Book Description

"The bright midday sun glinted off the calm waters of the Inland Sea and silhouetted the long, sinuous form of a huge mosasaur lying motionless amid the floating tangle of yellow-green seaweed. Twenty years old and more than thirty feet in length, the adult mosasaur was almost full-grown and was much larger than any of the fish or sharks that lived in the shallow seaway. A swift and powerful swimmer over short distances, the mosasaur used surprise and the thrust of his muscular tail to outrun his prey with a short burst of speed." —from Chapter One

Although Kansas is now high and dry, at one time the state, like most of the Midwest, was under water. Until the land finally rose above sea level during the final years of the Late Cretaceous, the area was covered by a succession of oceans whose geologic record is preserved in the sedimentary rock that covers the Great Plains.

Oceans of Kansas tells the story of the five million years when giant sharks, marine reptiles called mosasaurs, pteranodons, and birds with teeth flourished in and around this shallow sea. The abundant and well-preserved remains of these prehistoric animals were the source of great excitement in the scientific community of the day when they were first discovered in the 1860s. Two of the best-known fossil hunters of the time, E. D. Cope and O. C. Marsh, competed vigorously to recover the best specimens. During the past 130 years, thousands have been collected and sent to museums around the world.

Michael J. Everhart tells the fascinating story of their discovery, re-creates the animals and the world in which they lived, and presents the fruits of the latest research into the natural history of America’s ancient inland sea. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

great dinosaur book for technical readers
As a student of vertebrate paleontology, I find this book easy to read and extremely detailed. I loved this book and it featured two or three times the information as other dinosaur textbooks such as Dinosaurs: The Textbook, which I also own. I suggest those who want to learn technical knowledge on this subject to buy this book. Because this book is quite expensive I suggest buying it used. My used book was just like new. I have bought many of my dinosaurian books used and all have came in great condition.

Another Dinosaur Textbook?
NOTE: I haven't read this book cover-to-cover (I have a loaner copy from Blackwell), so keep that in mind when reading.

Another dinosaur textbook? This book competes directly with older dinosaur textbooks by Spencer Lucas and Fastovsky & Weishampel, as well as quasi-textbooks like the one by Dingus & Rowe. Martin's book covers much of the same ground, but has a different overall focus. Whereas F & W's text is largely focused on dinosaurs themselves, Martin's new book focuses largely on using dinosaurs to teach broader, more all-encompassing concepts. In fact, it does this to such a degree that the title might better be "Introduction to Science via Dinosaurs." Of the 16 chapters in the book, only 11-15 deal directly with the different groups of dinosaurs. (A better organization for the book might be to put these chapters much earlier in the book, since the terms detailed in them are used in most of the earlier chapters!) Other chapters discuss topics of great importance to paleontologists, and therefore certainly deserve coverage in a book such as this! They include discussions of how science works (in the context of defining things and scientific methodology, Chapters 1-2), how/why paleo and geology are sciences (Chap. 3), history of dinosaur studies (Chap. 4), anatomy, histology & classification (Chap. 5), taphonomy (Chap. 6), ichnology (Chap. 7), eggs & nests (Chap. 8), feeding habits (Chap. 9), evolution (Chap. 10), and extinctions plus birds as dinosaurs (Chap. 16). Some concepts are covered elsewhere in the book, too (e.g., histology in the theropod chapter, genetics in the evolution chapter, paleobiogeography covered throughout the text, etc.)

Aside from the above criticism, the organization of the book is pretty good. Each chapter opens with a hypothetical scenario designed to illustrate the importance of understanding the material presented in each chapter; the chapters end with summaries, suggested review/discussion questions and, in many cases, URLs for further information. The book contains numerous pictures and schematics, mostly in color (though most photos are, sadly, shrunken, darkened, and restricted to the page margins such that things described in the captions are invisible in the actual photo) - color photos are largely absent in other dinosaur textbooks (but their inclusion in Martin's book is probably the culprit for the high price for a cloth-back book!) Key terms (and names) are presented in bold throughout the book, though a few of the terms emphasized are rarely, if ever, used in day-to-day paleontology (e.g., "panaramittee"). There is a fairly extensive glossary and a nicely complete index.

The text is quite explanatory, and mostly straightforward. In many instances, it's downright lighthearted (particularly in figure captions, which often use things like "English professors" for scale!)

One thing that Martin's book presents that may scare some readers away is a quantity of math (algebra). Math is virtually absent in other dinosaur texts, but is used well here to demonstrate how paleontologists can quantify and analyze various aspects of their research (e.g., calculating the discharge and momentum of moving water to explain taphonomic sorting, speed as determined from footprints, the volume of an ellipsoid egg, Archimedes' displacement principle, and how radiometric ages are determined). Martin thoughtfully breaks using each equation into basic, numbered steps (something even most math books never do), making the appearance of the math much less daunting. Of course, for everything Martin covers in the book, one could easily complain that any one subject is not detailed enough, or that some things were not covered at all, but as with all dinosaur textbooks, one must keep in mind that typical undergraduate courses, for which this book is clearly designed, are meant to do precisely what this book does: use dinosaurs as a locus for introducing many other sciences...that's "introducing," not "covering exhaustively." Even the 16 chapters in this book may be too many for a standard 12-week semester!

The book is enough up-to-date to include important new finds as the feathered Caudipteryx, new Jurassic ankylosaurs, etc.) It is also quite even-handed in covering "hot-button" topics (e.g. presenting both the "pro-" and "anti-theropod" points of view on bird origins, as well as scientific ethics, including private collecting).

Martin's book is a serious contender in the small but growing realm of texts aimed at using dinosaurs to introduce students to science as a whole. It is less "dinocentric" than others, but perhaps that is for the better, because it thus more adequately covers other scientific disciplines, thus providing a better overall tour through science as a whole. Martin notes in his preface that he considers himself an educator above all else, and this book clearly is intended to educate. Only the shrunken photos and rather prohibitive price (for a non-hardback) hold it back. ... Read more

Book Description

Since the extinction of the dinosaurs, hoofed mammals have been the planet's dominant herbivores.Native to all continents except Australia and Antarctica, they include not only even-toed artiodactyls (pigs, hippos, camels, deer, antelopes, giraffes, sheep, goats, and cattle) and odd-toed perissodactyls (horses and rhinos), but also tethytheres (elephants and their aquatic relatives, manatees and seas cows) and cetaceans (whales and dolphins), which descended from hoofed land mammals.Recent paleontological and biological discoveries have deepened our understanding of their evolution and in some cases have made previous theories obsolete.In Horns, Tusks, and Flippers, Donald R. Prothero and Robert M. Schoch present a compelling new evolutionary history of these remarkable creatures, combining the latest scientific evidence with the most current information about their ecology and behavior.

