MAMMOTHS AND MASTODONS

Based on published research and interviews with working scientists, Bardoe presents a lively and engrossing case study in how paleontologists examine both ancient and modern clues for insights into the diets, physical development and behavior of extinct animals. Cousins to modern elephants, mammoths and mastodons once roamed large portions of the Earth, but for reasons that are not completely understood (climate change? predation by early humans? disease?) vanished relatively suddenly. Focusing particularly on tantalizing remnants like the 55 fossilized skeletons found near one sinkhole in South Dakota and “Lyuba,” the well preserved “prehistoric popsicle” discovered in 2007 in Siberia, the author presents both facts and educated guesses—while leaving it clear that there is much still to be learned. Illustrated with bright color photos and painted reconstructions, this should be a big draw for readers who might struggle with the greater level of specific anatomical detail in Sandra Markle’s Outside and Inside Woolly Mammoths (2007). (Nonfiction. 10-12)