Soil Grown Tall : The Epic Saga of Life From Earth

This book is designed as an easy night's read and introduction to fossil soils and the relatively new disciplines of Paleopedology and Astropedology. It includes line art and color illustrations to visualize the topic for the informed layperson or interested colleagues. It provides comprehensive information on paleosols, which are soils of the past providing a variety of clues to the evolution of life and climate on Earth and deals with topics such as the evolution of grassland ecosystems, mass extinction of the Late Permian and origin of life, all viewed from the perspective of the fossil record of soils. This turns out to be a refreshing new perspective of wide interest. Preface Acknowledgments Contents List of Figures List of Color Photos 1 Rainbow Rocks 2 Soil as a Many Splendored Thing 3 Civilization Built from Soil 4 Humanity from Global Change 5 Grass that Changed the World 6 Death from the Sky 7 An Occasion for Flowers 8 Dinosaurs and Dirt 9 World’s Greatest Midlife Crisis 10 Roots of Trees 11 Mighty Millipedes 12 Lichens and Till 13 When The Rust Set In 14 Soils in Space 15 Living Soil 16 The Proserpina Principle Further Reading Index