The Tertiary Record Of Rodents In North America

Nearly half of the known species of mammals alive today (more than 1600) are rodents or "gnawing mammals" (Nowak and Paradiso, 1983). The diversity of rodents is greater than that of any other order of mammals. Thus, it is not surprising that the fossil record of this order is extensive and fossil material of rodents from the Tertiary is known from all continents except Antarctica and Australia. The purpose of this book is to compile the published knowledge on fossil rodents from North America and present it in a way that is accessible to paleontologists and mammalogists interested in evolutionary studies of ro dents. The literature on fossil rodents is widely scattered between journals on paleontology and mammalogy and in-house publications of museums and universities. Currently, there is no single source that offers ready access to the literature on a specific family of rodents and its fossil history. This work is presented as a reference text that can be useful to specialists in rodents (fossil or recent) as weIl as mammalian paleontologists working on whole faunas. Because the diversity of rodents in the world is essentially limitless, any monograph that included all fossil rodents would similarly be limitless. Hence, this book is limited to the re cord of Tertiary rodents of North America. The several species of South American (caviomorph) rodents that invaded North America near the end of the Tertiary are also not included in this text.

The first comprehensive treatment of North American rodents of conservation concern. This action plan summarizes the rodent fauna of North America and provides available information on every rodent taxon that has been considered to be of conservation concern by state, provincial and private conservation agencies and regional experts. It is hoped that the survey provided in this action plan will serve as a common ground for all these parties in drawing up conservation strategies for rodents.

This book places into modern context the information by which North American mammalian paleontologists recognize, divide, calibrate, and discuss intervals of mammalian evolution known as North American Land Mammal Ages. It incorporates new information on the systematic biology of the fossil record and utilizes the many recent advances in geochronologic methods and their results. The book describes the increasingly highly resolved stratigraphy into which all available temporally significant data and applications are integrated. Extensive temporal coverage includes the Lancian part of the Late Cretaceous, and geographical coverage includes information from Mexico, an integral part of the North American fauna, past and present.

In the tradition of G. G. Simpson's classic work, Kenneth D. Rose's The Beginning of the Age of Mammals analyzes the events that occurred directly before and after the mysterious K-T boundary which so quickly thrust mammals from obscurity to planetary dominance. Rose surveys the evolution of mammals, beginning with their origin from cynodont therapsids in the Mesozoic, contemporary with dinosaurs, through the early Cenozoic, with emphasis on the Paleocene and Eocene adaptive radiations of therian mammals. Focusing on the fossil record, he presents the anatomical evidence used to interpret behavior and phylogenetic relationships. The life's work of one of the most knowledgeable researchers in the field, this richly illustrated, magisterial book combines sound scientific principles and meticulous research and belongs on the shelf of every paleontologist and mammalogist.

This guide to the South Dakota region that houses the world’s richest fossil beds does “an excellent job of presenting the current state of knowledge” (Choice). The forbidding Big Badlands in Western South Dakota contain the richest fossil beds in the world. Even today these rocks continue to yield new specimens brought to light by snowmelt and rain washing away soft rock deposited on a floodplain long ago. The quality and quantity of the fossils are superb: most of the species to be found there are known from hundreds of specimens. The fossils in the White River Group (and similar deposits in the American west) preserve the entire late Eocene through the middle Oligocene, roughly 35-30 million years ago and more than thirty million years after non-avian dinosaurs became extinct. The fossils provide a detailed record of a period of abrupt global cooling and what happened to creatures who lived through it. This book is a comprehensive reference to the sediments and fossils of the Big Badlands, and also touches on National Park Service management policies that help protect such significant fossils. Includes photos and illustrations “A worthy successor to the work of O’Harra.” —Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology

An essential companion for the outdoor enthusiast and professional scientist, this up-to-date, compact guide to California mammals is illustrated in both black and white and color.

Fossil Mammals of Asia, edited by and with contributions from world-renowned scholars, is the first major work devoted to the late Cenozoic (Neogene) mammalian biostratigraphy and geochronology of Asia. This volume employs cutting-edge biostratigraphic and geochemical dating methods to map the emergence of mammals across the continent. Written by specialists working in a variety of Asian regions, it uses data from many basins with spectacular fossil records to establish a groundbreaking geochronological framework for the evolution of land mammals. Asia's violent tectonic history has resulted in some of the world's most varied topography, and its high mountain ranges and intense monsoon climates have spawned widely diverse environments over time. These geologic conditions profoundly influenced the evolution of Asian mammals and their migration into Europe, Africa, and North America. Focusing on amazing new fossil finds that have redefined Asia's role in mammalian evolution, this volume synthesizes information from a range of field studies on Asian mammals and biostratigraphy, helping to trace the histories and movements of extinct and extant mammals from various major groups and all northern continents, and providing geologists with a richer understanding of a variety of Asian terrains.

A valuable resource for the latest research on rodents, highlighting links across palaeontology, developmental biology, functional morphology, phylogenetics and biomechanics.