Customer Reviews

Fossil Ecosystems of North America: A Guide to the Sites and Their Extraordinary Biotas

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This new release is a very good overview on the fine fossil record of each
age from oldest to youngest. Make no mistake, it has the pictorals of a coffee table book; but packed with information to enlighten the novice and the learned. Having visited most of the localities; I can make the statement that this book does a very good job of representing the locations, the fossils and the known information from studies. Excellent pictures and the quality of the graphics make it the next best thing to holding the very fossils of these famous locations. This book is well worth the price of this hardcopy. Bravo to John Nudds, Paul Seldon and all the contributors, efforts well done. - John A. Spina Jr. in NY

I had been waiting for this book for a year, but it was worth it. While a better title would probably attract more readers, the book is written with the collector in mind as well as documentation that should be required of undergraduates studying geology and paleontology.
Since we rarely get a glimpse of the extraordinary prehistoric remains (fossils) in museum collections, I appreciate being able to see many via this profusely illustrated work. A wide-range of fossil material is presented, from nearly 2 billion year old microfossils (Gunflint Chert) to the Pleistocene lifeforms in the Rancho La Brea tar deposits in Los Angeles.

This book is a gem, a work of art, a delicate microchip, whether you understand it or not. Much of the info is pretty deep and condensed for the interested layman but the size and layout--the paper, diagrams, charts, artwork, photos and particularly, the maps--makes this book a joy to hold and scan, without necessarily struggling to understand the nuances of geology within it. Either these authors have a background in the publisher's craft and art, or they just design books better at the University of Chicago Press, I don't know, but either way, this tiny book puts many of the mega-textbooks of the Cenozoic to shame.