Discusses dinosaur evolution and paleontological procedures while offering instructions and diagrams for building a model T-Rex from the bones of four small chickens.

T-Rex to Go: Build Your Own from Chicken Bones; Foolproof Instructions For Budding Paleontologists

Science & Math

McGowan, Christopher

Biological Sciences

Perennial Currents

From October 6 through 14, 1829, in a small village just outside Liverpool, England, ten thousand spectators gathered to witness one of the most remarkable events of the Industrial Age: a battle among locomotives that became known as the Rainhill Trials. Five machines were entered in the competition: the horse-powered Cycloped attained a top speed of only five miles per hour, while Perseverence―which looked like a giant iron bottle standing upright atop four wagon wheels―creaked along at a walking pace. But the three-way race between Robert Stephenson's Rocket, Timothy Harworth's Sans Pareil, and the crowd favorite, John Braithwaite and John Ericson's Novelty, astonished the gathered crowds. The unfamiliar clank of machinery, huge billows of steam, and unprecedented speeds of thirty miles per hour thrilled the crowds during the trials'carnival-like atmosphere. The Rocket won the competition, though it had been claimed that the machine was not the superior locomotive. Rail, Steam, and Speed explains why and offers an absorbing account of the trials, people, and science that gave birth to steam locomotion. The purpose of the trials had been to find a locomotive that could maintain a speed of ten miles per hour for a round trip totaling thirty-five miles, the distance separating Liverpool and Manchester, which were soon to be linked by the world's first passenger railway. But what was achieved during those nine days became a benchmark of the Industrial Revolution. Bringing the excitement of this great drama to life, Christopher McGowan introduces us to such pioneers as George Stephenson, who started as a colliery boy and finished as the father of the railways; John Ericsson, a Swedish Army officer who invented a new kind of locomotive in England but spent most of his life in the United States, where he built the Monitor for the Union Navy; and Richard Trevithick, whose eleven-year adventure in South America included winning and losing several fortunes, deserting Bolivar's army, and escaping the jaws of a crocodile. He encountered George Stephenson's son Robert in a Colombian hotel in one of the most bizarre meetings of the age. But the real stars are the locomotives themselves. McGowan shows how locomotives work and how they were developed―from the gargantuan beam engines condensing low-pressure steam inside enormous cylinders to the small, high-pressure-driven engines of the maverick miner Trevithick. He adapted the engines to power road carriages, but atrocious roads led him to build an engine that could run on rails. And so was born the world's first steam locomotive and modern transportation.

Rail, Steam, and Speed: The "Rocket" and the Birth of Steam Locomotion

History

World

Columbia University Press

The Rainhill Trials : The Birth of Commercial Rail

Little,Brown & Company

THE DRAGON SEEKERS: HOW AN EXTRAORDINARY CIRCLE OF FOSSILISTS DISCOVERED THE DINOSAURS AND PAVED THE WAY FOR DARWIN

London Little, Brown. c2001

A Practical Guide to Vertebrate Mechanics

A thorough understanding of the form, function, and design of animals is essential to any working biologist's knowledge. In the author's view, however, this fast-growing field of study can be made much more exciting and accessible with a hands-on, practical approach. This view is the basis for A Practical Guide to Vertebrate Mechanics. This text can be considered an engineering book for biologists. The emphasis is on vertebrates, and each topic begins with a discussion of the underlying principles, followed immediately by practical experiments and laboratory exercises. The author begins with a refresher on scaling and measurement. This is followed by three chapters on the mechanical properties of materials--investigating elasticity, the strength of materials, and how things break. This leads the discussion to animal materials--bones, joints, muscles--which serve to illustrate principles of structure and load, lubrication, physiology, metabolism, and stamina. Finally, the systems are put in motion, as we discuss terrestrial locomotion, flight, and swimming. What sets this book apart from others on functional anatomy is the emphasis on practical work. Many of the experiments are simple to conduct. Detailed instructions for setting up the experiments are given in an appendix, and sample results are included to guide the student. A Practical Guide to Vertebrate Mechanics will form an important part of undergraduate and beginning graduate courses for zoology, anatomy, biomechanics, and paleontology students. Chris McGowan is Professor in the Department of Zoology at the University of Toronto and Curator in the Department of Palaeobiology at the Royal Ontario Museum. Several of his previous books include,The Raptor and the Lamb: Offense and Defense in the Living World (1997), Make Your Own Dinosaur Out of Chicken Bones: Foolproof Instructions for Budding Palaeontologists (1997), and Diatoms to Dinosaurs (1994).