Using an approach based on cladistics, the authors consider both living and extinct ungulates.Included in their discussion are the stories of rhinos, whose ancestors include both dinosaur-sized hornless species and hippo-like river waders; elephants, whose earliest ancestors had neither tusks nor trunks; and whales, whose descent from hoofed mesonychids has never properly been described for the lay audience.Prothero and Schoch also update the evolutionary history of the horse, correcting the frequent errors made in textbooks and popular works, and they make available to the general public new evidence about the evolution of camels, horned antelopes, and cattle.In addition, they raise important conservation issues and relate anecdotes of significantfossil finds.

Scientifically accurate and up to date, generously illustrated, and clearly written, Horns, Tusks, and Flippers is a useful and much-needed resource for specialists in the fields of paleontology, zoology, ecology, and evolutionary biology, as well as for general readers interested in learning more about the story of life on earth. ... Read more

Book Description

"A landmark work, a book that paleontologists, ornithologists, biogeographers, and ecologists alike will use as a resource for some time to come." James O. Farlow

THE LOST WORLD OF THE MOA investigates one of the richest and most unusual faunas in the world, one that thrived in isolation for 80 million years, but that over the past 2000 years has been reduced to a shadow of its former glory.It was a fauna dominated by birds.In one of the most dramatic extinctions of modern times, half of these species were removed from the planet forever. ... Read more

Book Description

Richard Alley, one of the world's leading climate researchers, tells the fascinating history of global climate changes as revealed by reading the annual rings of ice from cores drilled in Greenland. In the 1990s he and his colleagues made headlines with the discovery that the last ice age came to an abrupt end over a period of only three years. Here Alley offers the first popular account of the wildly fluctuating climate that characterized most of prehistory--long deep freezes alternating briefly with mild conditions--and explains that we humans have experienced an unusually temperate climate. But, he warns, our comfortable environment could come to an end in a matter of years.

The Two-Mile Time Machine begins with the story behind the extensive research in Greenland in the early 1990s, when scientists were beginning to discover ancient ice as an archive of critical information about the climate. Drilling down two miles into the ice, they found atmospheric chemicals and dust that enabled them to construct a record of such phenomena as wind patterns and precipitation over the past 110,000 years. The record suggests that "switches" as well as "dials" control the earth's climate, affecting, for example, hot ocean currents that today enable roses to grow in Europe farther north than polar bears grow in Canada. Throughout most of history, these currents switched on and off repeatedly (due partly to collapsing ice sheets), throwing much of the world from hot to icy and back again in as little as a few years.

Alley explains the discovery process in terms the general reader can understand, while laying out the issues that require further study: What are the mechanisms that turn these dials and flip these switches? Is the earth due for another drastic change, one that will reconfigure coastlines or send certain regions into severe drought? Will global warming combine with natural variations in Earth's orbit to flip the North Atlantic switch again? Predicting the long-term climate is one of the greatest challenges facing scientists in the twenty-first century, and Alley tells us what we need to know in order to understand and perhaps overcome climate changes in the future. ... Read more

Reviews (9)

Timely and important information about climate change
The whole issue of global warming has seemed confusing to the ordinary punter. On the one hand we hear dire warnings, on the other we also hear that "the jury is still out". This book was written by a scientist who was involved in analysing the information provided by ice cores during "three trips to Antarctica, five trips to Greenland, and countless hours in frozen laboratories". He knows what he is talking about. In this book he explains for the lay reader why the two-mile ice cores obtained from Greenland are so important, what they tell us about the Earth's climate in the past (and how this information is supported by other climate records), and what they suggest about the Earth's climate in the future.

The ice core data is recent and very important. I think that anyone having read this book will be up to date with the latest scientific data on climate change and its scientific justification. While some of the information is rather technical, the author has successfully attempted to make it understandable, interesting and relevant for the non-scientist.

Not like the cubes in your fridge
Alley joins the growing number of field scientists relating their experiences and the research performed by them. In his case the field is the top of the Greenland Ice Cap. The research is the study of ice patterns stretching back over 100 000 years. What do these patterns tell us? Need we care? He explains detail with clarity and detail how the research is done, and describes what has been revealed by it. What those finds tells us of the past, present and might mean in the future become the remainder of the book. One thing stands out vividly - climate not only varies more than we believe, it changes far more rapidly than we expected.

The Greenland Ice Cap bears an astonishingly detailed record of environmental events. Far more than simply packed snow, this massive archive keeps information about distant volcanic events, how much salt is in the sea water and what kind of winds played over the Earth's surface. Even conditions in distant Asia are recorded here in the dust layered within the ice. There are records of long periods of cold and announcements about continental drifting. Alley explains all the elements that must be examined in the layered ice, how they came about and why they occurred. Earth's solar orbit, its tilting angle to the sun, and the slow precessional rotation of the poles. All these motions are further complicated by oceanic currents, wind patterns and humidity levels. Alley describes tracking some of the variations as "following a roller-coaster with a man bouncing on a bungee cord while spinning a yo-yo". It's a dizzying picture and he's quick to point out that many points remain unexplained.

Is this an issue that should concern us? Human history from the onset of agriculture has been a period of unusual stability. The future, Alley tells us, is highly uncertain. The only certainty is that climate will change - it must. Global warming is a fact, not a supposition, he asserts. One result of it will be the addition of fresh water into the "conveyor belt" of oceanic water exchange. The North Atlantic is the key site. Interruption of that exchange by extra meltwater from North America will intrude - chilling northern Europe. Human populations will be affected differently in various places. There will be winners and losers in this situation, but the losers will certainly outnumber the winners. How severe will the changes be? "I don't know". How fast will the changes come about? "I don't know". His lack of knowledge doesn't stem from lack of effort. He reminds us that the information gleaned from Greenland is still new. There's much to learn and do. He calls to us: "Send us your brightest students to help, and cheer them on!". A good piece of advice, but not one likely to be taken by a people choosing business instead of science.
[stephen a. haines - Ottawa, Canada]

Superb presentation of solid (ice) science
The remarkable discovery of abrupt climate change is presented at what I considered just the right level. The annotated bibliography refers the reader to the original research papers. The acknowledgements are a graceful and detailed tribute to the author's colleagues. No superfluous material. The author's scientific personality shines through. This is the most enjoyable science book I've read in the past few years.

No unifying theme
While this book is a nice quick read, I find that it lacks unity. Alley spends much time discussing the 'conveyor belt' of ocean currents, and how it's shutdown causes world cooling. However, in later sections he states that greenhouse gases will likely warm the planet. This contradicts his earlier statements that short term warming causes ice melting, shutting down the ocean currents, and utimately _cooling_ the earth - possibly even putting it in an ice age.

If anything, the book is a mosaic of the tools scientists use to try and study earth's climate. However, what one takes away from this book is that we really don't know how it works -we just have good ideas. The final chapters are laden with comments about how we have no idea what the future holds in terms of climate. This detracts from the earlier discussion since it seems like we have no reason to believe Alley.

