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| Beautiful Minds: The Parallel Lives of Great Apes and Dolphins | 
| Authors: Maddalena Bearzi, Craig B. Stanford
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Category: Book
List Price: $24.95
Buy New: $14.95
You Save: $10.00 (40%)
New (31) from $14.95
Avg. Customer Rating:  4 reviews
Sales Rank: 70209
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 368
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.8
Dimensions (in): 7.1 x 4.6 x 1.4
ISBN: 0674027817
Dewey Decimal Number: 599.881513
EAN: 9780674027817
ASIN: 0674027817
Publication Date: April 30, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: CHARITY SALE!! Brand new, mint condition. 100% of the proceeds benefit literacy efforts of Books for America.
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| Customer Reviews:
A biased review June 19, 2008
4 out of 5 found this review helpful
My review will be biased and I will keep it short, as I happen to be the brother of one of the Authors of "Beautiful Mind" (Maddalena).
Being myself a scientist who has been working on cetaceans for over 20 years, and an author and reviewer of several scientific publications, I am naturally inclined to strong criticism when I read this kind of literature.
And yet, I really like this book. It is elegantly written, full of intriguing stories and ideas, intellectually rich and even good-looking and pleasant to handle in its present novel-like format.
Craig and Maddalena chose a fascinating but also challenging subject and they managed to unfold it with a clear and understandable language and lots of real-life examples.
Their love for the animals gets across every single line of text, but there is no trace of romanticism, pietism or new age. Instead, the reader finds a clear conservation message and a vibrant call to ensure the protection and well-being of these magnificent and highly-evolved creatures.
Five stars.
Fascinating Look Into the Minds of the Cetaceans and Apes Without Anthropomorphizing June 19, 2008
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
Somewhere along the evolutionary path, cetaceans and the great apes parted ways and headed in different evolutionary directions...one to the forests and one to the oceans. And, that was quite some time ago; around 50 million years, and yet the two groups share many common threads behaviorally. How is that possible?
The answer lies in the development of the brain and adaptations to the surrounding environments of each of the species involved. Chimpanzees have adapted to forest life in one way, while gorillas another. The same can be said for dolphins as opposed to orcas and other cetacean species.
This book is an eloquently written look into the minds of the great apes, the cetaceans when compared to humans. It manages to enlighten while being highly entertaining and avoiding the trap of anthropomorphism that is so common when comparing animal species to humans. I would highly recommend this book to all, with the exception of staunch creationists, as it will make you look at dolphins and apes in an entirely new light.
 where two very different worlds collide June 6, 2008
6 out of 6 found this review helpful
I have always been interested in both primates and cetaceans and have read all of the books and articles that I can on the both of them. But this book takes it to a whole new level comparing two animals that seem very different in environment and in body structure. Its amazing how alike we all really are to one another. If you dont believe in the Darwinism theory of evolution this book is not for you. But if you are a true scientist and truly interested in learning about the mind of animals that may truly be very close to humans in intelligence this book is for you.
Must Read April 20, 2008
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
Bearzi and Stanford state that "the evolution of intelligent life might be a likely eventuality rather than a bizarre fluke." The authors link two organismal groups (dolphins and great apes) based on their convergent social behaviors and illuminate the evolution of our own (human) intelligence. This book opens a door into a new realm of fascination within the animal kingdom and why conservation of these iconic creatures is imperative for their survival past 2100.
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Wildlife, nature and the Environment
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