Return to the Sea

Annalisa Berta is Professor Emerita in the Department of Biology at San Diego State University. She has served as the President of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology, and as Associate Editor of the scientific journal Marine Mammal Science.

“Wide-ranging and fact-packed. . . .Berta writes in an engaging, jargon-free style, which makes the book readily accessible to students and teachers at both the graduate and the undergraduate levels. . . . As useful as it is stimulating.”

• PrefaceAcknowledgments1. Marine MammalsMajor Groups of Marine MammalsDiscovering, Naming, and Classifying Marine MammalsReconstructing the Hierarchy of Marine MammalsAdaptations and ExaptationsWhat Is a Species and How Do New Species Form?Where Do They Live and Why Are They Where They Are?2. Past Diversity in Time and Space,Paleoclimates, and PaleoecologyFossils and TaphonomyThe Discovery of the First Fossil Marine Mammal (a Whale)The Importance of FossilsHow Do We Know the Age of a Fossil?How Do We Know Where Marine Mammals Were?Marine Mammal Diversity and Communities Through TimeWhat Led Marine Mammals Back to the Sea?3. Pinniped Diversity, Evolution, and AdaptationsThe Earliest Pinnipeds: Webbed Feet or Flippers?Crown PinnipedsDesmatophocids: Extinct Phocid RelativesEvolutionary TrendsStructural and Functional Innovations and AdaptationsMating and Social Systems, Reproduction, and Life History4. Cetartiodactylan Diversity, Evolution, and AdaptationsEarly Whales Had Legs!Crown Cetacea (Neoceti)Evolutionary TrendsStructural and Functional Innovations and AdaptationsMating and Social Systems, Reproduction, and Life History5. Diversity, Evolution, and Adaptations of Sireniansand Other Marine MammalsWalking Sea Cows!Crown SireniaEvolutionary TrendsStructural and Functional Innovations and AdaptationsMating and Social Systems, Reproduction and Life HistoryDesmostyliansAquatic SlothsMarine OttersPolar Bears6. Ecology and ConservationWhat Marine Mammals Eat and What Eats ThemInteractions Between Human and Marine Mammals:Lessons LearnedExtinction: The Rule, Not the ExceptionGlossaryFurther Reading and Online SourcesIllustration CreditsIndex