Active coral restoration : techniques for a changing planet
edited by David Vaughan
2021
Active Coral Restoration: Techniques for a Changing Planet is a timely, comprehensive volume that provides a foundational understanding of the current and emerging practices and technologies used for active coral reef restoration projects around the world. Edited by David E. Vaughan, this work contains contributed chapters written by some of the foremost authorities on coral reef restoration. It is a must have for all practitioners of coral reef restoration, including research scientists, resource managers, aquarists, volunteers, students of marine science, and policy makers.
Bird migration : a new understanding
by John H. Rappole
2022
The author summarizes and translates the scientific data behind avian migration into everyday language. New technologies, such as molecular genetics, global positioning systems, and transmitter miniaturization, have revealed fresh insights into the behavior and movement of birds that have overturned much of the received scientific wisdom about bird migration.
Dinosaurs : a concise natural history
by David E. Fastovsky, David B. Weishampel, with illustrations by John Sibbick
2021
Dinosaurs: a Concise Natural History encourages students to ask questions, assess data critically and think like a scientist. Building on the success of previous editions, Dinosaurs has been reorganized and extensively rewritten in response to instructor and student feedback. This edition has been thoroughly updated to include new discoveries in the field, such as the toothed bird specimens found in China and recent discoveries of dinosaur soft anatomy. Illustrations by leading paleontological illustrator John Sibbick and new, carefully-chosen photographs, clearly show how dinosaurs looked, lived and their role in Earth history. Making science accessible and relevant through clear explanations and extensive illustrations, the text guides students through the dinosaur groups, emphasizing scientific concepts rather than presenting endless facts. Grounded in the common language of modern evolutionary biology - phylogenetic systematics - students learn to think about dinosaurs the way that professional paleontologists do.
Gut feelings : the microbiome and our health
by Alessio Fasano and Susie Flaherty
2021
Our understanding of how to treat and prevent diseases has been transformed by knowledge of the microbiome. In Gut Feelings, Alessio Fasano and Susie Flaherty show why we must go beyond the older, myopic view of microorganisms as our enemies to a broader understanding of the microbiome as a parallel civilization that we need to understand, respect, and engage with for the benefit of our own health. Exploring the microbiome's part in gut inflammatory disorders, obesity, neurological conditions, cancer, and immune function, Fasano and Flaherty show that we can enlarge--and perhaps reinvent--our understanding of how to combat disease and maintain health.
Fascinating shells : an introduction to 121 of the world's most wonderful mollusks
by Andreia Salvador
2022
The shells shown in this book belong to one of the most diverse groups of creatures, the mollusks. These are invertebrates - soft-bodied animals without an internal skeleton - and include snails, oysters, cuttlefishes, and chitons. Curator at the Natural History Museum, London and mollusk expert, Andreia Salvador, gives readers a visual tour of some of the fascinating shells in the Museum's mollusca collection, which is one of the most comprehensive and significant in the world and contains over eight million specimens. Salvador's descriptions explain the meaning behind shell names, such as the hundred-eyed cowry, named after Greek mythological giant Argus Panoptes, "the all-seeing one"; how shells' appearances translate into defense strategies, such as the zigzag nerite, which has varying patterns that make it hard for predators to recognize them consistently; and the shells' inhabitants' behavior, such as the amber snail, which eats earthworms by "sucking them up like spaghetti". Interesting Shells presents portraits of all these and others from the Natural History Museum, London's shell collections, one of the largest resources of its kind in the world. Each portrait includes a caption, which reveals the most interesting biological, historical, and geographic details.
Franciscans and American indians in pan-borderlands perspective : adaptation, negotiation, and resistance ; essays from a conference hosted by Flagler College, St. Augustine, Florida
edited by Jeffrey M. Burns and Timothy J. Johnson.
2018
Founded in 1565, St. Augustine was the multicultural, and often embattled, outpost of the Spanish empire. St. Augustine’s economic, political, and religious power was reflected in other towns and villages that stretched across the continent from the Atlantic to the Pacific oceans. Scholars frequently refer to this broad swath of territories as the “Spanish Borderlands.” Of those who accompanied the Spanish to these lands, it was members of the Franciscan Order who, as missionaries, had the most direct contact and interaction with the diverse populations of American Indians.
