George Poinar - Böcker

George Poinar began collecting amber specimins over thirty years ago, but it was only recently that he, Roberta Poinar, and the rest of his research team astounded the scientific community with the news that they had obtained "live" DNA strands from an insect over 40 million years old. The news was so significant that it made headlines throughout the world. Since that time, their lab has remained extraordinarily active, and in the summer of 1993, they were able to announce the successful extraction of preserved DNA strands over 125 million years old. Thus, there is now DNA available for study dating from the early dinosaur period.In passages that read more like an Indiana Jones screenplay than a story about scientific research, the Poinars describe how what began as a hobby grew into a semi-obsession which ultimately led to a breakthrough scientific discovery. Along the way, they encounter all manner of unusual characters, from threatening black marketeers and gun-toting guerrillas to extraordinarily talented scientists, and of course, the luminously beautiful specimins captured in the still-life of amber.

Millions of years ago in the Cretaceous period, the mighty Tyrannosaurus rex--with its dagger-like teeth for tearing its prey to ribbons--was undoubtedly the fiercest carnivore to roam the Earth. Yet as What Bugged the Dinosaurs? reveals, T. rex was not the only killer. George and Roberta Poinar show how insects--from biting sand flies to disease-causing parasites--dominated life on the planet and played a significant role in the life and death of the dinosaurs. The Poinars bring the age of the dinosaurs marvelously to life. Analyzing exotic insects fossilized in Cretaceous amber at three major deposits in Lebanon, Burma, and Canada, they reconstruct the complex ecology of a hostile prehistoric world inhabited by voracious swarms of insects. The Poinars draw upon tantalizing new evidence from their amazing discoveries of disease-producing vertebrate pathogens in Cretaceous blood-sucking flies, as well as intestinal worms and protozoa found in fossilized dinosaur excrement, to provide a unique view of how insects infected with malaria, leishmania, and other pathogens, together with intestinal parasites, could have devastated dinosaur populations.A scientific adventure story from the authors whose research inspired Jurassic Park, What Bugged the Dinosaurs?? offers compelling evidence of how insects directly and indirectly contributed to the dinosaurs' demise.

This manual was prepared for the diagnosis of insect diseases caused by infectious agents. The agents (or pathogens) included here are fungi, protozoans, bacteria, viruses, and rickettsias. The present work was prepared after much deliberation and discussion with students and teachers who felt a guide of this type would be valuable for diagnosing the microbial diseases of insects. It was modeled after a seminar given on the same subject at Berke­ ley, which had as its major goal the recognition and identification of insect pathogens for practical purposes. The present work in­ cludes numerous timesaving "short cuts" which were developed after years of experience of diagnosing insect diseases. Although emphasis is placed on identification, general back­ ground information on the various pathogens is also included. Thus, under each of the five groups of pathogens, the following topics are discussed: (1) various types of associations with insects, (2) defini­ tion and classification, (3) general life cycle, (4) characteristics of diseased insects, (5) factors affecting natural infections, (6) methods of examination, (7) isolation and cultivation, (8) important taxonomic characters, (9) tests for infectivity, (10) storage, (11) an illustrated key to the genera (or group in the case of viruses), and (12) literature, especially that pertaining to identification. Although often included with insect pathogens, entomogenous nematodes are not covered here since illustrated keys to those gen­ era that infect insects are already available (Poinar, 1975, 1977).

While much attention has been given to animal life in amber, the remains of a variety of plants, including angiosperm flowers, also exist in fossilized resin. This work will be of interest to amber enthusiasts, plant taxonomists, plant morphologists, plant ecologists, plant evolutionists and plant paleontologists.