Life in Cold Blood | 
 enlarge | Author: David Attenborough
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Category: Book
List Price: $29.95
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Rating:  4 reviews
Sales Rank: 125267
Media: Hardcover
Pages: 288
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 2.3
Dimensions (in): 9.8 x 7 x 1.1
ISBN: 0691137188
Dewey Decimal Number: 597.9
EAN: 9780691137186
ASIN: 0691137188
Publication Date: March 10, 2008
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Product Description
Life in Cold Blood offers a rare glimpse into the peculiar world of amphibians and reptiles, the first vertebrate creatures to venture forth from the primeval waters millions of years ago, yet which today include species that are the most at risk of extinction. Join acclaimed naturalist Sir David Attenborough as he travels to the far corners of the Earth to tell the epic story of these animals in this companion to the television series. Discover the secrets of their astounding success--and the profound implications of their uncertain future. Amphibians and reptiles once ruled the planet, and their descendants exhibit some of the most colorful variety and astounding behavior known to the animal kingdom. What are the origins of these creatures? How have they transformed themselves into the beautiful and bizarre forms found today? In this gorgeously illustrated book, Attenborough gets up close and personal with the living descendants of the first vertebrates ever to colonize the land, and through them traces the fascinating history of their pioneering ancestors. He explains the ways amphibians and reptiles have changed little from their prehistoric forebears while also demonstrating how they have adapted and evolved into diverse new forms, some of them beyond our wildest imaginings. And Attenborough raises awareness of the threats global warming and other man-made environmental changes pose to many of these creatures. Life in Cold Blood inspires a genuine sense of wonder about amphibians and reptiles and the marvels of the natural world around us.
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| Customer Reviews:
 Marvels of life among the cold blooded. June 8, 2008
Saty Satya Murti (NorthEast Kansas)
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
Life in Cold Blood
My admiration for this book stems from a mix of my ignorance of taxonomy and my perspective as a neurologist. This explains my inability to comment on any of the misspellings and errors detected by some of the other reviewers. With every book I read on comparative anatomy or evolutionary physiology, my erstwhile enthusiasm, rigid and fixed, for the human nervous system relents. It admits graciously a greater pervasive wonder for life across the spectra of all animal forms. This is the promontory from which I approach this work.
This book of 281 pages and 6 chapters is aglow with vivid pictures of animal grandeur. Frogs, salamanders, lizards, iguanas, crocodiles, turtles or snakes greet you page after page. We learn about the anatomy, behavior and evolution of amphibians, reptiles and other cold-blooded animals. There are exquisite descriptions, whether it is of snakes calibrating their predatory strikes or of frogs producing internal anti-freeze to survive the arctic chill. Elaborate mating rituals of frogs and eating patterns of pythons would fascinate the reader.
It is likely that other books in this area have covered as much ground or even more. That possibility need not reduce the merit of this volume. The comparative biology that underpins this volume is a riveting reading experience in itself. There are numerous utterly captivating mechanisms that the cold blooded animals use to protect and evolve. They may suppress one lung, right or left, from fully developing, secrete, shoot or spit various venoms, protrude and circumduct their fangs, hibernate in extreme cold and even carry their own radiators and solar panels.
Preservation and reproduction call for such grand and complex acts.
Across all living organisms, including humans, the overriding emphasis is on self-preservation and procreation. We might be relying on precision bombing and in-vitro fertilization, and they may use their toxins and gastric pregnancy with regurgitation of their young. Even herding and social structuring apparently existed from prehistoric to contemporary times. Regardless of our own sophistication, we still share many basics with the cold-blooded animals. If nothing else, this is a beautiful lesson that I learn and relearn from works such as this. My only quarrel with this delicious book is the absence of scholarly citations or references to primary research that would have enabled further reading.
