The book Spirit Whales & Sloth Tales: Fossils of Washington State, written by Elizabeth A. Nesbitt, Burke Museum curator emerita of invertebrate and micropaleontology and former ESS faculty, and David B. Williams, Seattle-based author, naturalist, and historian, is launching next week!
While the launch event and book signing (Wednesday Nov. 8) is sold out, there will be a standby line at the Burke starting at 6:45 PM, we encourage you to get your copy of the book from the Burke store.
Spirit Whales & Sloth Tales
From the Burke Museum Book Release
“From primitive horses on the Columbia Plateau to giant bird tracks near Bellingham and curious bear-like beasts on the Olympic Peninsula, fossils across Washington state are filled with clues of past life on Earth. With abundant and well-exposed rock layers, the state has both old and ‘young’ fossils, from Ice Age mammals dating only 12,000 years old back to marine invertebrates more than 500 million years old.
In Spirit Whales and Sloth Tales, renowned paleontologist Elizabeth A. Nesbitt teams up with popular science writer David B. Williams to offer a fascinating, richly illustrated tour through more than a half billion years of natural history. The spectacular paleontology of Washington is brought to life with details of the fossils’ discovery and extraction, their place in geological time, and the insights they provide into contemporary issues like climate change and species extinction.”
Dr. Elizabeth Nesbitt
Dr. Liz Nesbitt is a curator emerita of paleontology at the Burke Museum. She remains active in education and outreach, as well as research, which largely focuses on the effects of changing climate on marine fauna. Over her career, she has worked with innumerable ESS undergraduate and graduate students on research projects both in the field and at the Burke. Her distinguished scientific contributions to the paleontology of the Pacific Northwest have earned many awards and honors, including having a whale named for her, the Maiabalaena nesbittae.
Liz shared in a write-up in the Seattle Times Pacific NW Magazine, “The goal of Spirit Whales & Sloth Tales is to share paleontological stories, to provide insights into ancient natural history, and to help people understand the dynamic ecosystems of extinct plants and animals. Our book also aims to highlight those who found the fossils.”