Millions of years ago in the Cretaceous period, the mighty Tyrannosaurus rex--with its dagger-like teeth for tearing its prey to ribbons--was undoubtedly the fiercest carnivore to roam the Earth. Yet as What Bugged the Dinosaurs? reveals, T. rex was not the only killer. George and Roberta Poinar show how insects--from biting sand flies to disease-causing parasites--dominated life on the planet and played a significant role in the life and death of the dinosaurs. The Poinars bring the age of the dinosaurs marvelously to life. Analyzing exotic insects fossilized in Cretaceous amber at three major deposits in Lebanon, Burma, and Canada, they reconstruct the complex ecology of a hostile prehistoric world inhabited by voracious swarms of insects. The Poinars draw upon tantalizing new evidence from their amazing discoveries of disease-producing vertebrate pathogens in Cretaceous blood-sucking flies, as well as intestinal worms and protozoa found in fossilized dinosaur excrement, to provide a unique view of how insects infected with malaria, leishmania, and other pathogens, together with intestinal parasites, could have devastated dinosaur populations. A scientific adventure story from the authors whose research inspired Jurassic Park, What Bugged the Dinosaurs?? offers compelling evidence of how insects directly and indirectly contributed to the dinosaurs' demise.
Poinar
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Weitere Infos & Material
Preface ix
Acknowledgments xi
Introduction 1
Chapter 1: Fossils: A Time Capsule 7
Chapter 2: The Cretaceous: A Time of Change 17
Chapter 3: Herbivory 37
Chapter 4: Dinosaurs Competing with Insects 50
Chapter 5: Did Dinosaurs or Insects "Invent" Flowering Plants? 55
Chapter 6: Pollination 57
Chapter 7: Blights and Diseases of Cretaceous Plants 63
Chapter 8: The Cretaceous: Age of Chimeras and Other Oddities 72
Chapter 9: Sanitary Engineers of the Cretaceous 79
Chapter 10: The Case for Entomophagy among Dinosaurs 91
Chapter 11: Gorging on Dinosaurs 102
Chapter 12: Biting Midges 110
Chapter 13: Sand Flies 116
Chapter 14: Mosquitoes 122
Chapter 15: Blackflies 127
Chapter 16: Horseflies and Deerflies 131
Chapter 17: Fleas and Lice 135
Chapter 18: Ticks and Mites 141
Chapter 19: Parasitic Worms 147
Chapter 20: The Discovery of Cretaceous Diseases 157
Chapter 21: Diseases and the Evolution of Pathogens 171
Chapter 22: Insects: The Ultimate Survivors 185
Chapter 23: Extinctions and the K/T Boundary 192
APPENDIX A: Cretaceous Hexapoda 203
APPENDIX B: Key Factors Contributing to the Survival of Terrestrial Animals 219
APPENDIX C: Problems with Evaluating the Fossil Record and Extinctions 221
References 225
Index 253
George Poinar, Jr., is currently in the Zoology Department at Oregon State University. He is well known internationally in various fields, including paleobiology, nematology, and insect pathology. He became familiar with tropical diseases while serving as a consultant for the United Nations and World Health Organization. Roberta Poinar is a retired research scientist. They are the coauthors of "The Amber Forest: A Reconstruction of a Vanished World" (Princeton) and "The Quest for Life in Amber". Their research has been featured in leading publications worldwide and on television programs such as "Nova".
