The Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument is the location of one of the best-known terrestrial records for the late Cretaceous. Prior fieldwork confirmed the richness of the area, but a major effort begun in the new century has documented over 2,000 new vertebrate fossil sites, provided new radiometric dates, and identified five new genera of ceratopsids, two new species of hadrosaur, a probable new genus of hypsilophodontid, new pachycephalosaurs and ankylosaurs, several kinds of theropods (including a new genus of oviraptor and a new tyrannosaur), plus the most complete specimen of a Late Cretaceous therizinosaur ever collected from North America, and much more. The research documented in this book is rewriting our understanding of Late Cretaceous paleobiogeography and dinosaur phyletics. At the Top of the Grand Staircase: The Late Cretaceous of Southern Utah is a major stepping stone toward a total synthesis of the ecology and evolution of the Late Cretaceous ecosystems of western North America.

The meat-eating dinosaurs, or Theropoda, include some of the fiercest predators that ever lived. Some of the group's members survive to this day—as birds. The theropod/bird connection has been explored in several recent works, but this book presents 17 papers on a variety of other topics. It is organized into three parts. Part I explores morphological details that are important for understanding theropod systematics. Part II focuses on specific regions of theropod anatomy and biomechanics. Part III examines various lines of evidence that reveal something about theropods as living creatures. The contributors are Ronan Allain, Rinchen Barsbold, Kenneth Carpenter, Karen Cloward, Rodolfo A. Coria, Philip J. Currie, Peter M. Galton, Robert Gay, Donald M. Henderson, Dong Huang, James I. Kirkland, Yoshitsugu Kobayashi, Eva B. Koppelhus, Peter Larson, Junchang Lü, Lorrie A. McWhinney, Clifford Miles, Ralph E. Molnar, N. Murphy, John H. Ostrom, Gregory S. Paul, Licheng Qiu,J. Keith Rigby, Jr., Bruce Rothschild, Christopher B. Ruff, Leonardo Salgado, Frank Sanders, Julia T. Sankey, Judith A. Schiebout, David K. Smith, Barbara R. Standhardt, Kathy Stokosa, Darren H. Tanke, François Therrien, David Trexler, Kelly Wicks, Douglas G. Wolfe, and Lowell Wood.

An essential introduction to the age of dinosaurs in Africa. Once Africa was referred to as the ''Lost World of the dinosaur era,'' so poorly known were its ancient flora and fauna. Worse still, many priceless fossil specimens from the Sahara Desert were destroyed during the Second World War. Fortunately, in the twentieth-first century, more researchers are now working in north Africa than ever before and making fascinating discoveries such as the dinosaur Spinosaurus. Based on a decade of study, The Desert Bones brings the world of African dinosaurs fully into the light. Jamale Ijouiher skillfully draws on the latest research and knowledge about paleoecology to paint a compelling and comprehensive portrait of the mid-Cretaceous in North Africa.