Would you believe it if I told you that every bird you see-even the smallest hummingbird-is a dinosaur? Well, that's what many scientists now believe! Follow along as scientists examine ancient fossils and pose new theories on how prehistoric dinosaurs evolved into today's modern birds. Packed with exciting stories of unearthing ancient fossils and tales of what early feathered dinosaurs might have looked like, this book will have imaginations running wild. From the very first birds, with only tiny dino-fuzz covering their bodies, to the mystery of how dinosaurs finally took to the air, listeners will explore the startling connection between the birds they encounter every day and their very distant relatives-the dinosaurs. Christopher Sloan works for National Geographic and has written several children's books on scientific topics.
More than 2,000 years ago, Chinese emperor Qin Shi Huang Di was laid to rest in a tomb guarded by thousands of life-size clay statues of warriors and horse-drawn chariots. Some 1,000 years earlier, the tombs of Chinese emperors were not guarded by clay figures, but by the dead bodies of humans and animals sacrificed for the cause. All over the world, different cultures have conducted an amazing array of intriguing burial practices. On the Indonesian island of Sulawesi, infants are buried in trees so that their spirits might rise up through the trunks toward heaven. Egyptian pyramids and mummification practices continue to fascinate archaeologists the world over. And near the Black Sea in the Ukraine, the tombs of the Amazons hold gold treasures of immeasurable worth. In Bury the Dead, National Geographic senior editor Christopher Sloan conducts a fascinating-and sometimes hair-raising-investigation of how societies around the globe have handled their dead.
