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Every fossil tells a story. Best-selling paleontology author Donald R. Prothero describes twenty-five famous, beautifully preserved fossils in a gripping scientific history of life on Earth. Recountin

During the transition from the Eocene to the Oligocene epochs, the mild tropical climates of the Paleocene and early Eocene were replaced by modern climatic conditions and extremes, including glacial ice in Antarctica. The best terrestrial record of the Eocene-Oligocene transition is found in North America, including the spectacular cliffs and spires of the Big Badlands National Park, in South Dakota. The first part of this book summarises the latest information in dating and correlation of the strata of late middle Eocene through early Oligocene age in North America, including the latest insights from argorgon dating and magnetic stratigraphy. The second part reviews almost all the important terrestrial reptiles and mammals found near the Eocene-Oligocene boundary in the White River chronofauna, from the turtles, snakes and lizards to the common rodents, carnivores, artiodactyls, and perissodactyls. This is the first comprehensive treatment of these rocks and fossils in over sixty

The family Rhinocerotidae has a long and amazing history in North America. From their first appearance about forty million years ago, they diversified into an incredible array of taxa, with a variety of ecologies that do not resemble any of the five living species. They ranged from delicate long-legged dog-sized forms, to huge hippo-like forms that apparently lived in rivers and lakes. This book includes a systematic review of the entire North American Rhinocerotidae, with complete descriptions, measurements, and figures of every bone in every species - the first such review in over a century. More importantly, it discusses the biogeographic patterns of rhinos, their evolutionary patterns and paleoecology, and what rhinos tell us about the evolution of North American landscapes and faunas over 35 million years. It is a complete and authoritative volume that will be a reference of interest to a variety of scientists for years to come.

One of the leading textbooks in its field, Bringing Fossils to Life applies paleobiological principles to the fossil record while detailing the evolutionary history of major plant and animal phyla. It