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Written for everyone fascinated by the huge beasts that once roamed the earth, this book introduces the giant hornless rhinoceros, Indricotherium. These massive animals inhabited Asia and Eurasia for more than 14 million years, about 37 to 23 million years ago. They had skulls 6 feet long, stood 22 feet high at the shoulder, and were twice as heavy as the largest elephant ever recorded, tipping the scales at 44,100 pounds. Fortunately, the big brutes were vegetarians, Donald R. Prothero tells their story, from their discovery just a century ago to the latest research on how they lived and died.
Preface
1. Quicksand!
2. Giant Hunters
3. Lands of the Giants
4. Rhino Roots
5. What's in a Name?
6. Building a Giant
7. Paradise Lost
Bibliography
Index
Donald R. Prothero is Professor of Geology at Occidental College and Lecturer in Geobiology at the California Institute of Technology. He is author or co-author of many books, most recently After the Dinosaurs: The Age of Mammals; Evolution: What the Fossils Say and Why It Matters; Greenhouse of the Dinosaurs; and Catastrophes!
"In a look at the biggest of these wonders [...] Prothero delves into these overlooked big guys, the most massive mammals to ever walk the Earth [...] [and] cuts across every aspect of paleontology to tell the story of these vanished giants. Chapters range from entertaining recounting of discoverers [...] to scholarly descriptions of the rules that biologists must follow to name a new species or estimate a vanished rhino's weight."
– USA Today
"Through copious background details, Prothero celebrates great and lesser-known names in the history of paleontology, as well as geological and taxonomic nitty gritty."
– National Geographic Laelaps
"Within this slim tome [...] Prothero packs in an encyclopedic summary of indrithocere anatomy and biology [...] Highly recommended."
– Choice
