The dire wolf collects his due while the boys sing 'round the fire..

June 12, 2022 11:39 AM

Books about ancient mammals?

I love learning about the evolution of mammals. All the weird ancestors of modern mammals that lived and died out. Mammoths. Giant sloths. Saber-tooth cats. Bear dogs. "Hell pigs". Etc. Etc. So far that mostly consists of me watching a lot of YouTube videos but I'd like some books so I can dig deeper. What interesting books can you recommend that will tell me more about these odd and wonderful creatures?

posted by downtohisturtles to Science & Nature (9 answers total)

Years ago I read a book by Colin Tudge called The Day Before Yesterday - which I believe was called The Time Before History for the US edition - which is about deep human history, before written records - incl. the cultural memories that we still have kicking around from the ice age of sharing our environment with those creatures. Very entertaining read.

Also this: https://www.theguardian.com/science/2022/jun/11/dinosaurs-are-not-us-book-reveals-how-mammals-came-to-rule-the-world
posted by rd45 at 11:58 AM on June 12, 2022

nice title
posted by j_curiouser at 12:10 PM on June 12, 2022 [6 favorites]

George Gaylord Simpson has been dead for nearly 40 years but his [many] books are still instructive. Sabretooth tiger in The Meaning of Evolution {online} [1949].
Slightly more recent The Cave Bear Story [1995] by Björn Kurtén "It might be said that my affair with the cave bear started half a century ago when it was decided to give the child a name that happens to be Swedish for bear"
Looking forward to seeing what's up in the field since.
posted by BobTheScientist at 12:17 PM on June 12, 2022

Can't recommend this book enough. Beautifully written, it opened the world up further than I hoped: The Book of Barely Imagined Beings. Author explaining it.
posted by einekleine at 12:47 PM on June 12, 2022

I particularly enjoyed The Missing Lynx: The Past and Future of Britain's Lost Mammals by Ross Barnett (obviously, focused on the British Isles).

He gets into a lot of the genetic and other recents scientific research about what was going on with these mammals, and when.

(Also looking forward to other recs in this thread: I also adore the prehistoric mammals.)
posted by jenettsilver at 6:06 PM on June 12, 2022 [1 favorite]

There's a lovely essay in Elena Passarello's Animals Strike Curious Poses (NYT review, Guardian review) about Yuka, a 39,000-year-old mummified woolly mammoth found in Siberia, which talks about prehistoric life.

The rest of the book doesn't quite fit your question, but she writes beautifully about other historically significant animals (a lovesick Galapagos tortoise, the spider who went into space), and you might find some other sources in the bibliography that will lead you to ancient creatures.
posted by Orkney Vole at 1:09 AM on June 13, 2022

Beasts Before Us: The Untold Story of Mammal Origins and Evolution by Elsa Panciroli

The Rise and Reign of the Mammals By Steve Brusatte (not out yet but looks interesting).
posted by poxandplague at 4:25 AM on June 13, 2022

Response by poster: Thanks everyone! I ended up buying The Rise and Reign of the Mammals (which does appear to be out at least in the US). Putting the other suggestions on my list for when I finish. I'm about 100 pages in so far and it's extremely interesting. So far I'm up to the first true mammals so I know I have a lot to go.
posted by downtohisturtles at 5:32 PM on June 13, 2022

I'm currently enjoying Otherlands: A Journey Through Earth's Extinct Worlds
by Thomas Halliday. He tries to weave a full picture of the ecology of various fossil sites. Only the first three or four are from the Cenozoic, although early mammals and their precursors get lots of discussion for the earlier eras. Highly recommended!
posted by polecat at 3:17 PM on June 14, 2022