The analogies used in this book are also quite poor. Please give your readers some credit. The analogies are so dummed down that they are outright ridiculous. They would be appropriate for a 10-year old (or younger).

Covers a lot in a small space
Although I never completed the degree, I have most of a baccalaureate in geology. Since paleontology and earth history were my main interests, the title Two-Mile Time Machine: Ice Cores, Abrupt Climate Change, and Our Future by Richard B. Alley naturally caught my eye. The book is an excellent exposition on the recent data collection from ice cores obtained from the more stable portions of the Greenland ice sheet. I had come across this data source before while on a geologic field trip on Santorini helping with research on the volcanic activity that occured there during the Minoan period. It had been information from this source that had helped to date the volcanic event, so I was particularly interested in learning more about how it was obtained and about its reliability.

In part two of the text, the author lucidly describes the rationale behind the selection of ice and of Greenland as an "archival" source. He discusses the methods in and problems of obtaining and preserving the material intact and uncontaminated and the methods of analysis that produced the data. Throughout the following chapters, he lays out for the reader the thinking that went into its interpretation and how this information can be used as a paradigm with which future outcomes of climate change might be predicted. Because Alley, a professor of geoscience at Penn State, took an actual part in all of these proceedings and is an active scientist himself, he is well positioned to give an informative account of the topic. He also has a readable writing style which many such individuals do not.

Although I felt that his attempt to "get down to" the level of his non-technical audience was sometimes a little patronizing, I did think that his explanations of some of the physical systems was very clear. The description of the events leading to and during the Younger Dryas got a little confusing with the comparison to a roller coaster with a bungee jumper and a yo-yo, but by the end of the chapter one still had a fair idea of what he was trying to convey.--I think he was just trying a little too hard. His explanations of important environmental cycles with which I was already familiar--like those of the carbon, the water, the heat distribution, the oceanic and lake water overturn, and atmospheric cycles and those of the Coriolis and Milankovich effects--were very clear. In fact they were clearer than some textbook descriptions I've read. Although I had read of the effects of fresh water on the North Atlantic "conveyor belt" and its subsequent effect on global climate, I had not encountered the Dansgaard-Oeschger cycle or the Heinrich-Bond oscillations in my reading in the past. The author's presentation was therefore of interest to me.

For most readers, part five will probably be of greatest interest. Here the author puts what is known or suspected of climatic mechanics to work in predicting possible impacts of human activity on global climate and the world's population. Here too he points out the nature of the scientific method and its limitations. He is quite clear that some of what he states in his final analysis with respect to the future is personal opinion and not science.

As an earlier reviewer points out, the book is an excellent portrayal of how science works, particularly in the aspects of framing a problem and a means of approaching it experimentally, and interpreting the data that arises therefrom. I found it a very entertaining book. ... Read more

Amazon.com

How much is that T. Rex in the window? Journalist Steve Fiffer looks at the most contentious paleontological find ever in Tyrannosaurus Sue.This scientific, sociological, and legal study is entertaining and insightful, highlighting the personalities of the researchers, attorneys, and tribal and federal authorities who struggled for years over the ownership rights to the best-preserved Rex specimen yet found. From its discovery in South Dakota in 1990 by Susan Hendrickson and Peter Larson through the tortuous court cases to decide its fate to the final auction at Sotheby's, Fiffer finds just the right words to describe the action, a difficult task given the conflicting reports of contesting witnesses. Professional jealousy and academic elitism (or concern for valuable scientific material and Indian property rights) led to accusations of illegal collecting and the seizure of the skeleton by federal agents shortly after its move to Larson's Black Hills Institute. Suits, countersuits, and indictments escalated the struggle into an all-out war with vast sums of money and professional reputations at stake. In the end, Larson was imprisoned as an example to illegal collectors despite his sincere belief that he had worked within the law, and Sue was awarded to property owner Maurice Williams and purchased for $8 million by Chicago's Field Museum with the assistance of the McDonald's and Disney corporations. Tyrannosaurus Sue is a riveting tale, well-written and just unsettling enough to provoke thought and discussion. --Rob Lightner ... Read more

Reviews (14)

A very disturbing book on the US Justice system ...
Listening to this very well done audio book I immediately wrote a letter to Vice President Al Gore. Warning: This book will horrify you with regards to the maliciousness of the Republican Department of Justice in the early 1990's.

Vice President Gore I have just been listening to a very disturbing audio book called, Tyrannosaurus Sue : The Extraordinary Saga of the Largest, Most Fought over T-Rex Ever Found. The book is about a real story which involved some palentologists who unearthed a T-Rex and the malicious attempts of a manipulated Republican Justice Government division to destroy not only the palentogists livelyhood but their company which endevoured to save and restore dinosaur fossils.

I would like the United States to pass a policy which would allow the collection of dinosaur bones for both profit and non-profit enterprises from Federal and State lands for the intended purpose of science, preservation and display.

I have never been so angered by the abuse of perceived justice by the United States as I have heard in this case. It made me sick to hear how manipulated Republican Justice Government officials (Kevin Schaffer) could use the cloak of the law in such a malicious, vendictive way.

By passing a policy which would allow for the collection of dinosaur bones for both profit and non-profit enterprises from Federal and State lands for the intended purpose of science, preservation and display, the above injustice in the Tyrannosaurus Sue will not happen again.

It should not be a crime in this country to make a profit from earning a livelyhood and it definitely shouldn't be so in the case of palentogists, especially if they find the fossils on Federal or State owned/controlled Government land.

Arnold D Yoshida-Veness

Only in America
In the summer of 1990, a team of fossil hunters representing the Black Hills Institute of Geological Research, led by Peter Larson, unearthed the nearly complete skeleton of a mighty darn large Tyrannosaurus rex dinosaur buried on South Dakota land owned by one Maurice Williams. Larson paid Williams $5,000 for the skeleton, named it "Sue", and then moved it to the Institute's facility at Hill City for preservation and restoration. In May 1992, the Bandini hit the fan with an FBI raid and confiscation, and TYRANNOSAURUS SUE is the story of the 7-year legal mess that resulted. A mess that could only happen in America, the Land of the Free and the Home of Eternal Litigation.

