Cruisin' the Fossil Freeway - 2nd Edition by Kirk Johnson (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

"A paleontological odyssey that manages to be informative, witty, educational--and enormous fun." --Simon Winchester, author of The Map That Changed the World, Krakatoa, and A Crack in the Edge of the World

An epoch tale of a scientist and an artist on the ultimate 5,000-mile paleo road trip.

Cruisin' the Fossil Freeway follows the most unusual travels of a paleontologist and an artist as they drive across the American West in search of fossils. Throughout their journey, they encounter "paleonerds" like themselves, people dedicated to finding everything from suburban T. rex to killer Eocene pigs to ancient fossilized forests. This updated editions brings the text up-to-date on new discoveries, new realizations, and new places, along with new art.

A fascinating travelogue, Cruisin' the Fossil Freeway shows us that fossils are everywhere if you learn to look for them--even at 65 miles per hour.

Review Quotes

"No one--not even Steven Spielberg--can explain the magic of the Jurassic as cleverly and comprehensively as America's current Master of the Mesozoic, Kirk Johnson. Now, together with the magnificently eccentric fossil-artists Ray Troll, Kirk reports on a paleontological odyssey that manages to be informative, witty, educational--and enormous fun." --Simon Winchester, author of The Map That Changed the World, Krakatoa, and A Crack in the Edge of the World

"An inherently fascinating and impressively informative travelogue." -- Midwest Book Review

"By the time you finish this book, you will know more about dinosaurs, trilobites, and ammonites than you ever wanted to, and you'll never even realize that you were learning all this great stuff." --Richard Ellis, American Museum of Natural History research associate and author of The Empty Ocean

"Johnson relates the stories of the great discoveries in paleontology and peoples them with a rogues' gallery of parched academics and mercenary treasure hunters. In the end, the reader is holding the strangest, most delightful of texts--an adventure story, a memoir, a handbook, a history, a guide. And a refreshing sense that the boisterous Earth is resilient and enduring." --Peter Heller, author of Hell or High Water and The Whale Warriors

About the Author

Kirk R. Johnson is a paleobotanist and the Sant Director of the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C. He is the host of two recent PBS series, Making North America and The Great Yellowstone Thaw. He has written ten books including Prehistoric Journey, Cruisin' The Fossil Coastline, and Ancient Wyoming. Ray Troll is an artist who has illustrated ten books, including Cruisin' the Fossil Coastline, Sharkabet, Rapture of the Deep, and Planet Ocean. He and his wife, Michelle, own and operate the Soho Coho Gallery in Ketchikan, Alaska.