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MAYOR, A. 2005. Fossil Legends of the First Americans.

xxxix + 446 pp. Princeton, Woodstock: Princeton University Press. Price £18.95 (hard covers). ISBN 0 691 11345 9.

The first 20% of the full text of this article appears below.

Like many other indigenous people, Native Americans for many centuries have observed fossils and mused about their origin and significance. Much of this fossil folklore has remained unwritten and the contemporary decline in storytelling means that some oral legends are in real danger of vanishing. Adrienne Mayor, an authority on natural history folklore and author of The First Fossil Hunters: Paleontology in Greek and Roman Times (Princeton University Press), here rescues and collates a wealth of stories. Many were obtained during interviews with Native Americans as the author journeyed across the USA, visiting fossil sites, small museums and Indian Reservations.

Meyer begins her book with an account of the first American fossils ever studied by European scientists. These mastodon bones were collected in 1739 from Big Bone Lick in . . . [Full Text of this Article]