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E-book
Author Poinar, George O

Title What bugged the dinosaurs? : insects, disease, and death in the Cretaceous / George Poinar, Jr. and Roberta Poinar ; with photographs and drawings by the authors
Published Princeton, N.J. : Princeton University Press, ©2008

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Description 1 online resource (x, 264 pages, 16 pages of plates) : illustrations (some color), maps
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
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 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
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references (pages 225-252) and index
Notes English
Print version record
Subject Paleontology -- Cretaceous.
Paleoecology -- Cretaceous.
Insects, Fossil.
Insects, Fossil -- Ecology
Dinosaurs -- Parasites
Dinosaurs -- Diseases
Plants, Fossil -- Parasites
Plants, Fossil -- Diseases
Amber fossils.
NATURE -- Fossils.
NATURE -- Animals -- Dinosaurs & Prehistoric Creatures.
SCIENCE -- Paleontology.
Amber fossils
Cretaceous Geologic Period
Insects, Fossil
Paleoecology
Paleontology
Form Electronic book
Author Poinar, Roberta
LC no. 2007061024
ISBN 9781400835690
1400835690
1282531662
9781282531666
9786612531668
6612531665
Other Titles Insects, disease, and death in the Cretaceous