Some 111 million years ago, deep in the heart of Texas, a herd of twenty-ton dinosaurs sauntered across a wet mud flat. Their footprints eventually became frozen in stone, leaving a sign of one fleeting moment of a particular day in the lives of these magnificent creatures. Today, after mountains of time have passed, the story of dinosaurs in what is now Texas is being reconstructed, footprint by footprint, bone by bone. Lone Star Dinosaurs tells that story, along with the exciting tale of the discoveries that have opened a peephole into the past. Behind each fossil find, there is not just a dinosaur but a person-- sometimes a child--whose spark of curiosity lights the picture of prehistory. This is a thrilling story, engagingly written and beautifully illustrated, through which young and old alike can enter the world of the dinosaurs and the world of the dinosaur hunters. Dinosaurs are a Texas legacy from worlds long past. Pleurocoelus, Alamosaurus, Acrocanthosaurus, Chasmosaurus, Tyrannosaurus, and Tenontosaurus are among the representatives Texas boasts of every basic group of dinosaurs--a remarkable diversity that samples nearly the entire range of dinosaurian development over an immense expanse of time. In fact, the three dinosaur-bearing areas within the state--the Panhandle, Central Texas, and Big Bend--yield treasures of vastly different ages, from the beginning of the Mesozoic Era more than 200 million years ago to the time of the big extinction some 66 million years ago. These dinosaurs lived in such different arrangements of the continents and oceans that they may as well have lived in different worlds. Their stories offer a compelling picture of the history of life on our planet.

The aim of the book is to present original and though-provoking essays in human paleontology and prehistory, which are at the forefront of human evolutionary research, in honor of Professor Yoel Rak (a leading scholar in paleoanthropology). The volume presents a collection of original papers contributed by many of Yoel's friends and colleagues from all over the globe. Contributions from experts around the globe fall roughly into three broad categories: Reflections on some of the broad theoretical questions of evolution, and especially about human evolution; the early hominins, with special emphasis on Australopithecus afarensis and Paranthropus; and the Neanderthals, that contentious group of our closest extinct relatives. Within and across these categories, nearly every paper addresses combinations of methodological, analytical and theoretical questions that are pertinent to the whole human evolutionary time span. This book will appeal most to scholars and advanced students in paleoanthropology, human paleontology and prehistoric archaeology.

Tracking initial ocean (de)oxygenation is critical to better constrain the coevolution of life and environment. Development of thallium isotopes has provided evidence to track the global manganese oxide burial which responds to early (de)oxygenation for short-term climate events. Modern oxic seawater thallium isotope values are recorded in organic-rich sediments deposited below an anoxic water column. An expansion of reducing conditions decrease manganese oxide burial and shifts the seawater thallium isotope composition more positive. Recent work documents that thallium isotopes are perturbed prior to carbon isotope excursions, suggesting ocean deoxygenation is a precursor for increased organic carbon burial. This Element provides an introduction to the application of thallium isotopes, case studies, and future directions.