Brian Switek. 2010. Written in Stone. Evolution, The Fossil Record, and Our Place in Nature. New York, Bellevue Literary Press

Abstract

The history of vertebrate paleontology has simultaneously been very well and very poorly served in the past. Certain periods have seen tens or hundreds of publications devoted to them, and there’s little new to be found out about London in the 1830s and 1840s, or the ‘Bone Wars’ of the 1870s and 1880s. But there’s still a whole world to be discovered. One of the - many - admirable qualities of Brian Switek’s first book, Written in Stone, is that Switek generally steers clear from re-hashing the historical warhorses of vertebrate paleontology and so offers something that holds interest for both the lay reader and the paleontological veteran. Read more...