Cover
Title Page
Copyright
Epigraph
Contents
Preface
Introduction
What’s in a Name?
And Then Came Charles Darwin
How Far Off Was the Bishop of Ussher’s Calculation of the Age of Earth?
Natural Selection in Action
But What About the Origin of Species, Darwin’s “Mystery of Mysteries”?
Ancestry 101
A Sense of Place: Evolution of the Sonoran Desert
The Rise of Angiosperms
The Rise of Reptiles
The Rise of Birds
The Rise of Mammals
Welcome to Some of My Favorite Sonoran Desert Vertebrates
Desert Tortoise
Desert Spiny Lizard
Tiger Whiptail Lizard
Gila Monster
Gopher Snake
Western Diamondback Rattlesnake
Ectothermy Versus Endothermy
Gambel’s Quail
Greater Roadrunner
Cooper’s Hawk
Harris’s Hawk
Great Horned Owl
White-Winged Dove
Hummingbirds
Gila Woodpecker
Cactus Wren
Phainopepla
How Many Eggs Are in Your Basket?
Round-Tailed Ground Squirrel
Merriam’s Kangaroo Rat
White-Throated Woodrat
Lesser Long-Nosed Bat
Coyote
Bobcat
Javelina
Sonoran Desert Plants
Saguaro Cactus
Foothills Palo Verde
Desert Mistletoe
A Review of Sonoran Desert Ecosystem Processes and the Evolution of Some of Its Animals and Plants
Humans in the Sonoran Desert
The Conservation Status of Some Sonoran Desert Vertebrates
Major Threats to This Desert
Effects of Human Impacts
Effects of Climate Change
Extent of Protected Lands
The Sonoran Desert Conservation Plan
Some Final Words from the Three Authors That Inspired Me to Write This Book
Acknowledgments
Appendix 1. Conversion Factors for Changing Metric Units into English Units
Appendix 2. List of Representative Species of Reptiles, Birds, and Mammals That Reside in the Sonoran Desert at Least Seasonally
Notes
Bibliography
Index
About the Author