Digging Snowmastodon: Discovering an Ice Age World in the Colorado Rockies - Softcover

Johnson, Kirk; Miller, Ian

Softcover

ISBN 10: 193690506X ISBN 13: 9781936905065

Publisher: People's Pr Llc, 2012

Synopsis

In October 2010, a bulldozer operator working at the base of the Snowmass ski area in Colorado's Rocky Mountains uncovered the skeleton of a young female mammoth. Over the next 11 months, this find would yield a treasure trove of amazingly well-preserved ice age fossils - more than 5,000 bones of over 40 kinds of animals - and would change forever our understanding of alpine life in the ice age. The Snowmastodon Project's two lead scientists tell the dynamic story of this discovery and dig: the excitement, emotion, and the colorful cast of characters who made the project a success. 

About this title

About the Author:

Kirk Johnson is the Chief Curator and Vice President for Research and Collections at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science. He earned a Ph. D. in geology and paleobotany at Yale University in 1989 and has been at DMNS since 1991. His research focuses on fossil plants, the extinction of the dinosaurs, and methods for dating rocks and fossils. His research has taken him to all continents and he is presently working on projects in Patagonia, Utah, and Colorado. Dr. Johnson is the leader of the Snowmastodon Project.

 

Ian Miller is Curator of Paleontology and Chair of the Earth Sciences at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science. He earned a Ph. D. in geology and paleobotany at Yale University in 2007, and has been at DMNS since 2007. His research focuses on fossil plants and their applications for understanding ancient elevation, climate, and the position of continents. He is presently working on projects in the Colorado Rockies and the Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument in Utah. Dr. Miller is the co-leader of the Snowmastodon Project.

 

Review:

Digging Snowmastodon is part science and part love. Johnson and Miller bring to life one of the greatest scientific discoveries of the new century. What an incredible read.

- John Hickenlooper, Governor of Colorado

 In have only dreamed of mastodon bones but Kirk, Ian, and Joe gave us the gift of participating in this amazing experience in Snowmass, Colorado. This is a special story that my husband Derek Trucks and I will share with our grandchildren someday.

- Susan Tedeschi, award winning singer/guitarist with the Tedeschi Trucks Band

 This is a brilliantly told tale of one of the most exciting finds in modern geology, a treasure hunt with a perfect, inspirational conclusion. You’ll never look at the Earth in quite the same way again!

- Simon Winchester, author of The Professor and the Madman and The Map that Changed the World

 Sit down with this book, and you are instantly a welcomed visitor to a place inhabited by revitalized mastodons and camels, environmentally sensitive bulldozer operators, charismatic paleontologists, noble volunteers, and colorful residents of the West’s quirky resort communities. Kirk Johnson and Ian Miller, as the world’s best tour guides, offer an outing to the promised land of the armchair traveler.

- Patty Limerick, Faculty Director of the Center of the American West, University of Colorado, and author of Legacy of Conquest and A Ditch in Time: Denver, the West, and Water

About this edition

• Publisher: People's Pr Llc
• Publication date: 2012
• ISBN 10: 193690506X
• ISBN 13: 9781936905065
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 141