Prologue: The Fresco and the Fossil -- Pachyderms in the Catacombs -- Dr. Jekyll and the Stonesfield Jaws -- The Origin of Mammals -- The Noblest Conquest -- Terrible Horns and Heavy Feet -- Mr. Megatherium versus Professor Mylodon -- Fire Beasts of the Antipodes -- Titans on Parade -- Five-toed Horses and Missing Links -- The Invisible Dawn Man -- A Bonaparte of Beasts -- Love and Theory -- Simpson's Cynodont-to-Smilodon Synthesis -- Shifting Ground -- Dissolving Ancestries -- Exploding Faunas -- The Revenge of the Shell Hunters -- Simpson Redivivus -- Winds Thieves of the Kyzylkum -- The Serpent's Offering -- Anthropoid Leapfrog -- Epilogue: Cenozoic Parks
Summary
Mammals first evolved at about the same time as dinosaurs, and their story is perhaps the more fascinating of the two--in part because it is also our own story. In this literate and entertaining book, eminent naturalist David Rains Wallace brings the saga of ancient mammals to a general audience for the first time
Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references (pages 297-314) and index