As the 450th anniversary of the founding of St. Augustine drew near, scholars from the Americas and Europe gathered on Mar 13-15, 2014, for the conference, “Franciscan Florida in Pan-Borderlands Perspective: Adaptation, Negotiation, and Resistance” at Flagler College in St. Augustine. The expressed intent of the gathering was, as David Hurst Thomas writes in the Introduction, to “address issues of acculturation, political and economic relations, religious conversions, and the nature of multiethnic relationships across the Spanish Borderlands.”
The result is a rich collection of essays from anthropologists, archaeologists, linguists, historians, and theologians. Diverse contributions of the Navajo, Hopi, and California tribal members in attendance was a reminder of the complexity of the thematic and an on-going challenge to continue research into new, and yet unexplored territories.
Freshwater biodiversity : status, threats and conservation
by David Dudgeon
2020
Growing human populations and higher demands for water impose increasing impacts and stresses upon freshwater biodiversity. Their combined effects have made these animals more endangered than their terrestrial and marine counterparts. Overuse and contamination of water, overexploitation and overfishing, introduction of alien species, and alteration of natural flow regimes have led to a 'great thinning' and declines in abundance of freshwater animals, a 'great shrinking' in body size with reductions in large species, and a 'great mixing' whereby the spread of introduced species has tended to homogenize previously dissimilar communities in different parts of the world. Climate change and warming temperatures will alter global water availability, and exacerbate the other threat factors. What conservation action is needed to halt or reverse these trends, and preserve freshwater biodiversity in a rapidly changing world? This book offers the tools and approaches that can be deployed to help conserve freshwater biodiversity.
The Hudson : an illustrated guide to the living river
by Stephen P. Stanne, Roger G. Panetta, Brian E. Forist, and Maija Liisa Niemistö
2021, third edition
Since 1996, The Hudson: An Illustrated Guide to the Living River has been an essential resource for understanding the full sweep of the great river's natural history and human heritage. This updated third edition includes the latest information about the ongoing fight against pollution and environmental damage to the river, plus vibrant new full-color illustrations showing the plants and wildlife that make this ecosystem so special. This volume gives a detailed account of the Hudson River's history, including the geological forces that created it, the various peoples who have lived on its banks, and the great works of art it has inspired. It also showcases the many species making a home on this waterway, including the Atlantic sturgeon, the bald eagle, the invasive zebra mussel, and the herons of New York Harbor. Combining both scientific and historical perspectives, this book demonstrates why the Hudson and its valley have been so central to the environmental movement. As it charts the progress made towards restoring the river ecosystem and the effects of emerging threats like climate change, The Hudson identifies concrete ways that readers can help. To that end, royalties from the sale of this book will go to the non-profit environmental advocacy group Hudson River Sloop Clearwater, Inc.
Mapping modernisms : art, indigeneity, colonialism
edited by Elizabeth Harney and Ruth B. Phillips
2018
Mapping Modernisms brings together scholars working around the world to address the modern arts produced by indigenous and colonized artists. Expanding the contours of modernity and its visual products, the contributors illustrate how these artists engaged with ideas of Primitivism through visual forms and philosophical ideas. Although often overlooked in the literature on global modernisms, artists, artworks, and art patrons moved within and across national and imperial borders, carrying, appropriating, or translating objects, images, and ideas. These itineraries made up the dense networks of modern life, contributing to the crafting of modern subjectivities and of local, transnationally-inflected modernisms. Addressing the silence on indigeneity in established narratives of modernism, the contributors decenter art history's traditional Western orientation and prompt a re-evaluation of canonical understandings of twentieth-century art history. 'Mapping Modernisms' is the first book in Modernist Exchanges, a multivolume project dedicated to rewriting the history of modernism and modernist art to include artists, theorists, art forms, and movements from around the world.
Museum education for today's audiences : meeting expectations with new models
edited by Jason L. Porter and Mary Kay Cunningham
2022
This book will help museum educators meet visitors' changing expectations, train and prepare responsive educators, and develop models for the future.
Ocean ecology : marine life in the age of humans
by J. Emmett Duffy
2021
A comprehensive introduction to ocean ecology and a new way of thinking about ocean life. Marine ecology is more interdisciplinary, broader in scope, and more intimately linked to human activities than ever before. Ocean Ecology provides advanced undergraduates, graduate students, and practitioners with an integrated approach to marine ecology that reflects these new scientific realities, and prepares students for the challenges of studying and managing the ocean as a complex adaptive system.
