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Library | Call Number | Material Type | Home Location | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Central Library | QE881 .E857 1998 | Adult Non-Fiction | Central Closed Stacks-Oversize Non-Circ | Searching... |
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Summary
Summary
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
Table of Contents
| 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 |