fossils

The first major work devoted to the late Cenozoic (Neogene) mammalian biostratigraphy and geochronology of Asia. This volume employs cutting-edge biostratigraphic and geochemical dating methods to map the emergence of mammals across the continent. Written by specialists working in a variety of Asian regions, it uses data from many basins with spectacular fossil records to establish a groundbreaking geochronological framework for the evolution of land mammals. Asia’s violent tectonic history has resulted in some of the world’s most varied topography, and its high mountain ranges and intense monsoon climates have spawned widely diverse environments over time. These geologic conditions profoundly influenced the evolution of Asian mammals and their migration into Europe, Africa, and North America. Focusing on amazing new fossil finds that have redefined Asia’s role in mammalian evolution, this volume synthesizes information from a range of field studies on Asian mammals and biostratigraphy, helping to trace the histories and movements of extinct and extant mammals from various major groups and all northern continents, and providing geologists with a richer understanding of a variety of Asian terrains.

In March 2000, while fishing for flatfish, a Dutch fishig vessel from the village of Urk brought up a fossilized lower jaw bone of a Saber-toothed cat (Homotherium latidens) from the bottom of the North Sea. At that time it was thought that this Eurasian species went extinct some 300,000-400,000 years ago. When the jawbone was radiocarbon-dated, the startling result was an age of 28,000 years. This sensational finding has been the incentive to produce this informative and abundantly-illustrated book, providing never-before-published pictures.

This magnificent volume is a clear and comprehensive review of the African mammalian fossil record over the past 65 million years. It includes current taxonomic and systematic revisions of all African mammal taxa, detailed compilations of fossil site occurrences, and a wealth of information regarding paleobiology, phylogeny, and biogeography. Primates, including hominins, are particularly well covered. The discussion addresses the systematics of endemic African mammals, factors relating to species richness, and a summary of isotopic information. The work also provides contextual information about Cenozoic African tectonics, chrono stratigraphy of sites, paleobotany, and global and regional climate change. Updating our understanding of this important material with the wealth of research from the past three decades, this volume is an essential resource for anyone interested in the evolutionary history of Africa and the diversification of its mammals.

The uncovering in the mid-1700s of fossilized mastodon bones and teeth at Big Bone Lick, Kentucky, signalled the beginning of a great American adventure. The West was opening up and unexplored lands beckoned. Unimagined palaeontological treasures awaited discovery: strange horned mammals, birds with teeth, flying reptiles, gigantic fish, diminutive ancestors of horses and camels, and more than a hundred different kinds of dinosaurs. This exciting book tells the story of the grandest period of fossil discovery in American history, the years from 1750 to 1890.The volume begins with Thomas Jefferson, whose keen interest in the American mastodon led him to champion the study of fossil vertebrates. The book continues with vivid descriptions of the actual work of prospecting for fossils (a pick-axe in one hand, a rifle in the other), and offers enthralling portraits of Joseph Leidy, Ferdinand Hayden, Edward Cope and Othniel Marsh, among other major figures in the development of the science of palaeontology., “The Legacy of the Mastodon” sheds new light on these scientists’ feuds and rivalries, on the connections between fossil studies in Europe and America, and on palaeontology’s contributions to America’s developing national identity.

The authors present a compelling new evolutionary history of ungulates, combining the latest scientific evidence with current information about their ecology and behaviour. Both living and extinct ungulates are discussed, including rhinos and their dinosaur sized hornless ancestors, elephants whose earliest ancestors had neither tusks nor trunks and whales who descend from hoofed mesonychids.