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Major Transitions in Evolution

By: Anthony Martin,John Hawks,The Great Courses
Narrated by: Anthony Martin,John Hawks
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Publisher's Summary

Imagine a world without bees, butterflies, and flowering plants. That was Earth 125 million years ago. Turn back the clock 400 million years, and there were no trees. At 450 million years in the past, even the earliest insects had not yet developed. And looking back 500 million years, the land was devoid of life, which at that time flourished in a profusion of strange forms in the oceans. 

These and other major turning points are the amazing story of evolution. Given the broad scope of the subject, this course is taught by two professors: Anthony Martin, a paleontologist and geologist at Emory University, and John Hawks, a paleoanthropologist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Each is an outstanding teacher in his field, adept at making the subject interesting and accessible no matter what your background in science. 

In 24 lavishly illustrated lectures, you will learn about Earth’s major transitions, each of which brought forth new possibilities for life. You will study the conditions that led to the first complex cells, flying insects, flowering plants, mammals, modern humans, and many other breakthroughs. And in the process of studying the past, you will gain a powerful understanding of the present world. 

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio. 

©2010 The Great Courses (P)2010 The Teaching Company, LLC

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Useful general overview

The course is covers a vast field quite well although for some reason the Permian Mass Extinction isn’t addressed. Good primer that doesn’t assume too much prior knowledge.

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Full of facts, details and information

I found the book to be full of facts and information by the authors who are clearly experts in the field.
As a lay-person interested in the subject I did however find it particularly 'technical' and being unfamiliar with the jargon, e.g Prokaryotes to Eukaryotes, etc is a bit heavy going for 12 hours and therefore I did find it difficult to follow. Also, the Audible version is presumably a recording of their live classroom presentation whereby they often refer to slides which is not much use when listening on my phone.
Would be a particularly great book for academics in this subject.

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Fabulous

Great information by enthusiastic scientists and lecturers, loved the shared lecture at the end. This will certainly be listened to again.

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Watch the Video instead

This is clearly the audio plucked from a video presentation and suffers badly in the transition. The speakers constantly refer to images not included in the PDF making it difficult to follow and annoying.

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swept away

Fascinating, really accessible to a layperson. Anthony Martin has an amazing ability to keep you following along.

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