Imagine the blooming of the very first flower. Or a 3-ton sloth with massive claws standing as tall as a giraffe. And horses the size of small dogs that have toes instead of hooves. This is not a dream or vision of an artist or author. This is North America over 20 million years ago! Journey into the distant past with this book and witness the earliest events in North America; when mammals rose from the shadows of the extinct dinosaurs to fill the land, and the first flowers and grasslands bloomed.

Diagrams showing skeletal features and tooth structure and a glossary of technical terms are included.

In these tales from a life on the road, a Vietnam vet and "adventure eater" takes the reader on a worldwide tour of culinary and lusty adventures deep into the heart of cultures, from Asia to Africa to North America.

Are humans too good at adapting to the earth’s natural environment? Every day, there is a net gain of more than 200,000 people on the planet—that’s 146 a minute. Has our explosive population growth led to the mass extinction of countless species in the earth’s plant and animal communities? Jeffrey K. McKee contends yes. The more people there are, the more we push aside wild plants and animals. In Sparing Nature, he explores the cause-and-effect relationship between these two trends, demonstrating that nature is too sparing to accommodate both a richly diverse living world and a rapidly expanding number of people. The author probes the past to find that humans and their ancestors have had negative impacts on species biodiversity for nearly two million years, and that extinction rates have accelerated since the origins of agriculture. Today entire ecosystems are in peril due to the relentless growth of the human population. McKee gives a guided tour of the interconnections within the living world to reveal the meaning and value of biodiversity, making the maze of technical research and scientific debates accessible to the general reader. Because it is clear that conservation cannot be left to the whims of changing human priorities, McKee takes the unabashedly neo-Malthusian position that the most effective measure to save earth’s biodiversity is to slow the growth of human populations. By conscientiously becoming more responsible about our reproductive habits and our impact on other living beings, we can ensure that nature’s services will make our lives not only supportable, but also sustainable for this century and beyond.

The DK Eyewitness Costa Rica Travel Guide is your indispensable guide to this beautiful part of the world. The fully updated guide includes unique cutaways, floorplans and reconstructions of the must-see sites, plus street-by-street maps of all the fascinating cities and towns. The new-look guide is also packed with photographs and illustrations leading you straight to the best attractions on offer. The uniquely visual DK Eyewitness Travel guide will help you to discover everything region-by-region; from local festivals and markets to day trips around the countryside. Detailed listings will guide you to the best hotels, restaurants, bars and shops for all budgets, whilst detailed practical information will help you to get around, whether by train, bus or car. Plus, DK's excellent insider tips and essential local information will help you explore every corner of Costa Rica effortlessly. DK Eyewitness Costa Rica Travel Guide - showing you what others only tell you. Now available in PDF format.

Explore diverse landscapes, travel back in time, and discover unique populations, all without leaving your chair! Start your international tour in the United States, land of the Mississippi River, the Statue of Liberty, vast national parks, and so much more. This colorful, informative book introduces the United States' history, geography, culture, climate, government, economy, and other significant features. Sidebars, maps, fact pages, a glossary, a timeline, historic images and full-color photos, and well-placed graphs and charts enhance this engaging title. Aligned to Common Core Standards and correlated to state standards. Essential Library is an imprint of Abdo Publishing, a division of ABDO.