Introduction: Desiderata
1—Context of African Proboscidean Evolution
2—Early Paleogene: Origin and Evolution of the First Proboscideans
3—Late Paleogene: First Major Diversification and Adaptive Radiation of Proboscideans
4—Early to Middle Miocene: Diversification of Proboscideans and Dominance of Elephantimorphs
5—Late Miocene: The Rise of Elephants
6—Early Pliocene: Proboscidean Relay Interval
7—Late Pliocene to Holocene: The Rise and Fall of the Elephas recki complex
Biography
William Joseph Sanders, PhD, ("Bill") attended college at the University of Chicago and earned his PhD in Paleoanthropology from New York University (NYU) in 1995. His doctoral dissertation on the australopithecine vertebral column was recognized for distinction by a Dean’s Best Science Dissertation Award. At the University of Michigan, Bill holds the position of Senior Research Laboratory Specialist and is an Associate Research Scientist in the Museum of Paleontology and Department of Anthropology. His scholarly interests include the taxonomy, systematics, evolution, paleoecology, and morphological adaptations of Old World fossil mammals, particularly of Afro-Arabian proboscideans and catarrhine primates. Bill’s research is field- and specimen-based, which has led to paleontological and museum work in China, Pakistan, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, France, Belgium, Germany, and across Africa from "Cape to Cairo" (South Africa, Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, Ethiopia, Democratic Republic of Congo, and Egypt). Results of his 40 years of research investigations have been widely published in academic journals and presented at professional venues. In 2010, he co-edited (with Lars Werdelin) the Cenozoic Mammals of Africa (University of California Press), which received a PROSE Award from the American Publishers Awards for Professional and Scholarly Excellence, Single Volume Reference in Science. In 2017, Bill was awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award by the Association for Materials and Methods in Paleontology for high standards of professionalism and mentoring of younger colleagues.
"William J. Sanders’s new volume is a veritable successor to Osborn’s treatise and Shoshani and Tassy’s compendium. While it might look like it has a regional perspective at face value, the last 100 years or so of African paleontology have shown that the continent is indeed the cradle of proboscidean evolution, encompassing the early origin and radiation of nearly all major clades. This book is … a an important and welcome contribution to the field. This volume reflects Bill Sanders’s lifetime of work on African proboscideans. Its most significant achievement is the meticulous, thorough treatment of cranial and dental morphology across the entire order within Afro-Arabia, supported by extensive tables, measurements, and illustrations. The Evolution and Fossil Record of African Proboscidea is a tour de force in proboscidean paleobiology.”
Advait M. Jukar In Journal of Mammalian Evolution.