Steve Fiffer, a Windy City journalist, has ably reconstructed Sue's saga, from the time her bones were spotted by Sue Hendrickson in a sandstone cliff, to their auction years later to an unlikely consortium comprised of the Field Museum of Natural History, Disney Corporation, and McDonald's. Most of the narrative details the protracted and acerbic civil and criminal litigation that surrounded custody of the fragmented skeleton, the chief contestants being Larson, Williams, the Cheyenne River Sioux, and the U.S. Justice Department. If the reader is a paleontologist, or just otherwise fascinated by big, toothy lizards, then this book is a must read. However, my interest was only mildly inquisitive, so I found parts of it dry going. First of all, there are no photos - not a single one. I find this hard to fathom, since Sue's excavation site was extensively photographed, the various court sessions heavily (if only locally) covered, and the reconstructed skeleton was put on permanent display before the book was published. I mean, c'mon Steve! Secondly, that part of the account describing historical aspects of dinosaur hunting in the U.S. was pretty much irrelevant to the central story, and Chapter 10, which contained too much of the criminal trial's verbatim testimony, was cause for Droopy Eyelids Syndrome. Lastly, I couldn't muster much sympathy for any one or more of the principal courtroom adversaries. Peter Larson, indicted with others from the Institute by the Feds for illegally removing artifacts from government land, was, at best, a naïve fossil-hunting nerd, or, at worst, a cunning and disingenuous outlaw. The government's chief prosecutor, Kevin Schieffer, came across as unreasonable and intransigent. Maurice Williams, who denied he was selling Sue when given that $5K, was the quintessence of greed. And how about those the Cheyenne River Sioux? A bunch of opportunists! Patrick Duffy, Larson's lawyer, conducted himself like a certifiable idiot. The only likable person in the entire tale seemed to be Sue Hendrickson, but, with no picture, it's hard to say for sure.

The value of TYRANNOSAURUS SUE was, to me, learning something about the world around me that I didn't know before. For the average reader, it's a fine exposé of what happens when a government prosecutor has way too much time on his hands.

The State rivals T-Rex in amorality
One of the greatest dinosaur finds in history - perhaps THE greatest - was caught up in politics, money and jealousy. It is just pathetic what the government did to this scientist and makes one wonder question the rationality of "officials" who would commit such deeds.

All the ins and outs of scientific rivalry, government bumbling and misplaced priorities are thoroughly described. The story is fascinating and will hold your attention for days. Our view of T-rex and dinosaurs in general changed following this discovery. Good book, guaranteed to make you furious.

This Book Tell's You How Pathetic Our Government Really Is
I have really enjoyed reading this book. I'm a Dinosaur nut and this book is about my favorite Dino the T-Rex so it was an obvious attraction to me to read. What I read only proved to me that our Government is pathetic to say the least. To do what they did to Peter Larson was a crime. Not only do they steal the find of the century but they lay bogus charges on him that ultimatly sent him to jail and nearly ruined his life! How can the US Government do what they did? They have been doing it to people for years and Mr Larson was only one more person who has suffered at the hands of our government. It's terrible when Dinosaur hunters cant even dig up bones for fear that they might be prosecuted for stealing so called Government property. When I first read this book I was thinking I was going to be reading about the find of the century but what I found out was that the US Government is nothing but a bunch of theif's who took the low road to try and ruin a good man who was doing his job. The story of Sue and the events that surrounded her is very very good and a must read for Dino lovers of all ages and it will show just how ruthless our Government can be.

Perfect Balance between Science and Law
A great book that not only helps you understand paleontology and the fossil money game, but also the twists and turns of legal prosecution. The story unfolds like a novel, a tragic tale of greed whose only flaw may be that it is too sympathetic toward the fossil hunters, who, it seems to me tried to pay way too little for Sue. ... Read more

Book Description

Gardeners use native plants for several reasons. For many, their initial attraction is to native plants’ reputation for being low maintenance, as well as their ability to survive difficult soil and weather conditions. But equally appealing is the joy of connecting with nature and our state’s natural heritage and the satisfaction of creating a real sense of place rather than just another cookie-cutter landscape.

"Landscaping with Native Plants of Minnesota" is the first book designed to help you identify Minnesota’s native plants and plant communities and to demonstrate how to use them effectively in a typical home landscape. In this book you’ll find the basic gardening information you need for working with the native plants of Minnesota. You’ll learn what level of native-plant landscaping is right for you and get valuable information on the process of designing a natural garden that fits your lifestyle and family. You’ll also find lots of plant lists for specific styles of gardens.

In the Gallery of Gardens section, you’ll be inspired by what your fellow Minnesota gardeners have done with native plants in their own landscapes, including a prairie restoration, a suburban woodland garden, and a garden for wildlife.

The Native Plant Profiles section includes comprehensive descriptions of some 600 species of flowers and groundcovers, trees, shrubs, vines, evergreens, grasses, and ferns native to Minnesota, as well as information on planting, maintenance, and landscape uses for each plant. ... Read more

Book Description

This is the first time that a single book has attempted tocover the whole of the fossil history of insects so comprehensively.The volume embraces the history of insect palaeontology, methods forstudying fossils, the taphonomic processes leading to their formation,the diagnostic features of all insect orders, both extant and extinct,the major fossils of each order, and the implications that can bedrawn from the palaeoentomological record about past ecology andclimates. Many new insights are presented. It is the product principally of the largest palaeoentomological groupin the world, in Moscow, and makes full use of the remarkablecollection that these workers have developed. It includes a very largenumber of illustrations showing both real fossils and reconstructionsof extinct taxa. The systematic part is treated in a phylogeneticframework, with information on fossil groups being used to helpinterpret relationships. An appendix provides information on virtuallyall sites where fossil insects have been found. This book is essentialto all students of palaeoentomology and contains a wealth ofinformation that will be of interest to students of insectevolutionary relationships and of palaeontology in general. ... Read more

Book Description

Peking Man, a cave man once thought a great hunter who had first tamed fire, actually was a composite of the gnawed remains of some fifty women, children, and men unfortunate enough to have been the prey of the giant cave hyena.Researching the famous fossil site of Dragon Bone Hill in China, scientists Noel T. Boaz and Russell L. Ciochon retell the story of the cave's unique species of early human, Homo erectus. Boaz and Ciochon take readers on a gripping scientific odyssey.New evidence shows that Homo erectus was an opportunist who rode a tide of environmental change out Africa and into Eurasia, puddle-jumping from one gene pool to the next.Armed with a shaky hold on fire and some sharp rocks, Homo erectus incredibly survived for over 1.5 million years, much longer than our own species Homo sapiens has been on Earth. Tell-tale marks on fossil bones show that the lives of these early humans were brutal, ruled by hunger and who could strike the hardest blow, yet there are fleeting glimpses of human compassion as well. The small brain of Homo erectus and its strangely unchanging culture indicate that the species could not talk. Part of that primitive culture included ritualized aggression, to which the extremely thick skulls of Homo erectus bear mute witness.Both a vivid recreation of the unimagined way of life of a prehistoric species, so similar yet so unlike us, and a fascinating exposition of how modern multidisciplinary research can test hypotheses in human evolution, Dragon Bone Hill is science writing at its best. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Reads like a mystery novel
This overview of old history regarding the worlds' most extensive fossil hominid site is great. The sequence of discovery, the loss of the fossils in WWII confusion, and the telling of the modern rethinking of the site and its significance is really very well done. ... Read more

Book Description

Reviews (7)

Best book I've read in the last 20 years
Shazam!! This book may be the most fascinating work I have ever read. It opened my eyes to so many new things, such as a map of glaciated Quebec 7,000 years ago, vanished proglacial lakes as big as Alberta and 800 miles long, the overkill explanation for the the disappearance of North American megafauna, the whys of the Channeled Scablands, etc., etc. It has extraordinary passages on the changing of the courses of major rivers, the return of biota to formerly glaciated regions, the spread of fish species on the North American continent, and contains very realistic pencil drawings of various ice age animals, especially the short-faced bear. The maps alone make the book worth a five star rating. I had seen articles and read books on many of these topics previously, but Professor's Pielou's easily readable, expressive prose integrates all of these concepts as a seamless whole in a peerless manner. If you are at all interested in the Ice Ages, caution: this book can easily make you into a passionate devotee. A musthave-mustread-mustkeep at the head of the bookshelf treatise. A pity five stars is the maximum rating. I'd have gone higher.

