Overview

"More than 60 million members of the species ""felis domesticus"" - house cats - live in the United States alone. Welcomed into homes as part of the family and revered as gods by the ancient Egyptians, domestic cats are descendants of a proud lineage that includes the giant sabre-toothed tiger, the graceful cheetah of the African plains, and the powerful bobcat of the Americas. Acclaimed artist Mauricio Anton and renowned paleontologist Alan Turner collaborate to produce the first book of its kind - a fascinating natural history linking extinct larger feline species with those still living, including lions, tigers, cougars and cheetahs. Using superb illustrations and photos to supplement lucidly written text, ""The Big Cats and Their Fossil Relatives"" chronicles 25 million years of evolution, revealing the common ancestry of today's familiar big cats. In addition to a compelling account of the evolution and anatomy of big cats past and present, ""The Big Cats and Their Fossil Relatives"" also explores the behaviour of these magnificent creatures. Living species and fossil remains make possible the reconstruction of the cats' social and predatory behaviour, supplementing the reader's understanding of their physical forms with images of how they would have moved, hunted and interacted. Throughout the book, side-by-side comparisons of extinct species with their descendants illuminate the process and purpose of evolution. Turner guides the reader through such topics as the preservation of fossils, the reconstruction of an extinct species from fossil evidence and its living descendants, and the changing natural world of the cats and their food sources. This book is both a useful introduction for readers new to paleontology and a valuable reference for those already familiar with the field."

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9780231102285

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Reviews

Whether your interest is scientific or you merely wonder what a giant cat whose teeth inspired the name 'he who brings devastation'looked like, this book is not to be missed. -- Luke Hunter BioScience A well-written, informative, and beautifully illustrated guide to the large cats, both extinct and extant. -- Blaire Van Valkenburgh The Quarterly Review of Biology A very interesting book-a cross between popular natural history and a coffee table volume. -- F. S. Szalay Choice Beautifully illustrated... Clearly, this work has been a labour of love for both author and illustrator. -- Douglas Palmer New Scientist Ant n's illustrations, refreshingly 'based directly on the skeletal evidence available and... not merely slightly altered versions of living cats with the addition of large fangs,'are perhaps the finest ever published. They are intertwined with Turner's cogent text in an eloquent demonstration of the interplay between art and science, paleontology and zoology, predator and prey, ecology and behavior, and anatomy and geography. -- Dawn A. Adams Science

Whether your interest is scientific or you merely wonder what a giant cat whose teeth inspired the name 'he who brings devastation'looked like, this book is not to be missed. -- Luke Hunter BioScience A well-written, informative, and beautifully illustrated guide to the large cats, both extinct and extant. -- Blaire Van Valkenburgh The Quarterly Review of Biology A very interesting book--a cross between popular natural history and a coffee table volume. -- F. S. Szalay Choice Beautifully illustrated... Clearly, this work has been a labour of love for both author and illustrator. -- Douglas Palmer New Scientist Anton's illustrations, refreshingly 'based directly on the skeletal evidence available and... not merely slightly altered versions of living cats with the addition of large fangs,'are perhaps the finest ever published. They are intertwined with Turner's cogent text in an eloquent demonstration of the interplay between art and science, paleontology and zoology, predator and prey, ecology and behavior, and anatomy and geography. -- Dawn A. Adams Science

Whether your interest is scientific or you merely wonder what a giant cat whose teeth inspired the name 'he who brings devastation'looked like, this book is not to be missed. -- Luke Hunter, BioScience A well-written, informative, and beautifully illustrated guide to the large cats, both extinct and extant. -- Blaire Van Valkenburgh, The Quarterly Review of Biology A very interesting book -- a cross between popular natural history and a coffee table volume. -- Choice Beautifully illustrated... Clearly, this work has been a labour of love for both author and illustrator. -- Douglas Palmer, New Scientist Anton's illustrations, refreshingly 'based directly on the skeletal evidence available and... not merely slightly altered versions of living cats with the addition of large fangs,'are perhaps the finest ever published. They are intertwined with Turner's cogent text in an eloquent demonstration of the interplay between art and science, paleontology and zoology, predator and prey, ecology and behavior, and anatomy and geography. -- Dawn A. Adams, Science

Author Information

Alan Turner is a paleontologist and reader in vertebrate paleontology in the School of Biological and Earth Schiences at Liverpool John Moores University and is a former senior curator of paleontology at the Transvaal Museum in Pretoria, South Africa.Mauricio Anton specializes in creating images that bring prehistoric creatures and their environments back to life. He has been an illustrator for nearly 30 years. Mauricio Anton is an artist and scientific illustrator based at the National Museum of Natural Sciences in Madrid. His work has appeared in numerous scientific publications, including the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. Alan Turner is a paleontologist and reader in vertebrate paleontology in the School of Biological and Earth Sciences at Liverpool John Moores University and is a former senior curator of paleontology at the Transvaal Museum in Pretoria, South Africa.

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