The Big Cats and Their Fossil Relatives

Amazon.com
Here's a book for cat lovers, but those who prefer good hard science to the warm and fuzzy feline tomes. While very readable, not to mention beautifully and lavishly illustrated, The Big Cats and Their Fossil Relatives is a serious and intelligent look at how today's lions, tigers, and other cat species are linked to their ancient and extinct ancestors. The way cats have evolved over 25 million years, and the descriptions of feline behavior, both ancient and present, will intrigue animal lovers in general, and not just cat people.


From Library Journal
Paleontologist Turner and scientific illustrator Anton provide a unique and eye-catching account of living and extinct big cats. Following the introduction discussing their evolution, Turner offers detailed descriptions and differentiation of individual species. A close look at anatomy and its expression in the behavior of living big cats is used to make inferences about functions and behaviors in extinct species. Finally, Turner sets the evolutionary history of the big cats in a global context, discussing factors influencing their evolution and extinction. Although the author does not footnote his information, he does provide a lengthy list of sources for further reading in each chapter. The excellent illustrations illuminate and expand on many of Turner's points. The book remains fairly technical, especially regarding taxonomy and anatomy. Recommended for larger public and academic libraries.?Jeanne Davidson, Oregon State Univ. Lib., CorvallisCopyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Booklist
With nearly 200 exquisite and anatomically exact drawings, this book exerts a compelling attraction on actual or would-be paleontologists. Another asset is the way Turner connects modern cats, which first appear in the fossil record about 3 million years ago, with ancestors who lived more than 30 million years ago. That connecting theme allows Turner, highly regarded in this field, to make plain the operations of evolutionary pressures on a single family and on a creature, Smilodon (the so-called saber-toothed tiger), as beloved as T. rex by dino-obsessed kids. The author and illustrator describe the accepted species and skeletal differences between them and then make the bones "speak" about possible behaviors; inferential evidence comes from the hunting manner of today's lions, jaguars, and even the domestic cat. Concisely written and precisely drawn, the guide's contents should excite much wonder while instilling the facts about extinct cats. Gilbert Taylor


Review
"Beautifully illustrated.... Clearly, this work has been a labour of love for both author and illustrator." -- Douglas Palmer, New Scientist


F. S. Szalay
A very interesting book -a cross between popular natural history and a coffee table volume.


Blaire Van Valkenburgh
A well-written, informative, and beautifully illustrated guide to the large cats, both extinct and extant.


Douglas Palmer
Beautifully illustrated. . . . Clearly, this work has been a labour of love for both author and illustrator.


Science
As Alan Turner notes, relatively little has been written for the non-specialist about the evolution of the cats. He and artist Mauricio Antn therefore set out to provide an authoritative and yet popular and accessible account of the evolution of the larger cats by bringing together the evidence of modern behavior and the fossil record.' Their book does exactly that. Antn's illustrations, refreshingly based directly on the skeletal evidence available and . . . not merely slightly altered versions of living cats with the addition of large fangs,' are perhaps the finest ever published. They are intertwined with Turner's cogent text in an eloquent demonstration of the interplay between art and science, paleontology and zoology, predator and prey, ecology and behavior, and anatomy and geography.


Book Description
In this beautifully illustrated natural history that links extinct larger feline species with those still in existence, collaborators Alan Turner and Mauricio Antón weave together the evidence of modern feline behavior with that of the fossil record.


About the Author
Mauricio Antón is an artist and scientific illustrator based at the National Museum of Natural Sciences in Madrid. His work has appeared in numerous scientific publications, including the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology.Alan Turner is a paleontologist and reader in vertebrate paleontology in the School of Biological and Earth Sciences at Liverpool John Moores University and is a former senior curator of paleontology at the Transvaal Museum in Pretoria, South Africa.


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A well-written, informative, and beautifully illustrated guide to the large cats, both extinct and extant. Read all 6 "From The Critics" >


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