Pathways to success : taking conservation to scale in complex systems
by Nick Salafsky and Richard Margoluis, illustrations by Anna Balla
2021
As environmental problems grow larger and more pressing, conservationists have had to adapt. With a shrinking window of time to act, they are turning to broad approaches to combat continental- and global-scale crises of biodiversity loss, invasive species, and climate change. Pathways to Success-the long-awaited successor to the classic volume Measures of Success-is a modern guide to building large-scale transformative programs capable of tackling the complex conservation crises we face today. In this strikingly illustrated volume, coauthors Nick Salafsky and Richard Margoluis walk readers through fundamental concepts of effective program-level design, helping them to think strategically about project coordination, funding, and stakeholder input. Chapters in the first part of the book look at all aspects of designing and implementing large-scale conservation programs while the second part focuses on how to use data and information to manage, adapt, and learn from program strategies. In addition, the authors offer practical advice for avoiding pitfalls, such as formulaic recipes and simplistic silver-bullet solutions that can trip up otherwise well-intentioned efforts. Abundant graphics help to explain and clarify concepts presented in the text, and a glossary in the back matter defines technical terms for the reader. Pathways to Success is the definitive guide for conservation program managers and funders who want to increase the scale and effectiveness of their work combating biodiversity loss, climate change, and other pressing environmental issues.
Peter Beard
edited by Nejma Beard and David Fahey
2020
Pioneering contemporary artist Peter Beard turned his life in New York and on the African continent into a Gesamtkunstwerk; a collage of photography, ecology, and diary writing. The book presents the artist’s unique world, a realm of art, science, and beauty.
The Princeton field guide to pterosaurs
by Gregory S. Paul
2022
Featuring descriptions of 115 pterosaur species, over 5 dozen skeletal drawings and two dozen color life studies by renowned researcher and illustrator Gregory Paul, The Princeton Field Guide to Pterosaurs in the most up to date and comprehensive coverage of the great Mesozoic group that dominated the skies for 160 million years of the Mesozoic.
Rights and reproductions : the handbook for cultural institutions
edited by Anne M. Young
2019, second edition
Management and dissemination of the Intellectual Property (IP) assets maintained by cultural institutions is a key responsibility of caring for collections. Rights and reproductions methodologies are seemingly ever-changing with new technologies, additional distribution avenues, evolving case law, applicable court decisions, and new legislation. This revised edition of Rights and Reproductions: The Handbook for Cultural Institutions marks the first time this valuable publication is available in print as well as digital. Building upon the guidelines, standards, and best practices outlined in the first edition, the Handbook further investigates current trends in rights and reproductions practices, notably expanding the discussion of fair use guidelines and codes, Creative Commons and RightsStatements.org, open access, social media applications, and the overall process of conducting rights clearances and obtaining permissions for the growing list of possible uses of a cultural institution's IP. Highlights of the second edition include: a new chapter devoted to fair use and open access; overall updates to applicable case law, rights clearance practices, and distribution partners; over 20 case studies outlining real-world examples from the authors' experiences and practices at their institutions; expanded glossary defining terms without heavy legalese; updated appendices with new references, resources, and court decisions; over 50 contract and document templates provided by the authors' institutions. The Handbook is the must-have, comprehensive resource for cultural institution professionals handling rights-related work, including registrars, rights and reproductions managers, archivists, librarians, and lawyers.
The second atlas of breeding birds in West Virginia
edited by Richard S. Bailey and Casey B. Rucker
2021
Documents 170 bird species in West Virginia, with information on occurrence, population density, change since the first Atlas, and population estimates. Describes the state's geology and changing habitats as well as historical and contemporary bird conservation.
