Description:
Culled from the pages of the New York Times--from its excellent Science Times section, to be precise--this collection of nearly 50 short articles written by various Times journalists reports on some of the more intriguing members of our planet's most dominant class of animals. Former Science Times reporter and editor Nicholas Wade edits the book, envisioning it as a sort of who's-who of "mammals that have brought themselves to biologists' attention or made the headlines." Each article builds on the insights of those preceding it. The book is organized in ascending order of brain power, from lowly monotremes ("If a Platypus Had a Dream, What Would It Mean?") all the way up through lions ("Please Say It Isn't So, Simba: The Noble Lion Can Be a Coward") and sea otters ("Picky Eaters in Monterey Bay Who Dabble in Petty Theft") and, finally, us humans. A short series explores how we compare with our less sophisticated fellows ("Why Babies Are Born Facing Backwards, Helpless and Chubby," "What Makes a Parent Put Up with It All?"). All the articles include their original illustrations, and each chapter of successively more complex mammals (from rodents to cats to canines to whales) gets an introduction by Wade setting the context. --Paul Hughes
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