Evolution of Tertiary mammals of North America

This book is a unique compendium and synthesis of the cumulative knowledge of more than 100 years of discovery and study of North American tertiary mammals. The potentially most valuable contribution of this book is the detailed information of the distribution in time and space of each species at fossil localities, recorded in a uniform scheme, so that each chapter provides the same level of information. Thirty six chapters are devoted to a particular family or order, written by leading North American authorities, including discussion of anatomical features, systematics, and paleobiology. Three introductory chapters summarize information on the geological time scale, Tertiary vegetation, and Pleistocene events, and four summary chapters integrate systematic and biogeographic information for higher taxa. This book will serve as a unique data base for continuing studies in faunal diversification and change, and for questions such as how changing biogeography and climates influenced the evolution of mammalian communities. It will be an invaluable addition to the libraries of paleontologists and zoologists.

Reviews 1

Choice Review

The record of mammalian fossils in the Tertiary (65-1.8 million years ago) is probably more extensive in North America than anywhere else in the world, mainly because of intensive collecting over the past century (and before). This volume takes a major step toward organizing and indexing that record, with a concentration on the fossils of carnivorous and large herbivorous forms. Over the last 20 years and more, several other reviews have provided similar but less complete information, at varying scales. (For example, Cenozoic Mammals of North America, ed. by M.O. Woodburne, CH, Oct`88, concentrates on a review of time ranges of all mammals and a characterization of time units, treating the fossils more as stratigraphic indicators than as living creatures. The Terrestrial Eocene-Oligocene Transition in North America, ed. by D.R. Prothero and R. J. Emry, CH, Mar`97, provides great detail for a short span of time--c. 40-30 million years ago--but again emphasizes stratigraphy and paleoenvironments of fossiliferous regions rather than the paleobiology of extinct species. And still other volumes, such as The Proboscidea, ed. by J. Shoshani and P. Tassy, CH, Jul`97, present reviews of phylogeny and paleobiology of animal groups, often on a global scale.) Janis and coeditors, supported by 31 experts on individual groups, have combined these several approaches with a unified style and format. The result is an astonishing tour de force, both scholarly and readable, as well as eminently useful to the professional and the student. Four main sections cover carnivores, archaic ungulates, artiodactyls, and perissodactyls. Each section begins with an overview chapter that surveys the evolutionary history of the group, but the "meat" of the book is in detailed chapters mainly at the family level. These chapters are standardized to include sections on diagnostic features, taxonomy, phylogeny, paleobiology, evolutionary patterns, and a detailed genus-level review with locality lists for each included species (keyed to a volume-standard appendix of all sites with its own bibliography). Most chapters include a life restoration and some drawings of skeletal elements at small scale, as well as a range chart, a phylogeny or cladogram, and a bibliography. This book has been edited with great care, and it will be a standard reference for paleontologists of the 21st century. Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty. E. Delson; CUNY Herbert H. Lehman College

PrefaceChristine and M. Janis

IntroductionChristine and M. Janis

Section 1

1 The chronological, climatic, and paleogeographic background to North American mammalian evolutionDonald R. Prothero

2 Tertiary vegetation of North America as a context for mammalian evolutionScott L. Wing

3 The pleistocene terrestrial mammal fauna of North AmericaRussell Wm Graham

Section 2 Carnivorous Mammals

4 Carnivorous mammalsChristine M. Janis and Jon A. Baskin and Annalisa Berta and John J. Flynn and Gregg F. Gunnell and Robert M. Hunt Jr and Larry D. Martin and Kathleen Munthe

5 CreodontaGregg F. Gunnell

6 Early cenozoic carnivora ('Miacoidea')John J. Flynn

7 CanidaeKathleen Munthe

8 ProcyonidaeJon A. Baskin

9 MustelidaeJon A. Baskin

10 UrsidaeRobert M. Hunt Jr

11 AmphicyonidaeRobert M. Hunt Jr

12 NimravidaeLarry D. Martin

13 FelidaeLarry D. Martin

14 HyaenidaeAnnalisa Berta

Section 3 Archaic Ungulates and Ungulatelike Mammals

15 Archaic ungulates and ungulatelike mammalsChristine M. Janis and J. David Archibald and Richard L. Cifelli and Spencer G. Lucas and Charles R. Schaff and Robert M. Schoch and Thomas E. Williamson

16 TaeniodontaSpencer G. Lucas and Robert M. Schoch and Thomas E. Williamson

17 TillodontaSpencer G. Lucas and Robert M. Schoch

18 PantodontaSpencer G. Lucas

19 DinocerataSpencer G. Lucas and Robert M. Schoch

20 Archaicungulates ('Condylarthra')J. David Archibald

21 ArctostylopidaRichard L. Cifelli and Charles R. Schaff

Section 4 Artiodactyla

22 ArtiodactylaChristine M. Janis and Mary Ellen Ahearn and James A. Effinger and Jessica A. Harrison and James G. Honey and Donald G. Kron and Bruce Lander and Earl Manning and Donald R. Prothero and Margaret S. Stevens and Richard K. Stucky and S. David Webb and David B. Wright

23 Eocene bunodont and Bunoselenodont artiodactyla/('Dichobunids')Richard K. Stucky

24 EntelodontidaeJames A. Effinger

25 AnthracotheriidaeDonald G. Kron and Earl Manning

26 TayassuidaeDavid B. Wright

27 OreodontoideaBruce Lander

28 OromerycidaeDonald R. Prothero

29 ProtoceratidaeDonald R. Prothero

30 CamelidaeJ. G. Honey and J. A. Harrison and D. R. Prothero and M. S. Stevens

31 Hornless ruminantsS. David Webb

32 DromomerycidaeChristine M. Janis and Earl Manning

33 AntilocapridaeChristine M. Janis and Earl Manning and Mary Ellen Ahearn

34 Cervidae and bovidaeS. David Webb

Section 5 Perissodactyla and proboscidea

35 Perissodactyla and proboscideaChristine M. Janis and Matthew W. Colbert and Margery C. Coombs and W. David Lambert and Bruce J. Macfadden and Bryn J. Mader and Donald R. Prothero and Robert M. Schoch and Jeheskel Shoshani and William P. Wall

36 BrontotheriidaeBryn J. Mader

37 EquidaeBruce J. Macfadden

38 ChalicotherioideaMargery C. Coombs

39 Tapiroidea and other moropomorphsM. W. Colbert and Robert M. Schoch

40 AmynodontidaeWilliam P. Wall

41 HyracodontidaeDonald R. Prothero

42 RhinocerotidaeDonald R. Prothero

43 ProboscideaW. David Lambert and Jeheskel Shoshani

Section 6 Eutheria Incertae Sedis

44 Eutheria incertae sedis: Mingotherium and Idiogenomys, with editor's appendix on other problematical taxaSpencer G. Lucas and Robert M. Schoch

Appendix I Tertiary mammal localities

Appendix II References for locality listings

Appendix III References for locality listings

Index

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Summary

Summary

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Table of Contents