The Eocene-Oligocene Transition: Paradise Lost

by Donald R. Prothero

Overview

Prothero is an expert on fossil mammals, their environments, and the means to date them, but he has enlarged that perspective to include discussions of such topics as extinctions in general, especially those potentially caused by asteroid impacts . . . Highly recommended. (Choice)

Prothero has the rare knack of being able to turn a period of Earth history into an enjoyable and readable book of the science and events. (Geoscientist)

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780231080910
Publisher:	Columbia University Press
Publication date:	07/28/1994
Series:	The Critical Moments and Perspectives in Earth History and Paleobiology
Pages:	291
Product dimensions:	6.03(w) x 8.95(h) x 0.72(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Donald R. Prothero is a Research Associate in Vertebrate Paleontology at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County. He has taught college geology and paleontology for 40 years at institutions such as Columbia University, Vassar College, Knox College, and Pierce College, and currently at Cal Poly Pomona. For 27 years, he was Professor of Geology at Occidental College in Los Angeles and Lecturer in Geobiology at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. He earned his M.A., M.Phil., and Ph.D. degrees in geological sciences from Columbia University. He is the author of over 300 scientific papers published in leading journals and over 30 titles in geology, paleontology and evolutionary biology.

Editorial Reviews

Prothero is an expert on fossil mammals, their environments, and the means to date them, but he has enlarged that perspective to include discussions of such topics as extinctions in general, especially those potentially caused by asteroid impacts... Highly recommended.

Choice

Prothero has the rare knack of being able to turn a period of Earth history into an enjoyable and readable book of the science and events.

Geoscientist

After a decade of new findings and interpretation based on innovative techniques during the 1980s, archaeologists were pretty sure that 38 million years ago the earth still basked in a subtropical "greenhouse" that had lasted since the age of dinosaurs, but 5 million years later there were glaciers in the Antarctic, signalling the beginning of the "icehouse" state that we know now. Here is a summary of the present understanding of the climatic and biological changes, for nonspecialists who have some familiarity with the terms and concepts of archaeology. Paper edition (08091-3), $24. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Booknews