Dinosaur Extinction and the End of an Era: What the Fossils Say

by J. David Archibald

Overview

— Choice

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780231076258
Publisher:	Columbia University Press
Publication date:	04/04/1996
Series:	The Critical Moments and Perspectives in Earth History and Paleobiology
Pages:	240
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.50(d)
Lexile:	1340L (what's this?)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

J. David Archibald is professor emeritus of biology at San Diego State University and curator of mammals in the SDSU Vertebrate Collections. His books include Dinosaur Extinction and the End of an Era: What the Fossils Say (1996) and Aristotle's Ladder, Darwin's Tree: The Evolution of Visual Metaphors for Biological Order (2014), both from Columbia University Press.

Editorial Reviews

Archibald presents a superb synopsis of vertebrate fossil assemblages found in the western interior of the U.S. leading up to the extinction . . . [He] claims that sea-level change is the principal cause of dinosaur extinction, but he does not deny that meteoritic impact also played a role . . . The student is exposed to the details behind the theories, and the reasoning that drives serious scientific debate. The well-informed geologist will see a side of the extinction debate that has not been promoted in the press and nonspecialist literature.

Choice

The author delineates what is and is not known about vertebrates from the Late Cretaceous and into the early Tertiary periods, drawing on the wealth of available information and his own research. B&w photographs and diagrams. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Booknews