Cruisin' the Fossil Freeway: An Epoch Tale of a Scientist and an Artist on the Ultimate 5,000-Mile Paleo Road Trip (Paperback)

by Kirk Johnson (Author), Ray Troll (Illustrator) "I woke with a jolt, soaked in sweat, in a stinky little cabin on a riverboat on the upper Amazon in Peru..." (more)
Key Phrases: pierre shale, natural trap, paper shale, Big Blue, Bighorn Basin, North America (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review
"...Cruisin' is accessible, fast-paced and informative, showing the rich history of fossil collecting in the American West." -- Geotimes, May, 2008

"...Funny, stealthily informative...This is one of a tiny handful of books equally useful to adults and twelve-year olds." --Foreword Magazine, Jan-Feb 2009

"...a fantastic work of art that is truly fanciful and awe inspiring, catching the real flavor of a bygone life." -- Science Books & Films, May/June 2008

"...belongs on coffee tables of every paleonerd, art lover, and general science enthusiast, and the home of anyone with children." -- blogcritics.com, December 23, 2007

"...this book will make anyone want to go on a fossil hunt." -- True West, March 1, 2008

Product Description
Cruisin' the Fossil Freeway follows the zany travels of a paleontologist and an artist as they drive across the American West in search of fossils. Throughout their journey, they encounter "paleonerds" like themselves, men and women dedicated to finding everything from suburban T. rexes to killer Eocene pigs to ancient fossilized forests. Much of their travels are spent in remote places few people visit, where they discover small-town museums packed with paleontological treasures, rock quarries that have yielded hundreds of fossilized bones, and the remains of ancient seashores tracked with the footprints of dinosaurs. What soon becomes evident is that fossils are everywhere; it only takes knowing what to look for to find them--even at 65 miles per hour.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 208 pages
• Publisher: Fulcrum Publishing; 10 x 10 edition (October 8, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1555914519
• ISBN-13: 978-1555914516
• Product Dimensions: 10.2 x 9.9 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #42,601 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

  Popular in these categories: (What's this?)

  #1 in	Books > Outdoors & Nature > Ecology > Animals > Dinosaurs
  #6 in	Books > Outdoors & Nature > Fauna > Fossils
  #24 in	Books > Travel > Specialty Travel > Family Travel

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars cruisin' the fossil freeway, November 9, 2007

By	W. Leonard Taylor (Redlands, CA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Kirk Johnson and Ray Troll have teamed together in producing a real block buster. No young person or old can possibly resist being drawn immediately into this well written personal fossil adventure. For most of us who have only a superficial knowledge of such things, to be suddently presented with such a painless comprehensive overview, is truly a treat. This was vividly demonstrated when I took a copy to work and suddenly realized a least eight copies were being ordered by individuals of diverse interests. Looking for a great gift for friends, children and grandchildren? -- look no more! To bad we're limited to just five stars.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An excellent tour of paleontology's past and present, December 31, 2007

By	Brian Switek "Laelaps" (New Brunswick, NJ USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

You know you've got a unique book on your hands when the cover spots a eurypterid snagging a jackalope from under the cab of a Ford pickup carrying a disgruntled ammonite while dinosaurs stomp towards a "last chance" food & gas stop in the background. If you're a fan of artist Ray Troll, however, such a vibrant and motley assemblage probably will pique your interest rather than shock you. His artwork graces the pages of Cruisin' the Fossil Freeway, a collaborative work with paleobotanist Kirk Johnson, a wonderfully nerdy "Epoch Tale" of paleontology. While it may at first seem unusual, Ray's uncanny ability to meld together the past and present is a perfect compliment to Johnson's easy-to-approach writing style, the pair weaving a tale that (just as the cover might suggest) joins together the unique present and ancient past of the American West.

