Our knowledge of extinct animals depends almost entirely upon the study of fossils. This richly illustrated book clothes the skeletons of dinosaurs and other Mesozoic reptiles with flesh, and shows how these fascinating animals evolved and probably lived. Expert author John L. Cloudsley-Thompson provides an interesting synthesis of current views on their ecology, physiology and behaviour, and outlines the various hypotheses that have been proposed to explain their extinction. Numerous beautiful drawings of the animals and their environment illustrate this exciting monograph.

Desert invertebrates live in an environment where resources alternate unpredictably between brief periods of plenty and prolonged scarcity. This book describes the adaptive strategies of desert invertebrates in acquiring energy and sustaining life under such vicissitudes. Some cooperate in foraging; others compete for resources. Some are nomadic and migrate to more favorable sites as conditions change. Others conserve energy by going into a deep dormancy until better conditions return. Still others store food during plenty and retreat underground during less favorable times.
The adaptive...