Hypsodonty in Mammals: Evolution, Geomorphology, and the Role of Earth Surface Processes

'… packed with data and analysis, much of it unpublished elsewhere.' Christine Janis, Ameghiniana 'This book is a detailed and wide-ranging evaluation of an alternative explanation for the evolution of high-crowned chewing teeth in grazing mammals from South America and all over the world … Many of the analyses are sophisticated and complex, and the final chapter includes some philosophical musings about the metaphysics of causation. I first heard Madden discuss this issue at a conference in Bolivia a decade and a half ago. I found it exciting and important, and have been waiting to see it in print ever since. It was worth the wait.' John G. Fleagle, The Quarterly Review of Biology 'Madden has provided us with an abundance of evidence here that summarily makes the phytolith assumption dead. Through many case studies and reviews of carefully done studies of correlation and causation … Madden has made it an essential concern for those doing research on dental wear to consider the environmental context, including the composition of and access to naturally occurring abrasives, as part of their assumptions of what causes wear. … Much of the data included in this book is not published elsewhere, making this a primary source.' Complex Adaptive Systems Modeling