Journal of Paleontology; May 2006; v. 80; no. 3;
p. 603; DOI: 10.1666/0022-3360(2006)80[603:R]2.0.CO;2
© 2006 Paleontological Society
REVIEWS
David Froehlich1
1 Austin Community College Northridge Campus 11701 Stonehollow Drive Austin, Texas 78712 <eohippus@austincc.edu>
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The Evolution of North American Rhinoceroses. Donald R. Prothero. 2005. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 228 p. $100.00. ISBN 0521832403.
A seatmate on a plane commented to me while I was reading the book for this review that "I didn't know there were rhinos in North America." This is, I am sure, a common perception for most people, however, for vertebrate paleontologists who study the Tertiary mammals of North America, rhinos were an important part of the fauna for more than 30 million years, only disappearing from the fossil record in the Western Hemisphere about 5 million years ago. For those of us who know Don Prothero, it seems like he has been working on this monograph for at least as long. It is not often that you get to see a book that contains more than 20 years of work. Don Prothero began his career at Columbia University and the nearby American Museum of Natural History in the late 1970s. Work that he began there forms the basis for this book, which will be the primary reference on North American rhinocerotids for years to come. Given the nature of vertebrate paleontology as a historical science, both the nature of what we do as well as how we do it, I am quite sure that my grandchildren will be citing this work in their studies. (Doesn't everyone want to have their children and grandchildren grow up to be vertebrate paleontologists?)
It is also . . . [Full Text of this Article]
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