Mammoths, Sabertooths, and Hominids (Hardcover)

by Jordi Agusti (Author), Mauricio Anton (Author) "A COMMON SCENARIO TENDS TO POSIT THE EARLY EVOLUTIONary radiation of placental mammals as occurring only after the extinction of the dinosaurs at the end..." (more)
Key Phrases: reconstructed shoulder height, true hyaenids, archaic perissodactyls, North America, Greek-Iranian Province, Vallesian Crisis (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review

"An exceptionally valuable, scholarly, yet widely accessible broad outline of the dazzling evolutionary history of the mammalian faunas and selected lineages during the Age of Mammals, the Cenozoic....an important contribution for those paleontologists and zoologists who are not mammal specialists, yet have wide-ranging interests in macroevolution. Very highly recommended." -- Choice

"A rich paleontological panorama....What struck me most forceably about the work is the magnitude of chance experienced by the region over this period." -- Times Literary Supplement

"An excellent balance of coverage between different lineages--and impressive achievement in and of itself.... This is a very successful study, which tackles a difficult task with admirable deftness." -- Journal of Mammology

"Full of interesting matter...a vital aid in assisting the nonexpert reader to see the big picture." -- Tim Flannery, Science

"An important resource for specialists who wish to know the latest about European mammal evolution, because so much has changed since [Bjorn] Kurten (1971)... Agusti has done an excellent job of bringing these latest developements into the text and integrating them with the great increase in our understanding of European tectonics as well." -- Earth Science History

"A fine book for all who have an interest in mammals, whether extant species or fossil species. Nicely done." -- Northeastern Naturalist

"It is always a pleasure to review a book that is accurate, easy to read and beautifully illustrated." -- Peter Andrews, Journal of Mammalian Evolution

Review

"Gets to grips with the stunning diversity and succession of wildlife that inhabited the great European game park... The illustrations by Spanish artist Mauricio Anton are brilliant." -- New Scientist

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 328 pages
• Publisher: Columbia University Press (April 15, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0231116403
• ISBN-13: 978-0231116404
• Product Dimensions: 10.1 x 7 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,143,760 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best single guide on Cenozoic Mammals for general reader, March 14, 2003

By A Customer

This is a fantastic book. There is nothing else like it currently available. The best, most informative, guide to post-Cretaceous European mammals out there for the general reader. Beautiful pictures and detail-filled text will provide any lover of paleontology or indeed zoology with all the information they could possibly want. If you are student the book will also provide a valauble entree to 150 years of scholarship. Buy this while it is still available!

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Tough to Read, September 17, 2005

By	David Mcconville - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

"Mammoths, Sabertooths, and Hominids" describes the evolution of mammals in Europe over the past 65 million years, an immense stretch of time that this humble reader still struggles to comprehend. The author describes in detail the creatures that once lived in Europe, from the small and archaic, e.g. multituberculates, to the large and more modern, e.g. mammoths. Some mention is also made of non-mammals such as the killer birds and crocodiles. The book is lavishly illustrated with several full color plates in the center and numerous black-and-white sketches throughout the text. Mauricio Anton's pictures alone make the book worth owning for any prehistoric mammal enthusiast. The downside to this work, and why I only rate the book 4 stars, is that it's rather tough to read for someone who's not well-versed in the jargon of biology and paleontology. A glossary would have been really helpful. A hefty bibliography is supplied for those who wish to immerse themselves in the scholarly literature. I must admit that I had to start over a couple of times to grasp the material. This book isn't quite the readable account of mammalian evolution I was hoping for, having just recently been inspired to learn more about the subject by "Walking with Prehistoric Beasts". Students and grad-students in the field will certainly enjoy it, however.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Eagerly awaiting a second edition, July 21, 2008

By	Håvard Hegdal "Salamander" (Oslo, Norway) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I must confess feeling a bit unfair about giving this book bad press. First, as the other reviewers have mentioned, the illustrations are breathtaking (and yes, buy "The Big Cats and Their Fossil Relatives" as well). You don't have to be an evolution buff to enjoy Mauricio Antón's vivid drawings of monster pig entelodons, bizarrely pronged paleomerycids or huge-headed giant creodont predators. Another reviewer mentioned machairodonts; my personal favorites are the gorilla/horse-crossbreed-like chalicotheres.
Second, the task of covering 65 myr of mammalian succession in a reader-friendly way is just about impossible; after all, we are talking about hundreds of genera known only by their latin names (and most paleontologists are oddly adverse to giving cool names like "Tyrannosaurus", sometimes they rather go for stuff like "Brachydiceratherium", "Paracynohyaenodon" or even "Parachleuastochoerus"). The book succeeds in compiling all of this chaos, and it contains an immense, invaluable amount of information. It is all in all a unique and beautiful work on an extremely interesting topic and heartily recommmended on those grounds alone.

However: Despite its popular format the text is unforgiving in its demands on the reader. Clearly one has to have a fair comprehension of geological epochs, but also quite specialized bio-jargon like "sclerophyllous", "fossorial" or "selenodont". Maybe I'm the dummy here, but sometimes I've been quite puzzled as to who exactly the intended audience is. Are there really anybody out there who on one hand can visualize "bunodont" teeth, but on the other needs explanations of terms like "artiodactyl" or "felid"? Please guys, this could have been so infinitely much better if you'd just included:

- A glossary
- Maps (it's hard to visualize the rapidly changing European geography from descriptions alone)
- Phylogenetic trees (even if one would need non-European clades to fill in the gaps)

It would also be great to have:

- Time lines
- Illustrations of salient anatomical characteristics (like the difference between Creodonta and Carnivora)

So when I choose to cut down my rating to a meagre three stars, it's more a cry to the authors to create a second edition than to actually deter buyers. Buy this book. If you know the jargon, great; if not, read it with a dictionary and a notebook. Enjoy.


PS Top reviewer John Matlock "Gunny" has written almost 4000 reviews on all kinds of books, seemingly all of which are awarded five-star ratings. According to his profile he reviewed 6 other books the same day as MSaH. Just ignore commercial reviewers, folks.