Beasts of Eden

Library Bookwatch, Dec, 2004

Beasts Of Eden

David Rains Wallace

University of California Press

2120 Berkeley Way, Berkeley, CA 94720

0520237315 $24.95 www.ucpress.edu

Evolution is typically discussed in terms of human evolution with a bow to the animal kingdom, so David Rains Wallace's Beasts Of Eden for the college-level science student is particularly recommended as an intriguing survey of extinct mammals. Mammals first evolved about the same time as dinosaurs: Beasts Of Eden covers not only the recognized fossils of past animals long gone, but presents a most intriguing survey of speculators and scientists who have surmised the mammals which must have been. Chapters are filled with palentological discussions, surveys of monographs and research studies providing radically different theories on mammal evolution and extinction, and social and political attacks on scientist speculations. An intriguing, revealing guide.