Surveys the evolution of the dinosaur population in North America, from the beginning of the age of reptiles to the extinction of the dinosaurs about 65 million years ago

From armored plant-eaters to fierce meat-eaters, many dinosaurs roamed the land that is now the continent of North America. Discover how they lived and what they had in common with todayÕs animals.

The remarkable dinosaur faunas of South America

More than 80 different dinosaurs are described in text and illustration.

Offering the most comprehensive and up-to-date review of fossil footprints, for both dinosaurs and other vertebrates, in the western United States, Dinosaur Tracks covers the fossil record from the Paleozoic through the Cenozoic era. A series of illustrations depict dinosaurs in the their natural habitat, and an appendix lists museums and other major repositories of tracks and replicas, and gives details on tracksites open to the public. Includes annotated references and detailed descriptions of important specimens, describing how these trackways can help interpret behavior.

The great dinosaur bonebeds of the American and Canadian West are world famous for spectacular fossil yields. But the eastern U.S. and maritime Canada have been equally inportant to the study of these extraordinary creatures. Dinosaurs of the East Coast combines science, history, and modern reporting to offer a new look at an always fascinating subject. 29 line, 110 halftone illustrations.

The burnt-red badlands of Montana's Hell Creek are a vast graveyard of the Cretaceous dinosaurs that lived 68 million years ago. Those hills were, much later, also home to the Sioux, the Crows, and the Blackfeet, the first people to encounter the dinosaur fossils exposed by the elements. What did Native Americans make of these stone skeletons, and how did they explain the teeth and claws of gargantuan animals no one had seen alive? Did they speculate about their deaths? Did they collect fossils? Beginning in the East, with its Ice Age monsters, and ending in the West, where dinosaurs lived and died, this richly illustrated and elegantly written book examines the discoveries of enormous bones and uses of fossils for medicine, hunting magic, and spells. Well before Columbus, Native Americans observed the mysterious petrified remains of extinct creatures and sought to understand their transformation to stone. In perceptive creation stories, they visualized the remains of extinct mammoths, dinosaurs, pterosaurs, and marine creatures as Monster Bears, Giant Lizards, Thunder Birds, and Water Monsters. Their insights, some so sophisticated that they anticipate modern scientific theories, were passed down in oral histories over many centuries. Drawing on historical sources, archaeology, traditional accounts, and extensive personal interviews, Adrienne Mayor takes us from Aztec and Inca fossil tales to the traditions of the Iroquois, Navajos, Apaches, Cheyennes, and Pawnees. Fossil Legends of the First Americans represents a major step forward in our understanding of how humans made sense of fossils before evolutionary theory developed.

Collects writings by experts in paleontology, from John Horner on dinosaur families to Robert Bakker on the latest wave of fossil discoveries.