Geology and Palaeontology

Acorn, J. 2007

Deep Alberta: Fossil Facts and Dinosaur Digs, pp. xii + 186 pp. University of Alberta Press, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.
AEU HSS QE 748 A4 A36 Each page has a picture and a short write-up about the place, animal, or person featured in it. There are 80 of these entries, arranged alphabetically. The articles were based on CKUA radio broadcasts and have much of the same discursive narrative character. Predictably, many articles feature dinosaurs from the Badlands area of central Alberta, but other types of fossils (fish, turtles, and corals) are included. A few entries deal with Quaternary palaeontology (camel, lion, bison), or with fossil hunters (Barnum Brown, William Parks), or with specific localities (Kleskun Hills, Sandy Point). Modern research and researchers are also mentioned, giving the book an up- to-the-minute aspect. Written with Acorn's characteristic folksy style, this is an easy but entertaining and informative read. (16/Aug/2009).

Dacks, B. 1999

Amazing Discovery: Wind Reveals Prehistoric Life on the Cusp of Irreversible Change. Legacy 4(4, November 1999 - January 2000):10-13.
Describes the implications of finds of Late Pleistocene fauna at St Mary's Reservoir, southwest Alberta. Includes a photograph of a mammoth trackway (series of footprints). Also reports on finds of stone tools at the same site.

Eberth, D. A., I. Campbell, and F. Hammer 1995

Timescapes: The Geology of Dinosaur Provincial Park. Dinosaur Natural History Association, Brooks, Alberta, Canada 11 pp.

Horner, J. R., and J. Gorman 1988

Digging Dinosaurs. Workman Publications, New York, USA 210 pp.
AEU SCI QE 862 D5 H8227 Finding dinosaur eggs and the remains of baby dinosaurs in the Willow Creek Anticline in northwest Montana in the Bearpaw (Oldman equivalent) Formation between 1978-1987. Uncovered the remains of at least 10,000 dinosaurs, thought to have been killed by a volcanic eruption and subsequently buried by a mudflow. (11/Jun/1988).

McPhee, J. 1980

Basin and Range. Farrar Straus Giroux, New York, USA 216 pp.
AEU SCI QE 79 M17 McPhee travels across the basin and range area of western US with a variety of geologists, examining the structure and considering the impact of geology on history, particularly the human history of the area. He has a particular concern with mining, especially silver mining, because this is the focus of one of the geologists. Interesting but hard to follow in places because of a lack of accompanying maps. (30/Dec/1992).

McPhee, J. 1986

Rising from the Plains. Farrar, Straus, Giroux, New York, USA 214 pp.
AEU SCI QE 79 M29 A meditation on the geology of Wyoming, focussed around the life of a USGS geologist, David Love, whose parents homesteaded the area in the early years of the 20th century. Interesting and thought-provoking reading. (27/Dec/1992).

Spaulding, D. A. E. 1993

Dinosaur Hunters: 150 Years of Extraordinary Discoveries. Key Porter Books, Toronto, Ontario, Canada 310 pp .
AEU SCI QE 707 A2 S63 Concentrates on the people and what they found, though becoming rather overladen with multisyllabic names at times. Begins in the late 18th and early 19th centuries with discoveries in Europe (mainly Germany) and UK. Then to eastern North America, then moves to Canada and the western US where much of the recent story is concentrated. Also describes Andrews' expeditions to central Asia. Interesting stories and characters. (10/Aug/1998).

Stelck, C. R. 1967

The Record of the Rocks. In Alberta: A Natural History, edited by W. G. Hardy, pp. 21-51. M. G. Hurtig, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.
AEU SCI QH 106 H27 Surveys the geologic history of Alberta, providing maps showing the geography at each significant interval. Stelck's main concern is with oil and oil- bearing formations, so all the geology is assessed in these terms. Although the discussion focusses on Alberta, much of it deals more broadly with the western interior. The Quaternary is covered in a short survey at the end, and this review is now outdated.

Storer, J. 1989

Geological History of Saskatchewan. Saskatchewan Museum of Natural History, Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada 90 pp.
A guide that was compiled to accompany the Earth Sciences Gallery in the Royal Saskatchewan Museum. The information is arranged chronologically and includes images from the gallery displays. A useful summary and synthesis. (18/May/2004).