New book eyes Earth's excavators, from microbes to elephants and dinosaurs

Anthony Martin in Emory's Lullwater Forest with the trunk of a pine tree carved up by beetles. Some species of beetles chew through wood to create tunnels where they lay their eggs. (Photo by Ruth Schowalter)

The ordinary person looks at Stone Mountain and sees a solid, unmovable monolith. Emory paleontologist Anthony Martin, who thinks in geologic time, sees something more akin to a giant sugar cube. 

Ever since the crystalized mass of igneous-born minerals rose from deep underground, pushed by the upwelling of magma that formed the Blue Ridge Mountains around 350 million years ago, the giant rock’s flanks have faced continuous assault — and not just from weather and water. 

Stone Mountain “is fighting a battle against life, and life is winning,” Martin writes in the preface of his new book, “Life Sculpted: Tales of the Animals, Plants and Fungi That Drill, Break and Scrape to Shape the Earth.” 

The University of Chicago Press recently published “Life Sculpted," marking the fifth book during the past 10 years by Martin, professor of practice in Emory’s Department of Environmental Sciences. 

Read more here. 

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