Animals of the Past

The book that founded vertebrate paleontology. Cuvier argues from fossil bones that whole species have vanished, and sets out the comparative anatomy method still used to rebuild extinct animals. This edition adds observations on the geology of North America.

Georges Cuvier

A systematic survey of extinct vertebrates written for zoology students by a keeper of geology at the British Museum. It moves group by group through fossil fishes, amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals, with anatomical figures throughout.

Arthur Smith Woodward

Thirty large plates of ichthyosaur and plesiosaur skeletons, drawn from specimens Hawkins collected himself. The prose is strange and biblical, but the plates are among the finest ever made of marine reptiles.

Thomas Hawkins

The full excavation report from Stanton Harcourt, where mammoth bones and Neanderthal handaxes turned up together in an ancient river channel. It covers the fauna, the flora, the dating and what the site says about interglacial climate.

Katharine Scott and Christine M. Buckingham

A modern survey of Sumatran cave faunas, starting from the collections Eugene Dubois made in the 1890s and running to current fieldwork. It covers orangutans, extinct elephants, rhinos and the earliest human presence in the region.

Julien Louys, Paul C. H. Albers and Alexandra A. E. van der Geer