Throughout the four hundred thousand years that humanity has been collecting fossils, sea urchin fossils, or echinoids, have continually been among the most prized, from the Paleolithic era, when they decorated flint axes, to today, when paleobiologists study them for clues to the earth’s history. In The Star-Crossed Stone, Kenneth J. McNamara, an expert on fossil echinoids, takes readers on an incredible fossil hunt, with stops in history, paleontology, folklore, mythology, art, religion, and much more. Beginning with prehistoric times, when urchin fossils were used as jewelry, McNamara reveals how the fossil crept into the religious and cultural lives of societies around the world—the roots of the familiar five-pointed star, for example, can be traced to the pattern found on urchins. But McNamara’s vision is even broader than that: using our knowledge of early habits of fossil collecting, he explores the evolution of the human mind itself, drawing striking conclusions about humanity’s earliest appreciation of beauty and the first stirrings of artistic expression. Along the way, the fossil becomes a nexus through which we meet brilliant eccentrics and visionary archaeologists and develop new insights into topics as seemingly disparate as hieroglyphics, Beowulf, and even church organs. An idiosyncratic celebration of science, nature, and human ingenuity, The Star-Crossed Stone is as charming and unforgettable as the fossil at its heart.

The Star-Crossed Stone: The Secret Life, Myths, and History of a Fascinating Fossil

History

McNamara, Ken

Americas

University of Chicago Press

Prehistoric mammals of Western Australia

Science & Math

Biological Sciences

Western Australian Museum

It's True! We Came from Slime

This book dives deep into the past when life first began. From the plant-like goo that brought oxygen to Earth to the lumbering gorgonopsids from which all mammals evolved, the book explores over 3500 million years of strange creatures and how humans have learned about them.  Readers will marvel at the scary-looking creatures from the pre-Dinosaur era: spiders the size of manhole covers, giant sea-scorpions as big as bicycles.  About the It's True! series  Gross! Creepy! Amazing! Kids will love it.  This non-fiction series for older readers features wacky writing, funny cartoons, and remarkable photos that make each book as delightfully entertaining as it is informative. It's True!

Children's Books

Animals

Annick Press

  This book dives deep into the past when life first began. From the plant-like goo that brought oxygen to Earth to the lumbering gorgonopsids from which all mammals evolved, the book explores over 3500 million years of strange creatures and how humans have learned about them.    Readers will marvel at the scary-looking creatures from the pre-Dinosaur era: spiders the size of manhole covers, giant sea-scorpions as big as bicycles.    About the It's True! series    Gross! Creepy! Amazing! Kids will love it.    This non-fiction series for older readers features wacky writing, funny cartoons, and remarkable photos that make each book as delightfully entertaining as it is informative. It's True!  

For at least half a million years, people have been doing some very strange things with fossils. Long before a few seventeenth-century minds started to decipher their true, organic nature, fossils had been eaten, dropped in goblets of wine, buried with the dead, and adorned bodies. What triggered such curious behavior was the belief that some fossils could cure illness, protect against being poisoned, ease the passage into the afterlife, ward off evil spirits, and even kill those who were just plain annoying. But above all, to our early prehistoric ancestors, fossils were the very stuff of artistic inspiration. Drawing on archaeology, mythology, and folklore, Ken McNamara takes us on a journey through prehistory with these curious stones, and he explores humankind's unending quest for the meaning of fossils.

Dragons’ Teeth and Thunderstones: The Quest for the Meaning of Fossils

Reaktion Books

A geological saga that digs deep, revealing how even the most ordinary rocks can be stepping stones to the hidden history of our planet. &nbsp; Unearthing the Underworld reveals the hidden world of rocks--the keepers of secrets of past environments, changing climates, and the pulse of life over billions of years. Even the most seemingly ordinary stone can tell us much about the history of this planet, opening vistas of ancient worlds of ice, raging floods, strange unbreathable atmospheres, and prehistoric worlds teeming with life. Remarkably, many types of rocks owe their existence to living organisms--from the remains of bodies of dead animals to rocks formed from rotting ancient forests, or even created by the activity of fungi, bacteria, and viruses. Anything but dull and uninteresting, rocks are intriguing portals that illuminate the secret underworld upon which we live.

Unearthing the Underworld: A Natural History of Rocks

Earth Sciences

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

Books by McNamara, Ken

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

The Star-Crossed Stone: The Secret Life, Myths, and History of a Fascinating Fossil

Prehistoric mammals of Western Australia

It's True! We Came from Slime

It's True! We Came from Slime

Dragons’ Teeth and Thunderstones: The Quest for the Meaning of Fossils

Unearthing the Underworld: A Natural History of Rocks