This overview of dinosaur discoveries in Mexico synthesizes current information about the geography and environment of the region during the Mesozoic when it was the western margin of the ancient continent of Pangea. Dinosaurs and Other Reptiles from the Mesozoic of Mexico summarizes research on various groups, including turtles, lepidosauromorphs, pleisosaurs, crocodyliforms, pterosaurs, and last but not least, dinosaurs. In addition, chapters focus on trackways and other trace fossils and on K/P boundary (the Chicxulub crater, beneath the Gulf of Mexico, has been hypothesized as the site of the boloid impact that killed off the dinosaurs). Dinosaurs and Other Reptiles from the Mesozoic of Mexico is an up-to-date, informative volume on an area that has not been comprehensively described until now.
Contributors
Acknowledgments
Preface
1. History of the Discoveries of Dinosaurs and Mesozoic Reptiles in Mexico
Jose Ruben Guzman-Gutierrez and Héctor E. Rivera-Sylva
2. Paleogeography and Paleoenvironment of Mexico during the Mesozoic
Wolfgang Stinnesbeck and Eberhard Frey
3. Turtles of the Mesozoic of México
Donald Brinkman
4. Mesozoic Lepidosauromorphs of Mexico: A Review and Discussion of Taxonomic Assignments
Víctor Hugo Reynoso and J. Alberto Cruz
5. Plesiosaurs, Reptiles between Grace and Awe
Eberhard Frey and Wolfgang Stinnesbeck
6. Mexican Ichthyosaurs
Eberhard Frey and Wolfgang Stinnesbeck
7. Overview of Mesozoic Crocodyliforms from Mexico
Gerardo Carbot-Chanona
8. Mexican Pterosaurs—Rare Jewels in the Fossil Record
Eberhard Frey and Wolfgang Stinnesbeck
9. Mexican Saurischian Dinosaurs
Héctor E. Rivera-Sylva and Kenneth Carpenter
10. The Ornithischian Dinosaurs of Mexico
Héctor E. Rivera-Sylva and Kenneth Carpenter
11. A Summary of the Mesozoic Vertebrate Tracks of Mexico
Victor Manuel Bravo Cuevas and Rubén Rodríguez de la Rosa
12. The Cretaceous-Paleogene (K-Pg) Boundary in Mexico
Wolfgang Stinnesbeck and Eberhard Frey
Index
Héctor E. Rivera-Sylva is a paleontologist with the Museo del Desierto in Saltillo, Coahilla, Mexico.
Kenneth Carpenter is Associate Vice-Chancellor, Prehistoric Museum, the College of Eastern Utah. He is author of Eggs, Nests, and Baby Dinosaurs (IUP, 2000); editor of The Carnivorous Dinosaurs (IUP, 2005) and The Armored Dinosaurs (IUP, 2000); and editor (with Peter Larson) of Tyrannosaurus rex, the Tyrant King (IUP, 2008), (with Virginia Tidwell) of Thunder-Lizards: The Sauropodomorph Dinosaurs (IUP, 2005), and (with Darren H. Tanke) of Mesozoic Vertebrate Life (IUP, 2001).
Eberhard Frey is Chief Curator and Head of the Department of Geosciences at State Museum of Natural History Karlsruhe, Germany.
"Dinosaurs and Other Reptiles from the Mesozoic of Mexico is an up-to-date, informative volume on an area that has not been comprehensively described until now."
– Birdbooker Report