THIS BOOK WOULD NOT HAVE BEEN POSSIBLE WITHOUT the support of many professional colleagues, museum personnel, artists, former students, National Park Service employees, members of the Oglala Sioux Tribe, and friends and family. This endeavor goes beyond the four authors to a vast network of professionals who care deeply about the White River Badlands and have invested many years in their study and protection.
It is with great appreciation that we thank the following colleagues for their careful study and detailed observations that have provided valuable information on which this book is based. We would like to thank Marty Becker, Phil Bjork, Clint Boyd, John Chamberlain, Dan Chure, Joe DiBenedetto, Jim Evans, John Flynn, Ted Fremd, Matt Garb, Jacques Gauthier, Lance Grande, David Grandstaff, Bob Hunt, Howard Hutchison, Matthew Kohn, Bill Korth, Hannan LaGarry, Leigh Anne LaGarry, Alvis Lisenbee, James Martin, Al Mead, Jason Moore, Darrin Pagnac, Dennis Parmley, David Parris, Don Prothero, Greg Retallack, Foster Sawyer, Bill Simpson, Ellen Starck, Phil Stoffer, Richard Stucky, Bill Wall, Xiaoming Wang, Ed Welsh, and Alessandro Zanazzi.
Many of the observations and interpretations included herein are the result of interactions with numerous graduate and undergraduate students over the years. We would especially like to thank Katie Card, Anthony Cerruti, Jim and Jeff Childers, Amanda Drewicz, Leslee Everett, Lew Factor, Neil Griffis, Reko Hargrave, Patricia Jannett, Raymond Kennedy, Paul Kosmidis (posthumous), Eve Lalor, Justin Little, Bill Lukens, Matt McCoy, Christine Metzger, Jason Mintz, Doreena Patrick, Justin Spence, Gary Stinchcomb, and Brandt Wells. The field help for many years (and saving Evanoff after a bad fall) by Terry Hiester (posthumous) is especially appreciated.
Without the continued support of the National Park Service family, this book would not have been written. We would like to thank the following National Park Service personnel for their support and encouragement. From Badlands National Park, we thank Eric Brunnemann, Larry Johnson, Steve Thede, Brian Kenner, Eddie Childers, Milt Haar, Mark Slovek, Mike Carlbom, Josh Delger, Laniece Sawvell, Mindy Householder, Levi Moxness, Wayne Thompson, Adam Behlke, Christine Gardner, Lainie Fike, Phil Varela, Amanda Dopheide, Delda Findeisen, Lee Vaughan, Paul Roghair, Jenny Albrinck, Megan Cherry, Julie Johndreau, Aaron Kaye, Tyler Teuscher, Ian Knoerl, Connie Wolf, Chris Case, Steve Howard, Wolf Schwarz, Robert McGee-Ballinger, Ken Thompson, Casey Osback, Vince Littlewhiteman, Ryan Frum, Eric Yount, Pam Griswold, Tyson Nehring, Danny Baker, Linda Livermont, Jill Riggins, Valerie Reeves, Heather Tucker, and Pam Livermont. A very special thank-you goes to David Tarailo for his work on plate layouts and design. Vince Santucci, senior geologist and Washington liaison, has also provided invaluable support for this project. We would also like to thank Jerrilyn Thompson and Julie Stumpf from the National Park Service Midwest Regional Office for helping us manage some large computer image files. The Badlands Natural History Association board members and executive director, Katie Johnston, and from the Albright-Wirth Program, Katherine Callaway, also provided financial support for this project. Thanks are also due to Barbara Beasley of the U.S. Forest Service and Brent Breithaupt of the Bureau of Land Management for permits and access to other exposures of the Badlands across Nebraska and Wyoming.
Thanks also go to the many curators and collections managers that facilitated our work in the various museums housing vertebrate material from the White River Group. We would like to thank all of them, particularly the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology, Laurie Anderson, Sally Shelton, Samantha Hustoft, Carrie Herbel, Amy Wright, Bill Schurmann (posthumous), and Mike Ryan; the American Museum of Natural History, Ruth O’Leary, Judy Galkin, Carl Mehling, and Alex Ebrahimi-Navissi; the Yale Peabody Museum, Christopher Norris, Daniel Brinkman, Ethan France, and Annette Van Aken; the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, David Bohaska, Charyl Ito, Mike Brett-Surman, Thomas Jorstad, Michelle Pinsdorf, and Matthew Miller; the Denver Museum of Nature and Science, Richard Stucky, Logan Ivy, and Rene Payne; the University of Colorado Museum of Natural History at Boulder, Jaelyn Eberle, Toni Culver, and Katie McComas; the Field Museum of Natural History; and the University of Texas at Austin, Tim Rowe, Jessica Maisano, and Matthew Colbert, for granting us permission to use our photographs and some of their photographs of their specimens for this book.
We would like to extend a special thank-you to the Oglala Sioux Tribe Tribal Historic Preservation Advisory Council for their careful review of the tribal specimen photos considered for this publication. Members include Mike Catches Enemy (ex officio advisory member/director/tribal historic preservation officer), Jhon Goes In Center (advisory member/ chair), Garvard Good Plume Jr. (advisory member), Wilmer Mesteth (advisory member), Dennis Yellow Thunder (ex officio advisory member/cultural resource specialist), and Hannan LaGarry (ex officio advisory member/paleontologist).
Several artists have contributed magnificent images to both the cover and colored plates found within the book. We extend our gratitude to Jim Carney, Laura Cunningham, Robert Hynes, and Diane Hargreaves for their creative works.
We are very grateful to Bob Sloan, Jim Farlow, Jenna Lynn Whittaker, Daniel Pyle, and Nancy Lila Lightfoot at Indiana University Press, as well as copy editor Karen Hellekson, for their help on this project. We also thank Paula Douglass for developing the index.
Finally, we extend thanks to our family and friends for their support during the project.