The Legacy of the Mastodon: The Golden Age of Fossils in America

“This tale begins Thomson’s look at the early years of American fossil hunting. In addition to a history of paleontology, it is an account of the opening of the West and of how adventurous and often egotistical men mined the new land for fossils. The book explains how Darwinian evolution made the second half of this ‘golden age’ important scientifically, but Thomson really succeeds by bringing to life the fossil-finders and their world.”—Marc Kaufman, Washington Post “Thomson recasts the myth of the American West, writing of the frontier as the onetime home of ‘hitherto unsuspected’ animal life. Thomson charts the rise of vertebrate paleontology as a combination of practical American innovations and philosophical ones—the transcontinental railroad and Jeffersonian ideals.”—Laren Porcaro, New Yorker “In the mid-1700s frontiersmen uncovered mastodon bones in present-day Kentucky. In this unique and fascinating book, Thomson . . . takes us from the mastodon bones through finds of many unsuspected kinds of animals—tiny ancestors of horses and camels, birds with teeth, cattlelike creatures with claws and, of course, dinosaurs. All this is fascinating, but what makes the book unique is that Thomson links the emergence of the new nation to the discovery of its fossils. Along the way, he turns up many surprising gems.”—Michelle Press, Scientific American “Through enjoyable story-telling backed by thoroughly researched material, extensively footnoted chapter by chapter at the end of the book, Thomson successfully brings the world and lives of the well known and undeservedly not so well known early American fossil-hunters vividly to life.”—Lyall L. Anderson, Journal of Geological Magazine “Professor Thomson writes with authority, enthusiasm, and impressive breadth on the history of paleontology in America, which often reads like an epic adventure story.”—Andrew O’Shaughnessy, Saunders Director, Robert H. Smith International Center for Jefferson Studies, Monticello “A one-stop resource for understanding the major currents of vertebrae paleontology and associated sciences, plus all the relevant dramatis personae, right up to the end of the nineteenth century. This book is a gold mine.”—Kevin Padian, University of California, Berkeley