В книге дана наиболее полная эколого-фаунистическая характеристика промысловых зверей, в том числе медведя, лисицы, калана, соболя и др. Всего рассматривается 41 вид, относящийся к 6 отрядам. По каждому виду приводятся размеры и систематические заметки, распространение на островах, размещение по стациям, численность, заметки по биологии и указывается роль вида в природе и жизни человека

Рукопись этой книжки рассмотрели и отредактировали научные работники Палеонтологического Института Академии Наук СССР: Р.Ф. Геккер, В.И. Громо-ва, И.А. Ефремов, К.К. Флеров, Е.И. Беляева, Б.А. Т рофимов, при любезном содействии директора Института Ю.А. Орлова.
Всем им за труд, за ценные добавления и за исправления недостатков рукописи автор выражает глубокую благодарность.

Most simply put, taphonomy is the study of processes affecting the transition of the remains of past living organisms and their traces into the lithosphere as seen in the prehistoric record. It has many aspects, from processes affecting individual organisms to those affecting whole communities, but at its most basic level, the processes on which taphonomic interpretations are based are the same. Process is thus defined as the action of a taphonomic agent (Lyman 1994a), the agent being the immediate cause of modifications. The evidence by which process is identified in the fossil record is the effect it has on fossils, the biological, chemical and physical modifications preserved on the fossils. These modifications may be identified and interpreted through comparisons with observed processes produced by known agents acting on previously unmodified bones at the present time, either in experimentally controlled conditions or by naturalistic monitoring projects where agents and processes are known. <...>

Книга известного американского палеонтолога посвящена истории млекопитающих Южной Америки, эволюция которых на протяжении большей части кайнозоя протекала в условиях изоляции. В результате этой эволюции возникло множество совершенно своеобразных животных; многие из них вымерли, но некоторые (броненосцы, ламы, муравьеды) сохранились до наших дней. Южноамериканская фауна дала Чарлзу Дарвину важнейшие сведения, способствовавшие построению его теории происхождения видов.
Предназначена для зоологов, палеонтологов, биогеографов, а также биологов других специальностей.

For the first time in years, the sun broke through the darkness. There was still a whiff of smoke wafting from the gray clouds, which blanketed the ground in shadow. Down below, the land was wrecked. It was all dirt and mud, a wasteland absent any greenery or color whatsoever. Silence hung in the wind, punctured only by the churn of a river, its currents clogged with sticks and stones and the residue of decay. <...>

Only seven extant large-bodied cats survive from the important and remarkably diverse radiations of felid carnivores since mid- Tertiary times, some 25 million years (Ma) ago. Fortunately these surviving felines are quite readily distinguished morphologically, differ substantially in body size, exhibit some distinctive predatory behaviors and killing practices, and manifest a variety of territorial behaviors and social groupings. Thus the extant species of the genera Panthera (lion, leopard, tiger, jaguar, and snow leopard), Felis (puma or cougar), and Acinonyx (cheetah) afford invaluable insights into the adaptations, diversifications, and behaviors of one tribe (Felini) of the ever-fascinating, however fearsome, big cats. There is a fundamental human attraction, tempered by trepidation, toward these animals, among the most visited and admired in zoological gardens and much prized when observed in natural habitats. Yet all have shrunk substantially in geographic distribution within recorded history, and they have experienced significant reduction in numbers in this century. <...>

Mammals, like nearly all other tetrapods (or four- legged animals), evolved on land. Marine mammals are a diverse assemblage of at least seven distinct evolutionary lineages of mammals that independently returned to the sea and include whales, dolphins, and porpoises (Cetartiodactylans); seals, sea lions, and walruses (Pinnipedia); sea cows (Sirenia); extinct sea cow relatives (Desmostylians); polar bears; sea and marine otters; and extinct aquatic sloths. The secondary adaptation of mammals to life in water required various morphological specializations, including for some lineages dramatic changes in body size and shape compared to their terrestrial relatives. Marine mammals are relatively large, with streamlined bodies and reduced appendages (for example, small or no external ears) and thick fur or fat layers for insulation. Other modifi cations for swimming and diving include the transformation of limbs into fl ippers and/or use of the tail for propulsion in water. <...>

Shelley's lines paint a picture of a lost world, a world resurrected from the antiquities of Greek mythology. But Shelley had more than ancient legends to go on; he was acutely aware of the discoveries of great extinct beasts from the writings of contemporary naturalists. It is known that Shelley attended lectures on mineralogy at Oxford and possessed a library of scientific works which included the writings of Newton, Laplace, Herschel, Davy and Erasmus Darwin. By 1812 he was familiar with James Parkinson's Organic remains published in three volumes between 1804 and 1811.

There are about 4,600 species of animals today that are called mammals because, despite an astonishing diversity of form and habitat, they all share a long list of characters not found in any other organisms, such as the presence of mammary glands, the single bone in the lower jaw, and the neocortex of the forebrain. This makes them unambiguously distinct from their closest living relatives, and their unique characters together define a monophyletic taxon, the class Mammalia. Three subgroups are readily distinguished amongst the living mammals.