Cruisin' the Fossil Freeway An Epoch Tale of a Scientist and an Artist on the Ultimate 5,000-Mile Paleo Road Trip

"Would make anyone want to go on a fossil hunt."--True West "This is one of a tiny handful of books equally useful to adults and twelve-year olds. It's a funny, stealthily informative account of wandering dinosaur mavens meeting others of their kind, and also discovering ancient creatures and plants never seen before."--Foreword Cruisin'the Fossil Freeway follows the most unusual travels of a paleontologist and artist as they drive across the West in search of fossils, encountering "paleonerds" like themselves and evidence of everything from suburban T. rexes to ancient fossilized forests.

Kirk R. Johnson is the Sant Director of the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History. He received his PhD in geology and paleobotany from Yale University in 1989, and did postdoctoral research in the rainforests of northern Australia before joining the Denver Museum of Natural History in 1991, where he directed the installation of the museum's Prehistoric Journey exhibit. His research focuses on fossil plants, the environmental effects of the dinosaur-smiting asteroid, and the birth and death of biomes. Johnson also works with artists to create accurate and plausible paintings, murals, and dioramas of prehistoric landscapes, several of which are on display in the Colorado Convention Center. Johnson lives in Washington, D. C.