This book examines case studies of North American Quaternary mammalian evolution within the larger domain of modern evolutionary theory. It presents previously unpublished studies of a variety of taxa (xenarthrans, rodents, carnivores, ungulates) examined over several temporal scales, from a few thousand years during the Holocene to millions of years of late Pliocene and Pleistocene time. Different organizational levels are represented, from mosaic population variation, to a synopsis of Quaternary evolution of an entire order (Rodentia). In addition to specific case histories, the book includes purely theoretical and methodological contributions, for example, on the statistical recognition of stasis in the fossil record, new ways to calculate evolutionary rates, and the use of digital image analysis in the study of dental ontogeny. Perhaps the most important aspect of the studies reported in this book is that they span the time between the "ecological moment" and "deep time." Modern taxa can be traced back into the fossil record, and variation among extant taxa can be used as a control against which variation in the extinct ones can be understood.

This book examines case studies of North American Quaternary mammalian evolution within the larger domain of modern evolutionary theory. It presents previously unpublished studies of a variety of taxa (xenarthrans, rodents, carnivores, ungulates) examined over several temporal scales, from a few thousand years during the Holocene to millions of years of late Pliocene and Pleistocene time. Different organizational levels are represented, from mosaic population variation, to a synopsis of Quaternary evolution of an entire order (Rodentia). In addition to specific case histories, the book includes purely theoretical and methodological contributions, for example, on the statistical recognition of stasis in the fossil record, new ways to calculate evolutionary rates, and the use of digital image analysis in the study of dental ontogeny. Perhaps the most important aspect of the studies reported in this book is that they span the time between the "ecological moment" and "deep time." Modern taxa can be traced back into the fossil record, and variation among extant taxa can be used as a control against which variation in the extinct ones can be understood.

Missing Links was written, in part, in response to pertinent questions raised by none other than Charles Darwin and are continuously asked these days by creationists, individuals who believe that a deity created life on Earth, and that evolution played no important role whatsoever. Some of the questions Missing Links addresses include the following: If specification and evolution explain the numbers of living things on Earth and their diversity of form, then where are all the missing links? Why is not the modern landscape and the fossil record strewn with intermediate species of all kinds? The book begins with an examination of missing links, because there is considerable misunderstanding about the nature of these transitions and what our expectations should be from the fossil record. After laying this groundwork, the heart of the book includes two sections: The first is a primer of evolutionary science and the second provides examples of transitions at all chronological and geographical scales. In Missing Links, Section I is a primer of evolutionary science, particularly as applied to the fossil record, including discussion of how science is done, continental drift and plate tectonics, radiometric and relative dating techniques for rocks and fossils, principles of evolution and speciation, schools of classification, and the ecological context of evolution. Section II provides examples of transitions at all chronological and geographical scales, from ultimate origins of life on Earth to observed changes in the morphology seen in modern time during the lifetime of the observer. There are chapters on whales, horses, voles, fish amphibian and reptile amphibian transitions, the dinosaur-bird connection, and the Pliocene-Pleistocene history of humans. An epilogue responds to Darwin's initial, troubled thoughts about life's risks.