch

in Many Worlds?: Everett, Quantum Theory, and Reality

A collection of classical universes — even if they interact — is still classical. For instance, it doesn't have entanglement; its elements don't have phases to their amplitudes; it doesn't have ... More

A collection of classical universes — even if they interact — is still classical. For instance, it doesn't have entanglement; its elements don't have phases to their amplitudes; it doesn't have continuous motion of discrete observables. The multiverse is not classical: it consists of much more than universes. Research into what is there in addition has already been fruitful and promises to be more so. Progress in understanding the quantum world more deeply through such research is also the key to resolving the long-running scandal of the slow take-up of Everett's theory by physicists and philosophers.Less

Pachycephalosauria

Teresa Maryanska, Ralph E. Chapman, and David B. Weishampel

in The Dinosauria

Pachycephalosauria is a group of bipedal ornithischians with thickened bones of the skull roof. The group is widely distributed throughout the Northern Hemisphere, mostly in western North America and ... More

Pachycephalosauria is a group of bipedal ornithischians with thickened bones of the skull roof. The group is widely distributed throughout the Northern Hemisphere, mostly in western North America and central Asia, but also in Europe. This chapter examines the anatomy, phylogeny, and paleobiology of pachycephalosaurians. Pachycephalosaurians are often called dome-headed or thick-headed dinosaurs. They were bipedal herbivores with unspecialized teeth and their necks were thick and short. Pachycephalosaurians also have weakly curved dorsal ribs, broad pelvis, widely spaced femora, and unusually long ribs on the proximal caudal vertebrae, which indicate that they had a bulky trunk and a heavy tail.Less

Dinosaur Extinction

J. David Archibald and David E. Fastovsky

in The Dinosauria

The disappearance of nonavian dinosaurs is only a small part of a greater class of extinctions known as “mass extinctions.” Mass extinctions are global events characterized by unusually high rates of ... More

The disappearance of nonavian dinosaurs is only a small part of a greater class of extinctions known as “mass extinctions.” Mass extinctions are global events characterized by unusually high rates of extinction. The five episodes of mass extinctions in Earth history are the Permo-Triassic extinction, the Late Ordovician extinction, the Late Devonian extinction, the Triassic-Jurassic extinction, and the Cretaceous-Tertiary (K/T) extinction. This chapter focuses on patterns of geologic and biotic changes that occurred during the Cretaceous-Tertiary (K/T) extinction. It also highlights the similarities and differences in interpretations of geologic and fossil records. It concludes with two scenarios explaining the differing views about dinosaur extinction.Less

Dinosaurs at the Table

John R. Horner

in The Paleobiological Revolution: Essays on the Growth of Modern Paleontology

This chapter examines dinosaur paleobiology and the interpretations of dinosaur evolution. It argues that dinosaur paleontologists were among the first to reach the evolutionary high table and ... More

This chapter examines dinosaur paleobiology and the interpretations of dinosaur evolution. It argues that dinosaur paleontologists were among the first to reach the evolutionary high table and provides a summary of the many exciting discoveries made in recent decades. This chapter also highlights the importance of the works of several paleontologists including Edwin Colbert, John Ostrom, and Robert Bakker in revolutionizing the thinking about dinosaurs.Less

Bones and Teeth under the Microscope

Marcelo Sánchez

in Embryos in Deep Time: The Rock Record of Biological Development

The most important piece of equipment for most paleontologists, besides the hammer, is the microscope. The microscope enables the study of the tissue microstructure of fossils, in particular the ... More

The most important piece of equipment for most paleontologists, besides the hammer, is the microscope. The microscope enables the study of the tissue microstructure of fossils, in particular the bone, which has become an important matter of investigation concerning development in extinct taxa. This chapter discusses studies of fossil bone sections; dinosaur growth patterns and the origin of birds; the bones of the moas; bone development and locomotion in extinct species and in Galápagos iguanas; bones, cells, and genes; and the nature of teeth.Less

Conclusion: What's the Rush?

in The Second Jurassic Dinosaur Rush: Museums and Paleontology in America at the Turn of the Twentieth Century

The second Jurassic dinosaur rush was a race among America's museum paleontologists to find the largest and finest sauropod dinosaur and to mount it for exhibit in a lifelike pose. Great size was ... More

The second Jurassic dinosaur rush was a race among America's museum paleontologists to find the largest and finest sauropod dinosaur and to mount it for exhibit in a lifelike pose. Great size was obviously the special appeal of sauropod dinosaurs. During the second Jurassic dinosaur rush, newspaper accounts of field discoveries routinely touted the extraordinary size—more often than not, greatly exaggerated—of the dinosaur specimens collected by museum paleontologists. This sensationalist newspaper coverage, coupled with the proliferation of mounted dinosaurs in public museums in the early twentieth century, ignited American dinomania. The second Jurassic dinosaur rush also changed the practice of American vertebrate paleontology. In its new museum setting, paleontology found a rich new source of private philanthropic support, often solicited and controlled by entrepreneurial paleontologists such as Henry Fairfield Osborn or administrators like William Jacob Holland.Less

Ideas in Dinosaur Paleontology: Resonating to Social and Political Context

David E. Fastovsky

in The Paleobiological Revolution: Essays on the Growth of Modern Paleontology

This chapter examines the social and political meaning of dinosaur paleontology in popular culture. It considers three case studies: the paleobiology of the large theropod T. rex, the discovery of ... More