 Don't read, watch tv May 6, 2008
Balazs Farkas
6 out of 9 found this review helpful
I have been involved in the Hungarian production of both the television series as well as the book to accompany it, and while the first is informative, entertaining and essentially correct in all respects, the second dealt with here is FULL of factual (and, of course, typographical) errors -- far too numerous to be mentioned one by one in a review aimed at a general public.
Just a few to make my point: the Japanese giant salamander (Andrias japonicus) is said to be "the biggest of all amphibians", but the Chinese giant salamander (Andrias davidianus) surpasses it by about 40 cm (nearly 30 percent!), and the "young Japanese giant salamander" illustrated on page 15 is actually a mudpuppy (Necturus maculosus)!
The olm (Proteus anguineus) does, indeed, occur in Italy (lower reaches of the Isonzo river), but has been recorded from nearly 200 localities, mostly situated in Slovenia. Rather unnaturally, the specimens shown on page 17 lay on their back.
The "one species (of caecilian) from south-east Asia (that) has a blue-black skin with a bright lemon-yellow stripe along its flanks" (page 27) is actually several: various Ichtyophis spp. have this coloration, as well as the South American Rhinatrema bivittatum.
The ranges of dendrobatid frogs shown on pages 62-63 are almost all wrong.
I know of no functional plastral hinge in any African tortoise (page 72; admittedly, the rear section of the plastron of old Testudo graeca is slightly mobile) -- it is the front lobe in Madagascan spider tortoises (Pyxis arachnoides) that really moves sometimes.
On page 88 the "North American wood tortoise (Chelonoides carbonaria)" is either not North American (the common name of Chelonoidis carbonaria -- note spelling -- is red-footed tortoise, a familiar South American species) or it is the North American wood turtle (Glyptemys insculpta).
The "biggest of the hinged tortoises" (page 90) is definitely not Kinixys homeana, but Kinixys erosa, which grows to nearly twice the size of a Home's.
Many scientific names mentioned are seriously antiquated, some mispelled, others coined. "Megachelys trijuga" (page 94) does not exist, but even so, Melanochelys trijuga (note spelling) is by far not the largest geoemydid turtle, and certainly does not reach 60 cm (carapace?) length. The record is Batagur (earlier name Callagur) borneoenis', with 76 cm -- M. trijuga is about half this size.
And so on, and so on. Also the style of the book differs greatly from that of the films, and I like the latter more. Sorry, Sir David!
Couldn't agree more! March 12, 2008
David Mangham (UK)
8 out of 9 found this review helpful
I am in general agreement with the previous review, however, I would like to add that the book is not as technically accurate as one would normally expect from a BBC publication.
Throughout, the 'Strawberry Poison Dart Frog' is referred to by it's scientific name of 'Dendrobates Pumilo(sic)', this should actually be 'Dendrobates Pumilio', a basic error, possibly evidence of poor proof-reading, but as it is repeated so often, possibly not.
The chapter on lizards also refers to an 'American Anole'. By definition ALL Anolids are American, this being the only continent on which they are found. What is actually shown is a 'Cuban Brown Anole'.
Sloppy!
A new book from sir Attenborough. March 9, 2008
M. G. Kuijpers
12 out of 13 found this review helpful
I bought this book as soon as it came out, as i am greatly interested in reptiles and in general like the books/films the BBC/Attenborough makes.
This book is for me dissapointing.
Why you are asking ?
The photos first of all, i always expect something new,beautiful or rare on the photos from somebody as Attenborough and the BBC, the photos are not. A lot of older,allready published photos and grade B photos,not the best of the best anyway.
The quality of the paper is dull and not glossy this makes it even worse for the photos to come to life and is something i am not used to for books in this price range (i bought it in the Netherlands for around 40 euros).
The text is general, heard it and seen it before....
Conclusion,the book is for someone that wants some general information about reptiles. But they can get that a lot better with other reptilian books on the market.
The photos do not stand out, so no point there for buying the book either.
A missed chance by the BBC and the Attenborough franchise, they could and should have done a lot better.
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