Amber |  | Author: Andrew Ross
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Category: Book
List Price: $12.95
Buy New: $7.88
as of 7/29/2010 19:46 CDT details
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Seller: pbshop
Rating:  6 reviews
Media: Paperback
Pages: 72
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.5
Dimensions (in): 8.3 x 7.9 x 0.2
ISBN: 0674017293
Dewey Decimal Number: 553.879
EAN: 9780674017290
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Product Description
Amber has captured the human imagination for centuries, as amulets, ritual cups, and beads dating back 10,000 years attest. It is a fascinating substance, one that offers a unique intersection of the fields of paleontology, botany, entomology, and mineralogy. The fossilized resin of ancient trees, amber preserves organic material-most commonly insects and other invertebrates-and with it the shape and surface detail that are usually obliterated or hopelessly distorted during the mineralization we associate with fossils. To look at an ant or a bee caught in amber is to look not at an organism that has been turned to stone, but at the actual remains of an insect that lived hundreds of millions of years ago, remains that retain an uncanny semblance of life. Amber also offers clues to the evolution of certain behaviors, capturing such interactions as parasitism-a fruit fly with a parasitic mite still attached to it-or mutualism-a bubble of gas indicating the presence of beneficial bacteria in the gut of a termite. Unique to this book are identification keys to the most common insect inclusions as well as practical advice on how to identify all-too-common fakes. Amber will bring the study of this and its inclusions within reach of anyone with access to amber and a good magnifying glass.
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 6
 Concise information, beautiful illustrations May 19, 1999
dane@umich.edu (University of Michigan, USA)
23 out of 23 found this review helpful
I am developing a natural history museum exhibit on amber and I found this book to be the most helpful source of information. This relatively small book abounds with photographs that make the various inclusions found within ambers easy to identify. The concise information is up to date and well suited for those readers without a science background, as well as those with a Ph.D. Compared to the various recent magazine articles and technical journals and books I've read, using this book has been the most efficient use of my time. It also includes a list of further readings and a couple of web sites (one of which has already provided me with important advice for how to protect amber from degrading). I strongly recommend this book.
Excellent Beginner Book! April 5, 2005
J. Baisden (Anywhere I want to be.)
8 out of 8 found this review helpful
If you are already a die hard fan of fossil amber, then skip this book. However, if you are new to the hobby of collecting amber then by all means get this book. This was the first book I ever purchased on the subject of fossil amber and I have never been disappointed. It has great photography and easy to read, informative text. It mentions Colombian copal, Baltic, Chiapas, Lebanese, Dominican and more. It mentions the different types of fake amber, altered amber, and fake inclusions. This book deals with much on the subject, just not in great depth. It has a place on my bookshelf and will always be a permanent part of my reading material concerning the subject of fossil amber. This would be great for junior high science class reading material too. Great for the young and old who are interested in an easy read concering fossil amber!
Great for amature amber lovers October 31, 2001
Kristi Dukes (Knoxville, Tennessee United States)
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
This is a great book if you want to know basics on amber. The further you go through the book, it explains more in detail. Great in depth photos & easy to understand. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. If you like amber, this is the book to buy.
Wonderful little book! March 20, 2006
G. Holmes (California, USA)
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
What a delight to find a relatively short, concise book on the subject of amber. The book contains "scientific" terms for those who are interested in such things and yet is well-written and easy to understand for those who may simply want to know how to identify real or fake ambers. Beautiful close-up photos with identifying text are abundant. As a geologist and former teacher of young students, I found this book a true treasure-find!
A RESINOUS SUBJECT June 11, 2010
Kay's Husband (Virginia, U.S.A.)
I came by my copy through the Scientific American book club, when it arrived I was surprised but not disappointed. Surprised that the book was not a 'normal' 5x8 or 6x9 but an oversized book, bound similar to what a Golden book for a child would be.
However, this is not a book for children as such, anyone taking Geology or Anthropology in college will of natural course in a practical lab setting have experienced amber on an exam paper. Amber while a resin from trees, is not what is commonly called sap. The resin has been aged through years (in millions of years many times) to become something for both science or cosmetic jewelry. To my interest two of the more highly aromatic resins are pointed out by author Ross to be frankincense and myrrh. Anyone having read the Bible will recognize those two words.
Andrew Ross is Principal Curator of Invertebrate Paleontology and Paleobotany at the Nation Museums Scotland, with this volume coming from his "work curating the amber collection in the Department of Palaeontology at the Natural History Museum of London". Though the book runs to only a little over 100 pages, those pages are filled with interesting comments and color pictures of "the natural time capsule" that is amber.
For the lover of science (anthropology in my case) or anyone just interested in amber itself this small book will be a fine one for the beginner. I find my copy most interesting, happy to have it on my shelf next to others concerned with prehistory and man's involvement therein.
Semper Fi.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 6
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