Reviews
A highly readable and enjoyable account full of historical anecdotes, scientific discovery, and biological detail... This is one of those rare books that is both fun to read and informative. Highly recommended for both specialists and general readers.
To learn about these mammals—from arsinoitheres, brontotheres, chalicotheres, dugongs, and elephants to yaks and zebras—this is the place to turn.
I would recommend this book to anyone interested in the morphological perspective on the evolution of hoofed mammals and particularly to those wanting to learn more about the fossil record of individual clades. It is enjoyable and informative.
We live in a world where most of the attention gets grabbed by the carnivores—and mammals are no exception. We have TV shows entitled 'Fangs' but none (alas) called 'Molars,' and the hoofed mammals are often regarded as little more than fodder. Prothero and Schoch have done much to redress the imbalance with their new book. They encompass the span of the radiation of hoofed mammals (including, perhaps surprisingly to many people, whales and dolphins), covering both the interrelationships and ecology of the living species and the diversity and probable lifestyles of the extinct ones, interwoven with entertaining subplots about the history of fossil discoveries and naturalists' observations and stories from the field.
Book Details
Preface and Acknowledgments
Chapter 1. Introduction
Chapter 2. Cloven hooves
Chapter 3. Tylopods
Chapter 4. Where the deer and the antelope play
Chapter 5. Hollow horns
Chapter 6. A whale's tale
Chapter 7
Preface and Acknowledgments
Chapter 1. Introduction
Chapter 2. Cloven hooves
Chapter 3. Tylopods
Chapter 4. Where the deer and the antelope play
Chapter 5. Hollow horns
Chapter 6. A whale's tale
Chapter 7. Out of Africa
Chapter 8. The origin on Jumbo
Chapter 9. Kingdom of ivory
Chapter 10. A horse of a different color (and shape)
Chapter 11. Equus
Chapter 12. Thunder beasts
Chapter 13. Proboscises and claws
Chapter 14. Rhinoceroses without horns
Chapter 15. Thundering to extinction
Epilogue
References
Index