| Description |
xxii, 277 pages ; 24 cm |
| Summary |
Although Europeans colonized Central America nearly five centuries ago, scientists did not perceive its role in New World history until the nineteenth century, and debate about its evolutionary past continues. No place reflects the sweep of evolutionary change more than Central America, where northern and southern organisms mingle in ecosystems ranging from Guatemalan pine-oak forests to Panamanian rain forests. An exploration of this kaleidoscopic evolutionary story, The Monkey's Bridge artfully combines vivid travel-writing, reflections on the contemporary scene, and meditations on ecological values unique to this region |
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When the Panama land bridge between North and South America formed three million years ago, plants and animals surged back and forth in the "Great American Biotic Interchange," an evolutionary cross-fertilization that has created one of the world's richest and most fascinating environments. The Monkey's Bridge is the story of Central America's role as an evolutionary link between continents. Award-winning nature writer David Rains Wallace has explored this complex region for more than twenty years. He has ridden on horseback to an unexplored Costa Rican volcano forest, snorkeled the coral reefs of Belize, ascended Honduras's remote Platano River with Miskito Indian guides, and examined Central America's little-known paleontological record at obscure rural fossil sites |
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references (pages [249]-259) and index |
| Subject |
Evolution (Biology) -- Central America.
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Fossils -- Central America.
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Natural history -- Central America.
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Paleobiogeography -- Central America.
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| SUBJECT |
Central America -- Description and travel. http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh85021872
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Central America http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh85021871 -- Discovery and exploration.
http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh99002238
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| LC no. |
97008046 |
| ISBN |
0871565862 (alk. paper) |
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1578050189 (paperback) |
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