Great book on the end of the ice ages
I am not a geologist, just a glacier climber. I found this book well writing and detailed, but not beyond a laypersons grasp. Pielou does an excellent job in picturing North American during and after the iceage. The book includes information on flora and animals, as well as origins of North America's indigenous people. It made me view areas I hike and climb in a whole new light! I could not put this book down and it is one of the rare books that I missed reading when I finished!

Very well written account of the "history" of North America
Focuses on the causes of the glacial cycle and its impact. Has lots of interesting maps.

OUTSTANDING! A wonderful intro. to the Ecology of N. America
This is a marvelous book. I confess that when I first heard that Professor Pielou had written another book my heart sank, as I have found some of her earlier work beyond me (my Statistics professor in Grad school told us straight that "nobody understands Pielou, but they'll be very impressed to see herbook on your shelf."). Have no fear! This is a highly readable highly informative summary of a critical phase in the ecological history of Nort America. Pielou brings up interesting questions, provides tantalizing hints, presents elegant arguments, and gives clear and forthright explanations. Beautifully illustrated, easy to read, a must for every advanced undergrad or first year graduate student interested in the field.

Intriguing, fascinating and well written!
I discovered this book in the library stacks and enjoyed it so much that I had to purchase my own copy. It is an accessible book, with scientific data and interpretation but Pielou writes in an lyrical fashion, so the lay person can understand and visualize. ... Read more

Book Description

Several times in the distant past, catastrophic extinctions have swept the Earth, causing more than half of all species -from single-celled organisms to awe-inspiring behemoths -to suddenly vanish and be replaced by new life forms. Today the rich diversity of life on the Earth is again in grave danger -and the cause is not a sudden cataclysmic event but rather humankind´s devastation of the environment. Is life on our planet teetering on the brink of another mass extinction? In this absorbing new book, acclaimed paleontologist Peter D. Ward answers this daunting question with a resounding yes.Elaborating on and updating Ward´s previous work, The End of Evolution, Rivers in Time delves into his newest discoveries. The book presents the gripping tale of the author´s investigations into the history of life and death on Earth through a series of expeditions that have brought him ever closer to the truth about mass extinctions, past and future. First describing the three previous mass extinctions -those marking the transition from the Permian to the Triassic periods 245 million years ago, the Triassic to the Jurassic 200 million years ago, and the Cretaceous to the Tertiary 65 million years ago -Ward assesses the present devastation in which countless species are coming to the end of their evolution at the hand of that wandering, potentially destructive force called Homo sapiens. The book takes readers to the Philippine Sea, now eerily empty of life, where only a few decades of catching fish by using dynamite have resulted in eviscerated coral reefs -and a dramatic reduction in the marine life the region can support. Ward travels to Canada´s Queen Charlotte Islands to investigate the extinctions that mark the boundary between the Triassic and Jurassic periods. He ventures also into the Karoo desert of southern Africa, where some of Earth´s earliest land life emerged from the water and stood poised to develop into mammal form, only to be obliterated during the Permian/Triassic extinction.Rivers of Time provides reason to marvel and mourn, to fear and hope, as it bears stark witness to the urgency of the Earth´s present predicament: Ward offers powerful proof that if radical measures are not taken to protect the biodiversity of this planet, much of life as we know it may not survive. ... Read more

Reviews (5)

More a fan of Rare Earth
I found myself greatly of mixed feelings as I read Ward's Rivers in Time. It seemed as though he was having difficulty identifying the audience to whom he wished to direct himself--or with a desire to appeal to everyone There are threads of autobiographical "adventure" narrative, geological/paleontological field description, extinction theory--including the tried and true KT boundary extinction of the dinosaurs--a discussion of the quaternary extinction of the North American megafauna, a discussion of the Hawaiian Island biota and its extinction, and an appeal to world conscience to prevent what the author perceives as a current biological crisis.

I might see the autobiographical information as appealing to a young male reader's sense of adventure, except that I suspect there is not nearly enough of the suspense element or the do or die component. There is much build up in places, but it often leads to a feeling of anticlimax. The gentleman has definitely been a lot of interesting places, which is enviable perhaps, but I'm not sure that the majority of his readers would really relish the sometimes stultifying dullness of the environments in which the author has spent considerable time doing mind numbing work. The apparent glamour of finding fossils often obscures the painstaking labor it takes to locate and excavate them.

The descriptive passages seem to suggest a disappointed novelist. They might have been more enjoyable if they had not been in a first person format. For those who can "identify" with the heroes of fictional works when they're written in first person, this volume might be an excellent choice. Personally, the only point when I found myself getting into the spirit of the thing was when the author described the Hell Creek formation in the Fort Peck Reservoir region. Since I've done some geological/paleontological field work there myself, it brought back old memories--not all of them pleasant. (Camping in the sticky "gumbo" of the badlands in a rainy May, screening alligator scoots, triceratops frills, fish scales and duckbill bones while standing [waist]-deep in icy cold lake water leaves much to be desired by way of experiences; I've certainly had better.)

The description of the various outcrops illustrating extinction events was interesting. Many of them, including the Hell Creek, are in inaccessible areas. The author's chapters on the Karoo were especially good. I had heard of it before but had not read as thorough a description in other works as Ward provided in Rivers in Time. His discussion of the Georgian outcrops of the Tertiary recovery were entirely new to me.

In general his discussion of extinction was more balanced than many writers. Although he gives a large word-count to the KT extinction, he also covers the Permian event and the Quaternary die-out with some degree of thoroughness. He might have given the opposing views more of a forum, however, as he makes the situations seem pretty much cut and dried which they aren't.

Throughout the volume the reader can't help but feel there is a hidden agenda, and the final chapters produce it with Ward's appeal to public conscience over modern biota loss throughout the world. If this was his ultimate goal, I think it would have been more helpful to have had it more clear cut from the beginning. It would have tied the various chapters together a little better. I feel he did a much better job of pulling various material together, providing alternate views of events, and making an ecological statement in his earlier book Rare Earth, written with coauthor Donald Brownlee. If I was making a decision about which book to put into my personal collection, I would chose that work over the present.