This chapter examines the social and political meaning of dinosaur paleontology in popular culture. It considers three case studies: the paleobiology of the large theropod T. rex, the discovery of dinosaur maternity, nests, eggs, and embryos, and the dinosaur extinction. The analysis reveals that important discoveries about the biology, behavior, and extinction of dinosaurs were influenced not just by empirical developments, but also by the social climate of the times in which they were produced.Less

Winsor McCay’s Warped Spaces

J. P. Telotte

in Animating Space: From Mickey to WALL-E

This chapter discusses a series of case studies that are arranged in a rough chronological fashion and focus on the problems and potentials of animating space. It takes a detailed look at the works ... More

This chapter discusses a series of case studies that are arranged in a rough chronological fashion and focus on the problems and potentials of animating space. It takes a detailed look at the works of Winsor McCay, a pioneer animator. It also frames the achievements his most famous and most studied film, Gertie the Dinosaur, which it represents in the context of his other key efforts.Less

Obsolescence

David Ehrenfeld

in Swimming Lessons: Keeping Afloat in the Age of Technology

At the end of the Cretaceous period, the last dinosaurs disappeared from the earth, setting off an evolutionary jubilee among the Milquetoast-like mammals that survived them, and preparing the ... More

At the end of the Cretaceous period, the last dinosaurs disappeared from the earth, setting off an evolutionary jubilee among the Milquetoast-like mammals that survived them, and preparing the ground for what was to become, 65 million years later, a permanent source of gainful occupation for scientists whose job it is to wonder why the dinosaurs died out. Scores of reasons have been given for this remarkable concatenation of extinctions. Global climate and sea level were changed by a city-sized asteroid striking the earth near what is now the Yucatan, or by a massive set of volcanic eruptions, or by the solar system passing through the core of a giant molecular cloud, perhaps colliding with a supercomet loosened from the Oort cluster, which orbits the Sun beyond Pluto. Theories of catastrophic extinction abound. Some of the most daring even conjure up the specter of an unseen companion star to our Sun, named Nemesis, whose eccentric orbit brings a wave of potentially deadly comet showers—and extinctions—every 26 million years. But there are also paleontologists who argue that the dinosaurs went away gradually, not suddenly, over a period of millions of years, and that toward the end they coexisted with the earliest hooved mammals, including ancestors of horses, cows, and sheep. If extinction was gradual, a different line of thought opens up: perhaps the dinosaurs died out because they couldn’t adapt and compete in a changing world. The big lummoxes were obsolete. I heard about the dinosaurs’ obsolescence back in my student days. It was as satisfying a notion then as it is today, especially if you didn’t think about it too hard. Here were these lumbering, pea-brained reptiles, barely able to walk and chew gum at the same time, while all around and underneath them, cleverly hiding behind clumps of primitive vegetation and cleverly burrowing in tunnels in the ground, were the nerdy but smart little mammals about to emerge from the shadows and begin their ascent to glory—somewhat, it occurs to me now, like Bill Gates in the waning days of heavy manufacturing. Less

Introduction

David B. Weishampel, Peter Dodson, and Halszka Osmólska

in The Dinosauria

Research programs across the globe are broadening our understanding of dinosaur diversity and the range of the intellectual perspectives brought to dinosaur studies. This book is devoted to issues of ... More

Research programs across the globe are broadening our understanding of dinosaur diversity and the range of the intellectual perspectives brought to dinosaur studies. This book is devoted to issues of general concern about dinosaurs as a whole. It reflects the dynamic fields of dinosaur systematics, definition and diagnosis of Dinosauria, the origin of the clade, the interrelationships of the major dinosaurian groups, diagnostic features, anatomy, phylogeny, taphonomy, paleoecology, biogeography, physiology, and possible causes of their extinction. It also provides numerical cladistic analyses, complete with character descriptions and character-taxon matrices.Less

Origin and Relationships of Dinosauria

Michael J. Benton

in The Dinosauria

Dinosaurs belong within Archosauria, a wide group of extinct and extant reptiles that also includes modern crocodilians as well as pterosaurs and various basal groups of Triassic age. This chapter ... More

Dinosaurs belong within Archosauria, a wide group of extinct and extant reptiles that also includes modern crocodilians as well as pterosaurs and various basal groups of Triassic age. This chapter considers the origin of the dinosaurs in terms of phylogeny and the timing of events. It discusses the cladistic analysis of Archosauria, followed by an account of the evolutionary events that led to the radiation of the dinosaurs.Less

Therizinosauroidea

James M. Clark, Teresa Maryanska, and Rinchen Barsbold

in The Dinosauria

This chapter discusses the anatomy, evolution, stratigraphy, paleoecology, biogeography, and taxonomic nomenclature of therizinosauroids. Therizinosauroidea currently is represented by eleven species ... More

This chapter discusses the anatomy, evolution, stratigraphy, paleoecology, biogeography, and taxonomic nomenclature of therizinosauroids. Therizinosauroidea currently is represented by eleven species in ten genera, all but one from Asia. The ten definitive members of the group are from the Cretaceous, but Eshanosaurus deguchiianus, from the Lower Jurassic Lower Lufeng Series of China, is tentatively referred to Therizinosauroidea. Therizinosauroid discoveries, and the naming of taxa, can be divided into three historical groups: (1) discoveries of enigmatic, fragmentary material by the first American and Soviet expeditions to the dinosaur deposits of Asia in the 1920s and 1950s; (2) discoveries of more substantial specimens by Soviet-Mongolian expeditions in the 1970s, which signaled the presence of an endemic group of peculiar dinosaurs; and (3) discoveries of primitive members of the group in China, which have helped clarify relationships.Less