The sheikh's house at Quseir Al-Qadim : documenting a thirteenth-century Red Sea port
by Katherine Strange Burke, with contributions by Steven M. Goodman and Wilma Wetterstrom
2021
This study of a thirteenth-century dwelling on Egypt's Red Sea Coast draws on multiple lines of evidence--including texts excavated at the site--to reconstruct a history of the structure and the people who dwelt within. The inhabitants participated in Nile Valley-Red Sea-Indian Ocean trade, transported Ḥāǧǧ pilgrims, sent grain to Mecca and Medina, and wrote sermons and amulets for the local faithful. These activities are detailed in the documents and fleshed out in the botanical, faunal, artifact, and stratigraphic evidence from the University of Chicago's excavations (1978-82). This compound eventually consisted of two houses and a row of storerooms and became the center of mercantile activity at Quseir al-Qadim. Over time, as the number of named individuals who received shipping notes addressed to the "warehouse of Abū Mufarij" increased, living rooms and storerooms were added to accommodate this expansion of commerce. While most merchants were dealing in textiles, dates, and grains, additional commodities traded included perfumes, gemstone-decorated textiles, resist-dyed textiles, and porcelains. Specialist studies by Steven Goodman on the avian faunal remains and Wilma Wetterstrom on the macrobotanical finds reveal that the compound's occupants enjoyed a diet of chicken and Nile Valley produce such as grapes and watermelon, and they were supplemented by high-priced imports: nuts and fruits from around the Mediterranean, along with medicinal plants from as far away as India, indicate the wealth and status of this family of merchants. The evidence from this small portion of Quseir al-Qadim yields a rich local story that is a microcosm of Nile Valley-Red Sea-Indian Ocean trade under the last Ayyubid sultans of Egypt.
Systematic review and cranial osteology of Petersius with redescription of P. conserialis (Teleostei: Alestidae) from the Rufiji and Ruvu rivers of Tanzania
by Bruno F. Melo and Melanie L.J. Stiassny
2022
We review the systematics of the monotypic alestid genus Petersius and provide a taxonomic redescription of P. conserialis from eastern Tanzania. Morphological investigation includes direct observation and examination of radiographed and μCT-scanned data from type and non-type specimens. We delimit the taxon’s geographic distribution along the lowland regions of the Rufiji and Ruvu river basins in Tanzania and provide information on ecology, sexual dimorphism, and ontogenetic variation. Petersius is herein diagnosed by the possession of a unique cuspidation patterning of the inner-row premaxillary dentition and a distinctively shaped anterodorsal margin of the supraoccipital crest. It shares with some species of Phenacogrammusa sigmoid-shaped process on the dorsal margin of the second infraorbital, a feature lacking in other alestid taxa. Additional features of potential utility for ongoing investigation of relationships among alestid genera include the possession of contralateral premaxillae separated by the anteromedial process of the mesethmoid and without interdigitations connecting the medial surfaces of the premaxillae; four, occasionally five or six, small outer-row premaxillary teeth implanted alternately with those of the inner row; a dentary lacking a pair of conical inner-row teeth proximal to the symphysis; a dorsal posttemporal fossa that is smaller than the ventral fossa; a median third posttemporal fossa located entirely within the epioccipital; a truncate dorsomedial cranial fontanel; and a complete circumorbital series forming an uninterrupted ring around the orbit in adult specimens.
Teotihuacan : the world beyond the city
edited by Kenn Hirth, David M. Carballo, Bárbara Arroyo
2021
Teotihuacan was a city of major importance in the Americas between 1 and 550 CE. As one of only two cities in the New World over one hundred thousand resident inhabitants, it developed a far-reaching network of influence that stretched across Mesoamerica. The size of its urban core, the scale of its monumental architecture, and the unique nature of its apartment compounds makes Teotihuacan unique among Mesoamerica's other urban state societies. Teotihuacan, the World Beyond the City brings together specialists in art and archaeology to develop a synthetic overview of the urban, political, economic, and religious organization of the city in Classic-period Mesoamerica. It provides the first comparative discussion of Teotihuacan interaction with the Central Mexican Highlands, Oaxaca, Veracruz, and the Maya Lowlands and Highlands. Contributors detail the history of interactions, including what current evidence suggests about the form of influence across Mesoamerica and whether interactions were hegemonic, diplomatic, stylistic, or a combination of these or other social processes. They draw on recent investigations and discoveries to update models of Teotihuacan interaction covering debates about the nature of Teotihuacan's commercial relations, the structure of its political organization, its military relationships with outlying areas, the prestige of the city, and the worldview it espoused through both monumental architecture and portable media.
Can’t get enough? For additional new books see our New Books page!
The AMNH Library is not currently open to the public. Resources are available to Museum staff and items may circulate to staff members with full borrowing privileges. Staff can submit an application for access here.
This entry was written by Iris Lee, Cataloging and Metadata Librarian.