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What bugged the dinosaurs? : insects, disease, and death in the Cretaceous Preview this item
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What bugged the dinosaurs? : insects, disease, and death in the Cretaceous

Author: George O Poinar; Roberta Poinar
Publisher: Princeton, N.J. : Princeton University Press, ©2008.
Edition/Format: Book : EnglishView all editions and formats
Summary:
This book reveals that T. rex was not the only killer in the Cretaceous: 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. Analyzing exotic insects fossilized in Cretaceous amber at three major deposits in Lebanon, Burma, and Canada, the authors reconstruct the complex ecology of a hostile prehistoric world  Read more...
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Details

Material Type: Internet resource
Document Type: Book, Internet Resource
All Authors / Contributors: George O Poinar; Roberta Poinar
ISBN: 9780691124315 0691124310
OCLC Number: 80361470
Description: x, 264 p., 16 p. of plates : ill. (some col.), maps ; 24 cm.
Contents: Preface -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- 1. Fossils : a time capsule -- 2. The Cretaceous : a time of change -- 3. Herbivory -- 4. Dinosaurs competing with insects -- 5. Did dinosaurs or insects "invent" flowering plants? -- 6. Pollination -- 7. Blights and diseases of Cretaceous plants -- 8. The Cretaceous Age of chimeras and other oddities -- 9. Sanitary engineers of the Cretaceous -- 10. The case for entomophagy among dinosaurs -- 11. Gorging on dinosaurs -- 12. Biting midges -- 13. Sand flies -- 14. Mosquitoes -- 15. Blackflies -- 16. Horseflies and deerflies -- 17. Fleas and lice -- 18. Ticks and mites -- 19. Parasitic worms -- 20. The discovery of Cretaceous diseases -- 21. Diseases and the evolution of pathogens -- 22. Insects : the ultimate survivors -- 23. Extinctions and the K/T boundary -- Appendix A : Cretaceous Hexapoda -- Appendix B : Key factors contributing to the survival of terrestrial animals -- Appendix C : Problems with evaluating the fossil record and extinctions -- References -- Index.
Other Titles: Insects, disease, and death in the Cretaceous
Responsibility: George Poinar, Jr. and Roberta Poinar ; with photographs and drawings by the authors.
More information:

Abstract:

This book reveals that T. rex was not the only killer in the Cretaceous: 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. Analyzing exotic insects fossilized in Cretaceous amber at three major deposits in Lebanon, Burma, and Canada, the authors reconstruct the complex ecology of a hostile prehistoric world inhabited by voracious swarms of insects. They draw upon tantalizing new evidence from their 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.--From publisher description.

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