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Evolution and Environment in Tropical America
Edited by Jeremy B. C. Jackson, Ann F. Budd, and Anthony G. Coates
University of Chicago Press, 1996
How were the tropical Americas formed? This ambitious volume draws on extensive, multidisciplinary research to develop new views of the geological formation of the isthmus linking North and South America and of the major environmental changes that reshaped the Neotropics to create its present-day marine and terrestrial ecosystems.

Recent discoveries show that dramatic changes in climate and ocean circulation can occur very quickly, and that ecological communities respond just as rapidly. Abrupt changes in the composition of fossil assemblages, formerly dismissed as artifacts of a poor fossil record, now are seen as accurate records of swift changes in the composition of ocean communities.

The twenty-four contributors use current work in paleontology, geology, oceanography, anthropology, ecology, and evolution to paint this challenging portrait of rapid environmental and evolutionary change. Their conclusions argue for a revision of existing interpretations of the fossil record and the processes—including invading Eurasian peoples—that have produced it.
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front cover of The Fisher Site
The Fisher Site
Archaeological, Geological and Paleobotanical Studies at an Early Paleo-Indian Site in Southern Ontario, Canada
Peter L. Storck
University of Michigan Press, 1997
A detailed, multidisciplinary report on a large Early Paleoindian site in the Georgian Bay region.
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front cover of The Geoarchaeology of Whitewater Draw, Arizona
The Geoarchaeology of Whitewater Draw, Arizona
Michael R. Waters
University of Arizona Press, 1986
"A fine example of the contributions that can be made by well-defined and organized geoarchaeological investigations." —Quaternary Science Reviews

"A welcome addition to our library of southwestern studies. Well-written, extremely well illustrated, and filled with useful dates, field techniques, and stratigraphic data." —International Journal of Geoarchaeology

"This geoarchaeological study is in the very best tradition of interdisciplinary research that applies geological concepts and methods to the study of archaeological contexts." —The Kiva
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front cover of Osteology for the Archaeologist
Osteology for the Archaeologist
Number 3, The American Mastodon and the Woolly Mammoth; Number 4, North American Birds: Skulls and Mandibles; Number 5, North American Birds: Postcranial Skeletons
Stanley J. Olsen
Harvard University Press, 1979
This comparative analysis aids the fieldworker in identifying fossil proboscidean bones from early man sites. It also describes the skulls, mandibles, and posteranial skeletons of forty families of birds frequently found in archaeological excavations in the United States.
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front cover of Quaternary Extinctions
Quaternary Extinctions
A Prehistoric Revolution
Edited by Paul S. Martin and Richard G. Klein
University of Arizona Press, 1984
"What caused the extinction of so many animals at or near the end of the Pleistocene? Was it overkill by human hunters, the result of a major climatic change or was it just a part of some massive evolutionary turnover? Questions such as these have plagued scientists for over one hundred years and are still being heatedly debated today. Quaternary Extinctions presents the latest and most comprehensive examination of these questions." —Geological Magazine

"May be regarded as a kind of standard encyclopedia for Pleistocene vertebrate paleontology for years to come." —American Scientist

"Should be read by paleobiologists, biologists, wildlife managers, ecologists, archeologists, and anyone concerned about the ongoing extinction of plants and animals." —Science

"Uncommonly readable and varied for watchers of paleontology and the rise of humankind." —Scientific American

"Represents a quantum leap in our knowledge of Pleistocene and Holocene palaeobiology. . . . Many volumes on our bookshelves are destined to gather dust rather than attention. But not this one." —Nature

"Two strong impressions prevail when first looking into this epic compendium. One is the judicious balance of views that range over the whole continuum between monocausal, cultural, or environmental explanations. The second is that both the data base and theoretical sophistication of the protagonists in the debate have improved by a quantum leap since 1967." —American Anthropologist
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front cover of Sediments In Archaeological Context
Sediments In Archaeological Context
Julie K Stein
University of Utah Press, 2001
Almost every artifact in archaeological analysis originates in or on the ground. While there are elaborate methods for extracting and analyzing artifacts, treatment of the matrix within which they are located is often unsophisticated and does not include systematic analysis.

Sediments in Archaeological Context concerns the analysis of this matrix and the potential use of sediments to answer archaeological questions. Describing sediments and sampling them in appropriate ways do not replace the study of artifacts, but they can provide additional, useful information regarding a site complex, its physical environment, and the relations of artifacts to each other.

Each chapter in the volume considers sediments within a specific context. Topics include sediments found in a variety of environments: cultural environments, rockshelter and cave environments, dryland alluvial environments, humid alluvial environments, lake environments, shoreline environments, and spring and wetland environments.

Sediments in Archaeological Context is intended for every archaeologist who investigates sites in depositional contexts.
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