JLS' Books
Cataloguer. A profession for which the ideal qualification is to know everything in the universe. I'm working on it ...
Currently reading
Prothero-irreverence love ...
"Sloths and armadillos and their kin are the two most familiar families of the Xenartha. The third are the anteaters, which are placed in the group Vermilingua, which means "worm tongue" in Latin. (There is no known connection to the villainous Grima Wormtongue in J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings.)"
And the section on the mammals with evergrowing incisors is, of course, titled "Rodents of Unusual Size" ;-)
Overall a nice little book not deep or overly detailed but one of those informative, engaging (and fun) overviews that puts the general evolution of known large South American faunas, ranging from early protomammals of Gondwana to recent mammals, birds, and reptiles, in ecological and historical perspective and serves as a guide to things to find out more about (lots of critters that don't often get a mention in the more-usually-North America/Euro-centric-with-an-occasional-dash-of-Asia palaeontology books). South American dinosaurs are included, of course, but kept in perspective (and a single chapter) as they existed for only a small percentage of the timeline covered.
Now I have a strong urge to grab my copy of Conan Doyle's "The Lost World" to re-read it ...
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