Cambridge University Press

Christopher McGowan sets out to solve some of the enduring mysteries about dinosaurs and other prehistoric reptiles. He makes fascinating comparisons between living and extinct animals while presenting topics that range from gigantism to intellect. In addition to exploring the natural history of the Mesozoic Era, McGowan draws on science and engineering concepts to explain curiosities such as the similarities between the aerodynamics of pteranodons and Spitfire planes.

Dinosaurs, Spitfires, and Sea Dragons

Harvard University Press

McGowan attempts to solve some of the enduring mysteries about dinosaurs and other prehistoric reptiles, making fascinating comparisons between living and extinct animals, and drawing on science and engineering concepts to explain the similarities between the aerodynamics of pteradons and Spitfire planes.

The Dragon Seekers: How an Extraordinary Circle of Fossilists Discovered the Dinosaurs and Paved the Way for Darwin

Set in nineteenth-century England, The Dragon Seekers chronicles the amazing discoveries of the first fossilists, whose findings in geology and paleontology led to the discovery of the age of dinosaurs. The intriguing cast of characters includes Mary Anning, a working-class woman who became one of the most successful fossil collectors of all time; Thomas Hawkins, another amateur collector who "improved upon" fossils in order to increase their market value; the eccentric William Buckland, discoverer of the world's first dinosaur (Megalosaurus), and Richard Owen, an expert anatomist, who synthesized the discoveries of the age and ultimately coined the word "dinosaur" in 1842. Christopher McGowan takes us back to a time when the new sciences of geology and paleontology were as young and vibrant as genetic engineering is today. Through heated public debates on everything from the age of the earth to the notion of extinction, the Dragon Seekers initiated the shift from a biblical to a scientific interpretation of the remote past. In this way, they laid the intellectual groundwork for Darwin's revolutionary ideas, and launched a global obsession with the Age of Reptiles that continues even today.

The Dragon Seekers: How An Extraordinary Circle Of Fossilists Discovered The Dinosaurs And Paved The Way For Darwin

Basic Books

Against the backdrop of the Industrial Revolution, an extraordinary circle of fossilists struggled to make sense of a mysterious, prehistoric world--a world they had to piece together from the fossilized and often fragmentary remains of animals never before seen. In this transporting, seamlessly written book, Christopher McGowan takes us back to a time when geology and paleontology were as young and vibrant as genetic engineering is today. The nineteenth-century pioneers of these new disciplines were an eccentric lot, from different social classes and sexes, with a range of motivations in fossil hunting. These "Dragon Seekers" sought to persuade a populace raised on a literal interpretation of Genesis that the ground they walked was once a very frightening and unfamiliar place. A sweeping narrative history, The Dragon Seekers shows how these remarkable characters forever changed our interpretation of the world and its inhabitants.

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by McGowan, Christopher. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by McGowan, Christopher

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by McGowan, Christopher. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

T-Rex to Go: Build Your Own from Chicken Bones; Foolproof Instructions For Budding Paleontologists

Rail, Steam, and Speed: The "Rocket" and the Birth of Steam Locomotion

The Rainhill Trials : The Birth of Commercial Rail

THE DRAGON SEEKERS: HOW AN EXTRAORDINARY CIRCLE OF FOSSILISTS DISCOVERED THE DINOSAURS AND PAVED THE WAY FOR DARWIN

A Practical Guide to Vertebrate Mechanics

A Practical Guide to Vertebrate Mechanics

Dinosaurs, Spitfires, and Sea Dragons

Dinosaurs, Spitfires, and Sea Dragons

The Dragon Seekers: How An Extraordinary Circle Of Fossilists Discovered The Dinosaurs And Paved The Way For Darwin

The Dragon Seekers: How an Extraordinary Circle of Fossilists Discovered the Dinosaurs and Paved the Way for Darwin