Mass extinction update-an elusive gang of killers.
I really like Peter Ward's books. He presently serves as my 'geological advisor', as I also am a geologist. He is not as dogmatic as some within the field of mass extinction, since he recognises it is now becoming increasingly obvious that in most mass extinctions, these ancient 'killers' did not act alone. Early arguments in the debate of mass extinction, especially the Cretaceous-Tertiary (K/T) event, were in the form of either/or, (eg volcanism versus asteroid/comet impact), rather than one big event following and/or combining with another.

The old argument "one or the other" is now often questioned on the basis of statistics itself. You could just as well turn this logic around-if it so happened, that once in a proverbial blue moon in geological time (which is really long) TWO OR MORE events occurred at roughly the same time-wouldn't this produce a really big mass extinction??. Maybe to exterminate a large number of species against the backdrop of reasonable resistance of life to widespread extinction, more than one major event has to occur. This sort of scenario is supported, for example, by the many impact craters which have been dated and which have produce no mass extinctions. This is the general view espoused by this book.

The arguments over statistics is not irrelevant here. Researchers have indeed found that what may appear to be gradual decline in the geological record can be sudden, and vice versa, simply due to such an overlooked thing, for example, as 'sampling' error. For big animals such as dinosaurs it is particularly problematic, because sampling bias occurs in level of exposure, type of rock and degree of preservation for what is already a rarely preserved animal. The geological record is baised in what it tends to preserve, and what it tends to not show. Stratigraphical studies have shown for some time, for example, that vast amounts of time can transpire in a sedimentary sequence, with nothing to show for it, basins are often very dynamic and problematic in this respect. "Thickness" does not often equate wih equivalent time, even in 'quiet' environments. The upshot of all this, and detailed dates on the Decaan Traps for example, have shown clearly, that increased volcanism, climate changes, and at least some general species decline was occurring *before* the clay layer which was produced by impact at the 'K/T boundary'. Maybe we should expect this for 'mass extinction', to produce a real killer blow (ie mass extinction) maybe life has to be wounded first.

Peter Ward in this book focusses on four mass extinctions- the P/T, the end Triassic, the K/T, and the present. There is good evidence for similarities -in the end Permian it is suggested to be due to life adapted to ice ages, then increased volcanism and increased CO2 with hothouse, and possible sea level changes. At the K/T it was ocean changes (?), then volcanism and increased CO2, and then impact. At the present a suprisingly similar situation appears to be occurring-now it's climate change (drying of the Mediterranean, prevalence of ice ages), evolution of man (from these two possibly), and now carbon dioxide emission.

The end Triassic, along with the end Permian, are the least understood extinction events. Peter Ward takes us to the red sandstones of the Karoo (P/T), the Queen Charlotte Islands off the coast of Canada (end Triassic), and Soviet Georgia in the former USSR (K/T), to unravel some of these mysteries. The last portion of the book looks at the present extinction event-with man as the major influence. An extended discussion of the Hawaiian islands is given.

Peter Ward mentions that the start of the Triassic worldwide often contains redbeds, even near the poles-suggesting hothouse conditions. From my experience in New South Wales, Australia, this is true. The start of the Triassic in NSW is interesting in that it seems also utterly barren of coal-despite alot of coal through the Permian. Something happened-the organisms were all dead, apparently. There are alot of redbeds at the boundary too-hothouse conditions-even though New South Wales was near the poles at the time. It is interesting to see these sort of patterns worldwide, something strange indeed seems to have been going on at the start of the Triassic/end Permian.

One disappointment, also pointed out by others, is the lack of good diagrams, photos and the like. There are a few, but there could certainly be more. Mr Ward-rock sequences are visually interesting, as are fossils and diagrams-put a few more in please! And what about the Ordovician extinction, and others?

A good read, and a good guide to updates on extinction scenarios.

A planet is very ill, . . .
. . . "but it's considered bad form to discuss it over the patient's sickbed," said Robert Campbell.*

Peter Ward has no qualms about discussing this patient's condition. He would probably shout it from mountain tops if he thought anybody would listen. Rivers In Time is a call to readers to join him in diagnosis and therapy to restore the patient to health. Ward vehemently asserts that our planet's in trouble - again. As a paleontologist specializing in extinction, he has deep insight into the circumstances of the mass deaths occurring through Earth's history. He shares these insights with us in vivid prose describing the great dyings of millions of years ago. His descriptions of the evidence surrounding the loss of multiple life forms make compelling reading. He takes us on his journeys through southern Africa, the Canadian West Coast and Pacific Islands. Along the way he shares the evidence of extinctions in deep time, charting events and conditions.

This book, however, is not simply a history of extinctions nor a scientific treatise. It is a warning from the past about our future. Ward builds his scenarios in order to examine the evidence surrounding the extinctions in hope of discovering what caused them. In each case he goes on to describe the subsequent conditions in which new life forms evolved. The emerging pattern remains obscure. One fact stands out, however. Life became increasingly diverse in the eras after the sudden loss of major extinction events. Knowledge of diversity is important in understanding what is occurring now, and what that means for the future of our planet and ourselves. And we aren't spending enough resources in learning about how diverse the life surrounding us actually is. That ignorance is a charge against our survival account.

No extinction has received more attention than the disappearance of the dinosaurs. Our children know that without their passing, the mammals would have remained tiny, nocturnal, creatures, hidden and obscure. Ward uses the wonderful film, King of Hearts to illustrate how little furry creatures found an empty world in which to proliferate after the dinosaurs were lost. Eventually, those minimal animals evolved into forest dwelling primates who were driven from the trees to become humans. Unlike their predecessors, human animals invaded every ecological niche. With them came revisions of the environment of evolution; rapid habitat loss, chemical pollution and the introduction of alien species.

Ward concludes his treatise with some challenging questions. He adopts Edward O. Wilson, Norman Myers and others to posit what has happened, what needs to be done, and what our future options are for planetary survival. The diagnosis completed, now it's time to apply some therapy. The most daunting first step in this therapy is our own self-awareness: what is the condition of the planet? How can we learn more about what is happening? What prescriptions are required to cure the loss of biodiversity allowing the pace of evolution to be restored to its proper level? He has hope for the future, but only if we are all aware of what needs to be done, and to do it. The starting point is reading and understanding the message of this book. The next step is exercising the will to change the current pace of extinctions. We can only hope more will be moved to read this book and apply the lessons.

* Sean Connery in Medicine Man [1992]

Disappointing
The title of this book suggests that we will be taken on exploratory voyage to look at the evidence for mass extinctions; this is only somewhat true. In spite of quite a lot of talk of finding fossils, the book only actually shows one. The remainig pictures disappoint. Where we are told of thin layer boundries, we get broad landscape photos; where the green to red transition marks an extinction event, we get a black and white picture where not even a change in the shade of grey is evident.

