About Anthony J. Martin
Anthony (Tony) J. Martin is a paleontologist and geologist who specializes in ichnology, the study of modern and ancient traces, such as tracks, trails, burrows, and nests. When not writing or speaking about books, he is a Professor of Pedagogy in the Department of Environmental Sciences at Emory University (Atlanta, Georgia). There, he has taught a variety of courses in geology, paleontology, and the environmental sciences for 30 years.
Much of Dr. Martin’s writing is based on personal experience, his fascination with modern and fossil traces having compelled him to travel to more than 30 states of the U.S. (including Alaska and Hawaii) and more than a dozen countries. His discoveries have been reported by The New York Times, the BBC, National Geographic News, Smithsonian Magazine, and Wired, and he is frequently quoted in mainstream news articles about fossil finds. In 2015, in recognition of his significant contributions to ichnology and paleontology, he was elected as a Fellow in The Explorers Club and a Fellow in the Geological Society of America.
Martin’s newest book is Tracking the Golden Isles with University of Georgia Press (expected publication date April 2020). Tracking the Golden Isles is a thematically linked series of essays taking readers on a journey through time and place, using the tracks, burrows, and other traces of the Georgia coast to better understand its intertwined natural and human histories.
Before that, Martin wrote The Evolution Underground: Burrows, Bunkers, and the Marvelous Subterranean World Beneath Our Feet (2017, Pegasus Books), which explores burrowing animals through time, and Dinosaurs Without Bones: Dinosaur Lives Revealed by Their Trace Fossils (2014, Pegasus Books), a lively and in-depth look at dinosaur tracks, nests, burrows, feces, and other trace fossils. Martin also wrote Life Traces of the Georgia Coast (2013, Indiana University Press), a comprehensive book about the plant and animal traces of the world-famous Georgia barrier islands suitable for both avocational and professional naturalists. Tracking the Golden Isles is a sequel of sorts to this book, with both showing how traces can enlighten, amuse, and fill us with awe.
Other books include two editions of a popular college textbook, Introduction to the Study of Dinosaurs (2006, Wiley), a field guidebook, Trace Fossils of San Salvador (2006, Gerace Research Centre, Bahamas), and a bilingual (Spanish and English) book for teenagers, El Dinosaurio Que Excavó Su Madriguera [The Dinosaur that Dug Its Burrow] (2009, Fundación Conjunto Paleontológico de Teruel-Dinópolis).
Martin’s writing is not just literary. He has scripted and performed lectures in a DVD/online course on evolution and the fossil record, titled Major Transitions in Evolution (2010, The Great Courses), and he is currently writing and filming a new Coursera course, Extinctions: Part, Present, and Future. As an artistically inclined scientist, he also draws his own illustrations, which can be seen in The Evolution Underground, Dinosaurs Without Bones, Life Traces of the Georgia Coast.
In Martin’s spare time, he is an avid reader of fiction and nonfiction, and he enjoys drawing, cooking, biking, and hiking. He lives in Decatur, Georgia with his wife, Ruth Schowalter, where both of them serve as amiable staff for two rambunctious felines, Tao and Sapelo.
Follow Martin on Twitter (@Ichnologist) or become friends with him on Facebook (Tony Martin).
“Martin writes with obvious glee and a humor that at times digs for the dad-jokes, but as a scholar he knows his stuff―many of the natural discoveries he describes are his own. Martin delivers something the casual reader will not expect: a real education in paleontology. . .”