Fossil Treasures of the Anza-Borrego Desert - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0932653502 ISBN 13: 9780932653505

Publisher: Sunbelt Publications, 2006

Synopsis

A review of North America's most complete continuous history of life - beginning almost seven million years ago - one of the richest fossil records in the Western Northern Hemisphere, written by leading scientific specialists and educators throughout the United States. Showcased are marine mammals, mammoths, giant ground sloths, sabertoothed cats, camels, fossil footprints, paleoclimate, and ancient landscapes.

About this title

From the Inside Flap

Southern California's Anza-Borrego Desert State Park® is a vast, mostly arid desert, but the ancient landscapes of Anza-Borrego were richly populated riparian forests and savanna. Before that, it held a tropical inland ocean teeming with marine life. Today's eroded badlands provide North America's most continuous history of life for most of the last 7 million years one of the richest, most varied fossil records of its time in the western hemisphere opening windows onto the region's long-vanished past.The key to this prehistoric world is paleontology, the study of the fossilized remains of ancient life. The fossils of Anza-Borrego include leaf impressions, shells, bones, teeth, and animal tracks. This record of more than 550 types of fossil plants and animals ranges from microscopic pollen and water fleas to walrus bones and mammoth skeletons. The fossils have been the focus of ongoing research, study, and interpretation since the mid-1850s. Extensive collections from the Imperial Valley College Museum and the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County now reside in California State Park's Colorado Desert District Stout Research Center in Borrego Springs. The results of the past several decades of study by leading researchers from across the nation can now be seen in this comprehensive work.Early chapters explore background themes and concepts before raising the curtain on Anza-Borrego's last seven million years, starting with the Imperial Sea episode. Central chapters present the real stars of the story individual groups of animals. The bestiary reads like a who's-who of many of the most unique fossil vertebrates on earth bathtub-sized tortoises, the sabertooth cat, giant ground sloths, the giant short-faced bear, the largest known mammoth, a giant camel, and the largest flying bird ever to fly northern hemisphere skies. Closing chapters discuss fossil footprints, intercontinental connections, and paleoclimates and environmental change in the Anza-Borrego desert region.Exquisite illustrations and color foldout paleolandscapes bring the past to life throughout the text. Color maps, charts, tables, an extensive glossary, index, and a bibliography are included.

Edition details

• Publisher: Sunbelt Publications
• Publication date: 2006
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0932653502
• ISBN 13: 9780932653505
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 394
• Editor: Jefferson Dr George, Lindsay Lowell