For all those who have ventured – or about to venture – into the tropics of the Americas, Cornell University Press has recently published a new book that should go far in fostering an understanding of the seemingly bewildering assortment of arthropods possible to encounter there: Insects and Other Arthropods of Tropical America by Paul E. Hanson and Kenji Nishida.
How much thought do you give to the importance of seeds? Unless you’re a botanist or a horticulturist, you likely give as much thought as I do – not much. Oh – like me – you might give quite a lot of thought to the plants that grow from seeds, but not the seeds themselves. However after reading just the first chapter of Thor Hanson’s “The Triumph of Seeds…”
Try to think of a bird and not imagine feathers. It’s impossible. Even a a plucked chicken in a supermarket shows evidence of it once having been surrounded in feathers. And this is as it should be; for as Hanson clearly (and most entertainingly) explains, the very evolution of birds as a Class is inextricably interwoven with the evolution of the feather itself.