This book is more in the genre of explorer's narrative: Darwin's voyage on the Beatle, Huxley's on the Rattlesnake, or even Hooker's travels in Tibet... but there is little adventure involved. While the presentation of evidences for extinction are interesting, and the author, well, authoritative, the mixture of travel and science muddles the whole book.

Life Changing
This book is by far one of the best books I have ever read. I now look at life in a completely different way. I was brought up in a strict Baptist home where the Bible was the only way, after reading this book I don't dismiss God but its sure not how the Bible says it is. Peter writes this book in an informal way, which makes it very interesting; you can almost fell like you are there, taking a beginner like me into a very complicated world. I have discussed this book with others at work and found that no one that I talked to accepts evolution; they all think it's not real. I just feel so much more educated on the subject and thank Peter Ward for writing this book. It was great. ... Read more

Book Description

The fossil discoveries that changed our understanding of the world. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Documents the particular finds that helped change views
Fossil discoveries have changed our ideas of Earth's history and the nature of humanity itself: yet modern man wasn't the only one who appreciated fossils: early man collected them too. Fossil Revolution documents the particular finds that helped change views of the past and world history, packing in b/w and color illustrations to add life to the accounts of fossil research and discovery. Lay readers will find Fossil Revolution quite accessible.
... Read more

Book Description

Sixty-five million years ago a gigantic comet or asteroid as big as Mount Everest slammed into the Yucatan Peninsula, creating an explosion on impact equivalent to the detonation of a hundred million hydrogen bombs. It produced a cloud of roiling debris that blackened the sky for months as well as other geologic disasters--and triggered the demise of Tyrannosaurus rex.

We know what happened largely because Walter Alvarez--synthesizing the findings of experts from a variety of scientific fields--has written a gripping story of the decades-long search for the cause of the dinosaurs' extinction. Painstakingly assembling clues from the Italian Apennines and the depths of the Pacific and presenting them with the excitement of a great novel, T. rex and the Crater of Doom is a book of undeniable importance and irresistible appeal by a major figure in contemporary science.

"Engaging and witty. Read Alvarez for and excellent account of how scientists pose questions and seek to solve them."--Scientific American

"First-rate...Alvarez provides the up-close tale of the comet or asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs."--San Francisco Chronicle ... Read more

Reviews (29)

A 65-million-year-old Murder Mystery
This is the story of the discovery of why the dinosaurs -- and so many other creatures -- went extinct at the end of the Cretaceous period, 65 million years ago. Walter Alvarez was a young geologist who discovered an "iridium anomaly" in a deposit at the Cretaceous/Tertiary boundary that strongly suggested that an extraterrestrial event of massive effect had happened then. He was joined by his father, Luis Alvarez, a physicist at Berkeley, in the pursuit of the significance of this finding. It seems hard to believe, but most geologists were reluctant to posit anything like a meteor strike as being a significant factor in Earth's history, preferring to explain everything by invoking gradual processes.

Yet it became clear early on that something big had happened, and various candidates were mooted, such as a nearby supernova, or a companion star to the sun periodically throwing comet orbits out of whack. This book is the story of how geologists, chemists, physicists and others over more than a decade closed in on the solution -- a massive impact in the Yucatan Penninsula whose after-effects shrouded the Earth in darkness for many months -- starting with that original discovery back in 1977. This is a reasonably lightweight account, but with enough details to give the reader a good idea of the technical problems without descending into jargon. When you are done you don't really know much more geology than when you started, but you might wish you had become a geologist, because the field trips sure seem like a lot of fun.

T. Rex: KT boundary once again
Probably the most investigated mass extinction of the five major events known to have occurred has been the KT boundary event. This is probably because the dinosaur, especially T. Rex--as notice how much the dino named Sue fetched at auction--has captured the popular imagination more than any other animal. It was also the demise of these animals that openned up a world of opportunity for mammals, among which our own species is numbered. We therefore have a vested interest in, a sense of ownership of that catastrophic event as of no other. The notion of an astroid impact as the bringer of the end to the "terrible lizards" is also almost Biblical in proportion. It grabs the imagination. Certainly it has grabbed the media, as several TV programs and at least two movies about astroid impacts have been produced since the introduction of the theory advanced by the Alvarez, father and son. This book is a well written account by Walter Alvarez of the discovery of the clues to that event, of the gradual developement of the theory by many contributors, and of the defense of the theory before the scientific community. In fact the book is a good demonstration of the rigour with which new theories are challenged and defended and of the scientific process itself. It is also a landmark episode of the multidisciplinary approach to research and the growing dialogue between scientists from different fields. (For an opposing theory, also in itself compelling, see Evolution Catastrophies by Courtillot, or click on my name for my review of it. For a more thorough account of the prevailing theories of the KT and other extinctions see End of the Dinosaurs by Frankel or the review of it under my name).

Walter Alvarez is my professor at UC Berkeley :)
Not only does Walter's writing 'rock', he is one amazing teacher. I have him as a professor at UC Berkeley for one of my earth science classes. I highly recommend his books and if he has a seminar, you should definitely attend.

Fascinating story of a great scientific discovery
It's interesting to see that this book is now being used as a text in high school and even junior high school science classes. I had a great laugh from the reaction of a young reader who wrote that it was "boring" and that "Innocent eight graders shouldn't have to read this stuff"!

Ah, yes. Innocence. But 14-year-olds aside, this is a fascinating and delightful story of scientific discovery and triumph second to none. It can be compared to James D. Watson's The Double Helix: A Personal Account of the Discovery of the Structure of DNA, both in terms of the importance of the discovery and for bringing to the reader some of the excitement and adventure of the quest. It is not, however, as the title might imply, the reading equivalent of watching a Stephen Spielberg movie! And perhaps we can be thankful for that.

T. Rex and the Crater of Doom is the story of one of the great scientific discoveries of the twentieth century. Prior to Alvarez's work, it was not known what had caused the extinction of the dinosaurs. Volcanism, disease, climate change, etc., were put forward as possibilities. But in1970 Alvarez began to believe that a large meteor or a comet had struck the earth with enormous force causing the extinctions. But how to prove it? At first it wasn't even imagined how a meteor could bring about such a catastrophe; but gradually it was seen that the debris thrown into the atmosphere by the force of impact would encircle the earth and block out the rays of the sun for months or even years at a time, thereby killing off plants both on the land and in the sea, thereby collapsing the food chain and starving the dinosaurs and most other creatures.

This was the breakthrough idea, and an exciting idea it was. Of course there was great resistance, as there always is in science when established opinions are threatened, and Alvarez and his team of scientists had to fight mightily against the orthodoxy of uniformitarianism which had held sway in geology and paleontology since the time of Charles Lyell. It wasn't until twelve years later in 1992 that Alvarez's theory finally found general acceptance in the scientific community.