From a backstage meeting with Ziggy Marley about a potentially new species of ancient marijuana to tracking down the ever-elusive fossilized tooth whorls of Helicoprion, the book places the reader in the cab with the authors as they carve their way through the western landscape, searching for fossils, footprints, and a good country-fried steak. Like any good paleontologist knows, there's much more to the science than bones collecting dust in museum drawers; paleontology has an incredibly rich and adventurous history, and there's no better way to pay homage to the great bone sharps of the past but to hop in the truck and kick up dust on the way to find the perfect ammonite or Triceratops skull. During the course of their trek, the authors stop in to see local rock hounds, professional paleontologists, amateur fossil freaks, and others, illuminating the ever-changing landscape between searches for a decent hotel and a hot meal. Indeed, what makes this book truly enjoyable is the realization of the authors that a fossil has many to tell, one being the story of the actual organism exhumed from the rock, but also a more human tales of discovery (and in the case of some like the Tyrannosaurus "Sue," even controversy) that still go on years after the close of the infamous "Bone Wars."

Given this constant mix of past and present, the authors make a formidable team. The illustrations are lavishly spread across bright pages, Johnson's prose making what might feel like inaccessible geologic concepts seem as familiar as a stack of pancakes (or was that baklava...). This isn't a journey of know-it-alls dryly relating their travels in a stuffy leather-bound book; Cruisin'... is wonderfully dynamic and the authors are just as enthralled with the fossils they're after as anyone they meet along the way, their joy being magnified by the fact that it seems that they can barely go 10 miles without coming across a major fossil locality. This impression is further driven home by a companion map produced for release with this book, and while I don't as yet have one snippets of it are present in the book to give the reader some idea of what each state can claim as far as prehistory. Dinosaurs, ammonites, sabercats, trilobites, scientists fleeing the jaws of Arctodus and strategically-placed cheeseburgers (marking notable greasy-spoons of in each state) dot the beautifully-designed piece, a true "treasure map" to the spoils of western paleontology.

I read a lot of books over the course of a year, often hoping to cram the information inside the volumes into my head so I can start incorporating it into my understanding of nature and prehistory, but Cruisin'... isn't the kind of book I'd want to do that with. Much like the journey the authors undertook, the book represents a meandering car ride where there's always more to see than there is time and there's always someone with a good story to tell just up the road. Dinosaurs cross freeways and bizarre extinct mammals stare down artists in the glossy pages, but such images never seem strange; they are what those who appreciate the history of life on earth are often daydreaming about anyway. Beautifully illustrated and engagingly written, Cruisin' the Fossil Freeway is the kind of book that makes me want to pack up the car and head out West to cross the ground once tread by noted paleontologists and bizarre beasts alike, but if the book spurs you to similar action please watch your step. As the book illustrates, "fossils really are everywhere."

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A 5,000 mile and 500,000,000 year trip, October 28, 2007

By	M. Celeskey - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

In Cruisin' the Fossil Freeway, Kirk Johnson and Ray Troll recount their rollicking road-trips through the Rocky Mountain region, and their writing and artwork tell the tale of the fossils, food, and friends they meet along the way. Paging through the book is like being chauffeured by a pair of paleontological prestidigitators across America's prime fossil real estate.

Kirk's writing conjures up multiple layers of history from the landscapes they pass through: the ancient environments where sediments accumulated and hardened into rock, the processes that brought these rocks to the surface and shaped the current scenery, and, most of all, the ongoing stories of discoveries made by scientists, collectors, and fossil fanatics throughout this geologic wonderland. Ray's artwork brings each of these histories to life and mixes them together in a sort of deep-time gumbo: dinosaurs rise from the dead and amble alongside pickup trucks and gas stations, prehistoric mammals pose for portraits, and wide-eyed ichthyosaurs and half-coiled ammonites dreamily float alongside monster movies and cheeseburgers.

Ultimately, Cruisin' the Fossil Freeway is like getting several books in one: geology primer, road-trip travelogue, collection of scientific-surrealist art, and exposé of the "paleonerd" subculture in the American West. If you've ever driven down an open highway, looked out at the rocks around you and briefly wondered if there might be dinosaur bones buried there, then you'll definitely want a copy for your bookshelf.