560 color photos and engaging text take readers on a journey back to a world first of tropical climates and then plunging into an Ice Age. It covers the Miocene, Pliocene, Pleistocene, and Holocene Epochs, and includes a dazzling array of fossils, including plants, mollusks, sharks, insects, mammoths, and mastodons. This is the age when familiar plants and animals arise and where humans first appear on the Earth. Human intelligence grows and early tools are also included in this sweeping review of "recent" geological history. The tools include hand axes, Paleolithic scrapers, and an easily recognizable Clovis spear point. Explore the dawning of the world we know. Current value ranges for the fossils displayed here are included. This is the perfect gift for anyone who has wondered where we all came from and evidence of how things used to be. AUTHOR: Bruce L. Stinchcomb is a retired geology professor who spent many years exploring Mesozoic rocks. This is Dr. Stinchcomb's fifth book on fossil collecting with Schiffer Publishing.