Secrets of the Whales

Author: Brian Skerry
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781426221873
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 192

Book Description
This provocative book of photography offers bold new insight into the lives of the world's largest mammals, along with their complex societies. In these pages, we learn that whales share an amazing ability to learn and adapt to opportunities, from specialized feeding strategies to parenting techniques. There is also evidence of deeper, cultural elements of whale identity, from unique dialects to matrilineal societies to organized social customs like singing contests. Featuring the arresting underwater images of Brian Skerry, who has explored and documented oceans for over four decades, this book will document these alluring creatures in all their glory--and demonstrate how these majestic creatures can teach us about ourselves and our planet.

The Whale Book

Author: Adriaen Coenen
Publisher: Reaktion Books
ISBN: 1861891741
Category : Illumination of books and manuscripts, Dutch
Languages : en
Pages : 235

Book Description
Originally written in Dutch, Adriaen Coenen's illustrated manuscripts represent the first European natural history of whales and other marine animals.

All about Whales

Author: Roy Chapman Andrews
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Whales
Languages : en
Pages : 164

Book Description
The humpback, the sulphurbottom (a whopping 110 feet) the finback, the killer - these are a sampling of the varieties [the author] talks about in ... detail as to habit, and habitat, evolution and physical characteristics. Meanwhile, he has interspersed his data with many a whaling experience - personal and historical - that bring these fabulous mammals into romantic perspective.

Whales: The Gentle Giants

Author: Joyce Milton
Publisher: Random House Books for Young Readers
ISBN: 0385374631
Category : Juvenile Nonfiction
Languages : en
Pages : 48

Book Description
Illus. in full color. "Milton understands what kids like about whales, and packs a considerable amount of information into the book. This easy-reader leaps with appeal."--Bulletin, Center for Children's Books.

Pressure Vessel Design Manual

Author: Dennis R. Moss
Publisher: Gulf Professional Publishing
ISBN:
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 302

Book Description
This edition covers every major aspect of pressure vessel design and provides up-to-date requirements given in ASME, ASCE, UBC, and AISC codes. The well-respected manual offers page after page of fully illustrated, step-by-step procedures. Many of the 45 design procedures have been updated and expanded to: - Incorporate the broadest range of design cases - Provide the maximum flexibility - Supply more detail - Handle a greater variety of problems

The Walking Whales

Author: J. G. M. Hans Thewissen
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 0520959418
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 257

Book Description
Hans Thewissen, a leading researcher in the field of whale paleontology and anatomy, gives a sweeping first-person account of the discoveries that brought to light the early fossil record of whales. As evidenced in the record, whales evolved from herbivorous forest-dwelling ancestors that resembled tiny deer to carnivorous monsters stalking lakes and rivers and to serpentlike denizens of the coast. Thewissen reports on his discoveries in the wilds of India and Pakistan, weaving a narrative that reveals the day-to-day adventures of fossil collection, enriching it with local flavors from South Asian culture and society. The reader senses the excitement of the digs as well as the rigors faced by scientific researchers, for whom each new insight gives rise to even more questions, and for whom at times the logistics of just staying alive may trump all science. In his search for an understanding of how modern whales live their lives, Thewissen also journeys to Japan and Alaska to study whales and wild dolphins. He finds answers to his questions about fossils by studying the anatomy of otters and porpoises and examining whale embryos under the microscope. In the book's final chapter, Thewissen argues for approaching whale evolution with the most powerful tools we have and for combining all the fields of science in pursuit of knowledge.

Whales

Author: Philip S. Hammond
Publisher: Comstock Publishing Associates
ISBN: 9781501716560
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Book Description
This book explores the lives of the world's largest living mammals. Drawing on the latest scientific research, Whales describes these incredible animals' evolution from terrestrial to marine mammals, their life cycle, diversity and distribution, and the ecosystems of which they are a part. Whales highlights the many extraordinary aspects of these intelligent and social creatures, including the complex vocalizations they use to communicate over vast distances. Philip Hammond, Sonja Heinrich, Sascha Hooker, and Peter Tyack investigate the role of whales in human culture, from whaling to whale watching, and emphasize how scientists monitor the current threats to whales and the methods they use to conserve their future. Spectacular photographs of whales in the wild reveal the private lives of these fascinating and majestic ocean giants.

Face to Face with Whales

Author: Linda Nicklin
Publisher: National Geographic Books
ISBN: 1426306970
Category : Juvenile Nonfiction
Languages : en
Pages : 36

Book Description
You slip over the side of your boat, descending deep into the dark realm of the Earth’s largest creature. Then the whale starts to sing, just feet away from you. Photographer Flip Nicklin brings you face to face with whales as they communicate, nurse their young, and surface dramatically for air. Learn of the different kinds of whales, discover how we can aid their recovery from years of overhunting, and how we can protect their environment.

Spying on Whales

Author: Nick Pyenson
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 0735224587
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 337

Book Description
“A palaeontological howdunnit…[Spying on Whales] captures the excitement of…seeking answers to deep questions in cetacean science.” —Nature Called “the best of science writing” (Edward O. Wilson) and named a best book by Popular Science, a dive into the secret lives of whales, from their four-legged past to their perilous present. Whales are among the largest, most intelligent, deepest diving species to have ever lived on our planet. They evolved from land-roaming, dog-sized creatures into animals that move like fish, breathe like us, can grow to 300,000 pounds, live 200 years and travel entire ocean basins. Whales fill us with terror, awe, and affection--yet there is still so much we don't know about them. Why did it take whales over 50 million years to evolve to such big sizes, and how do they eat enough to stay that big? How did their ancestors return from land to the sea--and what can their lives tell us about evolution as a whole? Importantly, in the sweepstakes of human-driven habitat and climate change, will whales survive? Nick Pyenson's research has given us the answers to some of our biggest questions about whales. He takes us deep inside the Smithsonian's unparalleled fossil collections, to frigid Antarctic waters, and to the arid desert in Chile, where scientists race against time to document the largest fossil whale site ever found. Full of rich storytelling and scientific discovery, Spying on Whales spans the ancient past to an uncertain future--all to better understand the most enigmatic creatures on Earth.

The Breath of a Whale

Author: Leigh Calvez
Publisher: Sasquatch Books
ISBN: 1632171872
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 241

Book Description
An ode to marine life and the natural world, from the New York Times–bestselling author of The Hidden Life of Owls This “intimate and spirited” essay collection “offers us the whale watch most of us can only dream of” as they reveal the elusive lives of whales in the Pacific Ocean—home to orcas, humpbacks, blue, gray, and sperm whales (Sy Montgomery, author of The Soul of an Octopus). Leigh Calvez has spent a dozen years researching, observing, and probing the lives of the giants of the deep. Here, she relates the stories of nature's most remarkable creatures, including the familial orcas in the waters of Washington State and British Columbia; the migratory humpbacks; the ancient, deep-diving blue whales, the largest animals on the planet. The lives of these whales are conveyed through the work of dedicated researchers who have spent decades tracking them along their secretive routes that extend for thousands of miles, gleaning their habits and sounds and distinguishing peculiarities. Calvez author invites the reader onto a small research catamaran maneuvering among 100-foot long blue whales off the coast of California; or to join the task of monitoring patterns of humpback whale movements at the ocean surface: tail throw, flipper slap, fluke up, or blow. To experience whales is breathtaking. To understand their lives deepens our connection with the natural world.