One of Alvarez's purposes in this book is to show a general readership how scientific discoveries are made and confirmed. His tone is generous and he goes out of his way (unlike Watson in The Double Helix) to give credit to everyone involved. He makes it clear that the work was a shared enterprise. One thing that stood out in my mind was the central contribution from Alverez's father, Luis, a physicist who unfortunately died before the theory could be confirmed.

Alvarez does however allow himself an occasional sarcasm vis-a-vis the old order. Characterizing the "conventional geologic opinion" on the formation of craters like the Meteor Crater in Arizona as due to "mysterious explosions that occurred at random times and places for no evident reason," he appends this observation: "In retrospect this causeless mechanism...is indistinguishable from magic, but at the time many geologists considered it preferable to catastrophic impacts." (p 76)

Science is especially subject to the braking effect of established opinion because it is extremely difficult for anybody to allow that the established beliefs of their entire professional career can suddenly be overturned. All your life you believed one thing and one day you wake up and some whippersnapper has overturned the entire edifice! That is hard to take, and so entrenched opinion wars against new discovery. But that is as it should be since extraordinary claims do indeed require extraordinary proof.

Therefore, just as "the course of true love never did run smooth" (Shakespeare), so it is with science. Alvarez recounts an early misdirection in the quest when it was thought that they had found plutonium-244 in the KT boundary clay, possibly indicating a nearby supernova explosion 65 million years ago. He and Frank Asaro took their discovery to Earl Hyde, a nuclear chemist who listened patiently to the details and then said, "Do it all over again." This was very good advice because when they did it all over again they found they had erred: there was no plutonium-244 in the clay samples! (p. 74)

After reading this book we are left with an intriguing question: what was the role of volcanism, not only in the KT extinction but in the Permian-Triassic as well? Alvarez hints that there must be more than coincidence involved in the fact that during both extinctions there is indisputable evidence of vast lava flows. Does a truly monstrous impact somehow trigger volcanic eruptions? An "intriguing mystery" is what Alvarez calls it. (pp. 143-144)

This book should be read in conjunction with David M. Raup's The Nemesis Affair: A Story of the Death of Dinosaurs and the Ways of Science which covers some of the same ground (especially the fight against established opinion) while claiming a 26-million year periodicity for impact extinctions caused by Oort Cloud perturbations from a hypothetical companion star, dubbed "Nemesis."

EXTREMELY BORING!
This book is the most boring book I have ever read. I have to read it for my biology class and write in a journal summarizing it. It's terrible! I always wander off in my mind while reading it and can hardly finish a page because it is so far from interesting. I do not recommend reading this book unless you really want to know all the boring facts about science. If I had to rename this book I would call it "All The Boring Facts That You Never Wanted To Know About Science". Sorry but it's true, it just doesn't appeal to anyone other than scientists or science teachers :) ... Read more

Book Description

Mammoths, Sabertooths, and Hominids takes us on a journey through 65 million years, from the aftermath of the extinction of the dinosaurs to the glacial climax of the Pleistocene epoch; from the rain forests of the Paleocene and the Eocene, with their lemur-like primates, to the harsh landscape of the Pleistocene Steppes, home to the woolly mammoth. It is also a journey through space, following the migrations of mammal species that evolved on other continents and eventually met to compete or coexist in Cenozoic Europe. Finally, it is a journey through the complexity of mammalian evolution, a review of the changes and adaptations that have allowed mammals to flourish and become the dominant land vertebrates on Earth.With the benefit of recent advances in geological and geophysical techniques, Jordi Agustí and Mauricio Antón are able to trace the processes of mammalian evolution as never before; events that hitherto appeared synchronous or at least closely related can now be distinguished on a scale of hundreds or even dozens of thousands of years, revealing the dramatic importance of climactic changes both major and minor. Evolutionary developments are rendered in magnificent illustrations of the many extraordinary species that once inhabited Europe, detailing their osteology, functional anatomy, and inferred patterns of locomotion and behavior. Based on the latest research and field work, Mammoths, Sabertooths, and Hominids transforms our understanding of how mammals evolved and changed the face of the planet. ... Read more

Reviews (3)

A Must Have for those interested in Prehistoric mammals
This text is the best guide to Mammoths, Sabertooths and hominds. It provides in-depth information on any species that lived in Europe from the Eocene epoch to the Pleistocene. It also covers mammals from other contients that affected the Europeon fauna. For example, from Africa came the Gomphotheres, Dinotheres and Hominoid (and many more). I enjoyed the part of the book that covers the extinct Big Cats, especially Machairodus giganteus (My favourite of all). For those who want to buy this book should also try reading The Big Cats and their fossil relatives...another excellent book.

Best single guide on Cenozoic Mammals for general reader
This is a fantastic book. There is nothing else like it currently available. The best, most informative, guide to post-Cretaceous European mammals out there for the general reader. Beautiful pictures and detail-filled text will provide any lover of paleontology or indeed zoology with all the information they could possibly want. If you are student the book will also provide a valauble entree to 150 years of scholarship. Buy this while it is still available!

A core title for Paleontology Studies reading lists
Mammoths, Sabertooths, And Hominids: 65 Million Years Of Mammalian Evolution In Europe by Jordi Agusti (Director of the Institut de Paleontologia M. Crusafont, Sabadell, Barcelona, Spain) and Madrid based, scientific illustrator and artist Maurico Anton, is an astounding, informative, superbly presented tour through the 65 million years of mammalian evolution time-lined from the wake of the dinosaurs' extinction to the rise of modern Homo Sapiens. Mammoths, Sabertooths, And Hominids is an intimate, authoritative, scholarly study of the evolution of mammals, deftly illustrated in black and white with a color insert section that showcases breathtaking art of prehistoric wildlife, Mammoths, Sabertooths, And Hominids is a fascinating, enjoyable, accessible, and strongly recommended as a core title for Paleontology Studies reading lists and academic reference collections. ... Read more

Book Description

The Ecology of the Cambrian Radiation offers a comprehensive and surprising picture of the Earth at that ancient time. The book contains contributions from thirty-three authors hailing from ten countries and will be of interest to paleontologists, geologists, biologists, and other researchers interested in the global Earth-life system.

Book Description

An authoritative and practical identification guide to minerals, rocks and fossils of the world. This new edition of a classic reference work has been completely revised, updated and redesigned, with new extended introductory sections and appendices. An invaluable handbook for amateur collectors and specialists alike, this book is small and compact enough to carry in the pocket or backpack. - Over 600 specimens in full colour - Every specimen described and illustrated on the same double-page spread - Over 300 line drawings identifying structures and features ... Read more

Reviews (1)

One Book Thats All
If you want only one book for minerals, rocks and fossils this is the one. Covers what you really find in the field instead of only the best or rarest stuff. I give it a 5. ... Read more