Diversity Of Life: The Illustrated Guide To Five Kingdoms [Paperback]

Lynn Margulis (Author), Karlene Schwartz (Author), Michael Dolan (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 1, 1999 | ISBN-10: 0763708623 | ISBN-13: 978-0763708627 | Edition: 2nd

This Sophisticated Coloring Book Is A Beautifully Detailed Illustration Of The World's Living Diversity. It Is Written For Science Students, Teachers, And Anyone Else Who Is Curious About The Extraordinary Variety Of Living Things That Inhabit This Planet. It Opens With An Introduction To The Classification Systems, Distinctions Between Prokaryotic And Eukaryotic Cells, An Introduction To Life Cycles, Earth History, And An Explanation Of How To Best Use This Coloring Book. The Next Section Is Organized By Communities In Which The Organisms Live. The Final Section Details The Variety Of Major Groupings - Phyla - Within Each Kingdom And Shows How The Organisms In Each Are Distinguished From One Other. This Coloring Book Gives A Visual Understanding Of The Enormous Diversity Of Life On This Planet And Will Be An Enlightening And Educational Resource For Students From A Variety Of Backgrounds.

Product Details

• Paperback: 248 pages
• Publisher: Jones & Bartlett Learning; 2nd edition (March 1, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0763708623
• ISBN-13: 978-0763708627
• Product Dimensions: 10.9 x 8.5 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #685,282 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Lynn Margulis, Distinguished University Professor in the Department of Geosciences at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, received the 1999 National Medal of Science from President Bill Clinton. She has been a member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences since 1983 and of the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences since 1997. Author, editor, or coauthor of chapters in more than forty books, she has published or been profiled in many journals, magazines, and books, among them Natural History, Science, Nature, New England Watershed, Scientific American, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Science Firsts, and The Scientific 100. She has made numerous contributions to the primary scientific literature of microbial evolution and cell biology.

Margulis's theory of species evolution by symbiogenesis, put forth in Acquiring Genomes (co-authored with Dorion Sagan, 2002), describes how speciation does not occur by random mutation alone but rather by symbiotic d©tente. Behavioral, chemical, and other interactions often lead to integration among organisms, members of different taxa. In well-documented cases some mergers create new species. Intimacy, physical contact of strangers, becomes part of the engine of life's evolution that accelerates the process of change. Margulis works in the laboratory and field with many other scientists and students to show how specific ancient partnerships, in a given order over a billion years, generated the cells of the species we see with our unaided eyes.The fossil record, in fact, does not show Darwin's predicted gradual changes between closely related species but rather the "punctuated equilibrium" pattern described by Eldredge and Gould: a jump from one to a different species.

She has worked on the "revolution in evolution" since she was a graduate student. Over the past fifteen years, Margulis has cowritten several books with Dorion Sagan, among them What is Sex? (1997), What is Life? (1995), Mystery Dance: On the Evolution of Human Sexuality (1991), Microcosmos: Four Billion Years of Evolution from Our Microbial Ancestors (1986), and Origins of Sex:Three Billion Years of Genetic Recombination (1986).

Her work with K.V. Schwartz provides a consistent formal classification of all life on Earth and has lead to the third edition of Five Kingdoms: An Illustrated Guide to the Phyla of Life on Earth (1998). Their classification scheme was generated from scientific results of myriad colleagues and its logical-genealogical basis is summarized in her single-authored book Symbiosis in Cell Evolution: Microbial Communities in the Archean and Proterozoic Eons (second edition, 1993). The bacterial origins of both chloroplasts and mitochondria are now well established. Currently, with colleagues and students, she explores the possible origin of cilia from spirochetes.

Since the mid-1970s, Margulis has aided James E. Lovelock, FRS, in documenting his Gaia Theory, which posits that the Earth's surface interactions among living beings, rocks and soil, air and water have created a vast, self-regulating system. From the vantage of outer space the Earth looks like an amazing being; from the vantage of biochemistry it behaves in many ways like a giant organism.

Photo by Luis Rico

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

33 of 37 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Who is this book for?, January 18, 2000

By 

Frank Deis (Highland Park, NJ USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Diversity Of Life: The Illustrated Guide To Five Kingdoms (Paperback)

I purchased a copy of this book because I've been buying nearly all of Lynn Margulis's books in preparation for teaching a course. The description here was minimal, and I wanted to warn other potential buyers -- this is basically a coloring book. The weird thing is that the concepts and vocabulary are at a first-year college or advanced high school level. I can't imagine just who is supposed to use this book, sixth grade geniuses with crayons, or easily amused college freshmen? I suppose if you have a really bright grade school class you might want to give this book a try, but in my judgement it's not at the right level for anyone, anywhere.

10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars DIVERSITY OF LIFE. The Illustrated Guide to the Five Kingdom, October 25, 2000

By 

JJill Coleman (Baltimore, MD. USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Diversity Of Life: The Illustrated Guide To Five Kingdoms (Paperback)

DIVERSITY has surprising success in being all things (well almost all) to all people. It's about equally divided between fact-packed technical writing, full of Latin names, and line drawings of them. The intro is convincingly authoritative. And TEN pages of further resources are provided.

At first, I thought this is not a book for me, a novice, But Latin names are coupled with common ones. The fifty-page glossary is nicely written in everyday language. And the line drawings are tantalising. I am invited to color the drawings!

The cover shows the beauty of color and design that the authors contemplate. Spiral binding lies flat for coloring. I wonder what medium works best. Colored pencils? How would the paper take to water color or acryllic? The authors urge me to photocopy the drawings. I might enlarge one, use good art paper and create something worth framing!

There's no clue as to what colors are right. Shall I create my own color scheme, or go to the zoo or a swamp for real-life colors? I think fantasy will be more fun.

DIVERSITY does assume some knowledge of biology. I'd call it an expansion of knowledge for those who like knowledge for its own sake, and certainly a well-organized reference book. It could also work as a student-friendly text for a sophisticated high school or beginning college level classroom.

Just learning that there are five kingdoms staggered me because I studied biology before 1960, when there were just two. The animal Kigdom is now "animalia" and the vegetable kingdom is now "plantae." Modern biologists distinguish bacteria and fungi as numbers three and four. The fifth is really unnerving: something called Protoctista -- very close to the medical words that start out Procto --.

This adds up to more diversity of life than I've ever thought about.

On page 21 I find the first creative drawing/learning project: two cows in a field. One has its digestive tract outlined, with magnified drawings of six kinds of bacteria that populate its gut. Further along I find a pretty little drawing of the notorious E. coli. schematically resident in a fisherman's stomach. What wonderful colors shall I choose?

I think I shall use DIVERSITY as my Field Guide to the Minuscule as I color with my grandchildren. And somewhere I will find out what a Proctoct-- really is.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars It IS a coloring book, August 2, 2006

By 

John Smith - See all my reviews

This review is from: Diversity Of Life: The Illustrated Guide To Five Kingdoms (Paperback)

If you had read the book's description be fore buying, you migh have expected a coloring book. You were probably looking for Margulis' book: Five Kingdoms: An Illustrated Guide to the Phyla of Life on Earth.

Book description QUOTE:

It is written for science students, teachers, and anyone else who is curious about the extraordinary variety of living things that inhabit this planet. It opens with an introduction to the classification systems, distinctions between prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells, an introduction to life cycles, Earth history, and an explanation of how to best use this coloring book.