Horns, Tusks, and Flippers : The Evolution of Hoofed Mammals

by Prothero, Donald R.; Schoch, Robert M.

• ISBN13: 9780801871351
• ISBN10: 0801871352
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2003-02-11
• Publisher: Johns Hopkins Univ Pr

Summary

Since the extinction of the dinosaurs, hoofed mammals have been the planet's dominant herbivores. Native to all continents except Australia and Antarctica, they include not only even-toed artiodactyls (pigs, hippos, camels, deer, antelopes, giraffes, sheep, goats, and cattle) and odd-toed perissodactyls (horses and rhinos), but also tethytheres (elephants and their aquatic relatives, manatees and seas cows) and cetaceans (whales and dolphins), which descended from hoofed land mammals. Recent paleontological and biological discoveries have deepened our understanding of their evolution and in some cases have made previous theories obsolete. In Horns, Tusks, and Flippers, Donald R. Prothero and Robert M. Schoch present a compelling new evolutionary history of these remarkable creatures, combining the latest scientific evidence with the most current information about their ecology and behavior. Using an approach based on cladistics, the authors consider both living and extinct ungulates. Included in their discussion are the stories of rhinos, whose ancestors include both dinosaur-sized hornless species and hippo-like river waders; elephants, whose earliest ancestors had neither tusks nor trunks; and whales, whose descent from hoofed mesonychids has never properly been described for the lay audience. Prothero and Schoch also update the evolutionary history of the horse, correcting the frequent errors made in textbooks and popular works, and they make available to the general public new evidence about the evolution of camels, horned antelopes, and cattle. In addition, they raise important conservation issues and relate anecdotes of significant fossil finds. Scientifically accurate and up to date, generously illustrated, and clearly written, Horns, Tusks, and Flippers is a useful and much-needed resource for specialists in the fields of paleontology, zoology, ecology, and evolutionary biology, as well as for general readers interested in learning more about the story of life on earth.

Author Biography

Donald R. Prothero is a professor of geology at Occidental College. Robert M. Schoch is on the faculty of the College of General Studies at Boston University.

Table of Contents

Preface and Acknowledgments	xi
Introduction	1	(18)
American savanna	1	(1)
Names and dates	2	(4)
Hoofed mammals	6	(3)
Uinta beasts and the Cope-Marsh wars	9	(4)
The lost world	13	(6)
Cloven hooves	19	(26)
The kingdom of cloven hooves	19	(1)
Gut reactions	19	(4)
``Bunny deer''	23	(2)
Phosphate and fossils	25	(1)
Pseudopigs	26	(1)
Sui generis	27	(8)
``Nebraska man'' and Javelinas	35	(4)
The ``river horse''	39	(6)
Tylopods	45	(16)
Camels without humps	45	(8)
Ships of the desert	53	(3)
``Mountain tooth''	56	(5)
Where the deer and the antelope play	61	(26)
Graveyard of the Amazons	61	(2)
Horns and antlers	63	(2)
``Mouse deer''	65	(1)
The ``forest donkey''	66	(1)
The camelopard	67	(5)
Deer perfume	72	(2)
All-American-but not an antelope	74	(2)
Deer to us all	76	(8)
Abbe David and his deer	84	(3)
Hollow horns	87	(28)
A world of bovids	87	(3)
Bovines	90	(2)
Aurochs and wisent	92	(2)
Where the buffalo roam	94	(3)
Cattle call	97	(2)
Diving bucks	99	(1)
``Bright eyes''	100	(7)
Mountain monarchs	107	(8)
A whale's tale	115	(26)
Dr. Koch's ``sea serpent''	115	(2)
Walking whales?	117	(1)
Andrews' giant ``bear''	118	(2)
The pedigree of Leviathan	120	(1)
Life of a Leviathan	121	(3)
``So long, and thanks for all the fish''	124	(3)
Moby Dick, Flipper, and their kin	127	(6)
Filter-feeding monsters	133	(2)
Save the whales!	135	(6)
Out of Africa	141	(16)
The tethytheres	141	(2)
Mermaids	143	(6)
The ``feeble folk''	149	(8)
The origin of Jumbo	157	(22)
Giants in the earth	157	(2)
Early tuskers	159	(4)
The ``Great Missourium''	163	(3)
Shovel-tuskers and gomphotheres	166	(3)
Elephant grinders	169	(1)
Woolly wanderers	170	(6)
The mystery of the missing mammoths	176	(3)
Kingdom of ivory	179	(18)
Behold the behemoth	179	(3)
Behemoth biology	182	(3)
The sisterhood	185	(5)
God and slave	190	(1)
Blood and ivory	191	(6)
A horse of a different color (and shape)	197	(16)
The origin of perissodactyls	197	(1)
The ``hyrax beast''	198	(5)
Cuvier's ``ancient beast''	203	(1)
Halfway horses	204	(1)
Browsing anchitheres	205	(2)
Grazing horses	207	(2)
The hipparion controversy	209	(4)
Equus	213	(16)
One-toed horses	213	(3)
Stripes do not a zebra make	216	(5)
Wild asses	221	(2)
Wild and domesticated horses	223	(6)
Thunder beasts	229	(12)
The legend of the Thunder Beasts	229	(1)
Bone rush	230	(3)
Osborn, Asia, and orthogenesis	233	(2)
The biology of brontotheres	235	(6)
Proboscises and claws	241	(14)
Dragons' teeth	241	(1)
Hall of the mountain cow	242	(5)
Chalicotheres don't obey Cuvier's Law	247	(3)
Just what are chalicotheres?	250	(2)
Moropomorphs	252	(3)
Rhinoceroses without horns	255	(22)
``Ancient Dacians'' and Siberian mummies	255	(1)
American rhinos	256	(1)
The amphibious amynodonts	257	(1)
Running rhinos and rhino giants	258	(4)
True rhinoceroses	262	(2)
Miocene invasions	264	(4)
Rhinoceros Pompeii	268	(3)
Hairy rhinos and giant ``unicorns''	271	(6)
Thundering to extinction	277	(16)
Unicorn, monoceros, and rhinoceros	277	(3)
Black and white	280	(4)
One-horned rhinos	284	(3)
Horns of doom	287	(6)
Epilogue	293	(4)
References	297	(12)
Index	309