Bookshelf

Dawn of the Dinosaurs: The Triassic in Petrified Forest, by Robert A. Long and Rose Houk. Illustrated by Douglas Henderson. Petrified Forest Museum Association, 1989. 96 pages. Available through Arizona Highways, 2039 W. Lewis Ave., Phoenix, AZ 85009, telephone (602) 258-1000. $14.95, softcover plus $2.00 postage.

Interstate Route 40 crosses a small corner of the Petrified Forest National Park in the high desert country between Holbrook and Chambers, Arizona. It is a dry, brittle land wrinkled with age, its colors running the spectrum from crimson to dun. This book evokes the region as it was 225 million years ago.

The Triassic period (205 to 245 million years ago) was characterized by the advent of dinosaurs and coniferous forests. Then, neither North America nor Arizona were where they are today. Present-day Arizona lay near the equator, and the shoreline of an ancient sea bisected today's Nevada. Huge conifers dotted what is now the Petrified Forest, and freshwater sharks and horseshoe crabs inhabited the ponds and rivers. Thirty-foot-long crocodile-like beasts called phytosaurs roamed across the damp, decaying forest floor. As the ancient land mass broke apart to form the continents we know today, the climate changed drastically. The great trees died and were frozen in stone, the sea life etched in rock.

In 1906 naturalist John Muir arrived in this chromatic desert, which had much of the primordial past locked within its layered floors. He came not to look into the past but to rest, and help one of his daughters recover her health. He was nearly 70. His wife had recently died, and his daughter, Helen, was suffering from pneumonia, a condition the high, dry desert air might benefit. At Adamana, a water and fuel stop on the Santa Fe Railroad, Muir and his two daughters pitched their tents and waited for the desert to heal lungs and bring peace to troubled minds.

John Muir, a native of Scotland, was educated at the University of Wisconsin. As a naturalist, he had an unquenchable thirst for natural history. Where others saw only a geological curiosity in the Painted Desert, Muir saw a rich laboratory capable of presenting the ancient history of the Earth to humanity. Disturbed to see casual visitors carry away the treasures of the past, he appealed to President Theodore Roosevelt, and in December, 1906, the Petrified Forest was designated the nation's second national monument.

The Petrified Forest is now a national park containing 94,230 acres. For study purposes, the geology is divided into the lower and upper Chinle formations. The lower is older; the upper was deposited later. Paleontologists, geologists, biologists, and botanists from around the world study the area, constantly unfolding new information.

The authors present a wealth of fact, theory, and speculation in an entertaining, engaging style. A special salute should go to the illustrator, Douglas Henderson, for his extraordinary depictions of Triassic plant and animal life.

Dawn of the Dinosaurs: The Triassic in Petrified Forest is the initial effort of the Petrified Forest Museum Association. With this exceptional publication, it has set a standard that will be difficult to surpass.

Soul Among Lions: The Cougar As Peaceful Adversary, by Harley G. Shaw. Johnson Books, Boulder, СО. 1989. 140 pages. $9.95, softcover.

At one time in our history, the tree stump was the symbol of progress. It was evidence that land had been cleared and would soon be plowed and productive, basic ingredients of the American Dream. Today, when a dam brings a river to a halt, a chain saw topples a venerable oak, or the carcass of a cougar is hauled home in the bed of a pickup, we feel something ofvalue has been lost.

Harley Shaw, a research biologist, has conducted an intensive 10-year study of the cougar in the field. He has separated lion facts from myth. They are, for example, responsible for about one kill each week: deer, colts, calves, whatever is available to sustain them.

But lions are not the constant travelers we once believed. They normally stay within a defined territory that varies in size depending on terrain.

A rare combination of scientist and storyteller, Shaw gives sound advice to hunters, preservationists, ranchers, and bureaucrats.

(RIGHT) Youngsters attending Camp Sunrise enjoy the cool waters running through a box canyon of Christopher Creek near Payson. For the whole story, turn to page 16.

(BACK COVER) Alpine meadows and ponderosa forests on Mount Lemmon belie the arid surroundings of the desert floor below. For more, turn to page 38.