  Perhaps four of the best pages of a textbook that I've read in a long time happened to be the preface to my exciting new Paleontology book, Bringing Fossils to Life . It focused (as most prefaces do) on the purposes of writing this book and the way it was written in a certain manner. Yet this book seems to be set apart from most. For once, I feel like this is directly addressing the question that I have longed for and searched far and wide in my geology classes for: "What's the point?... why am I learning this?... and where will this help me in the future? " Class is not only looking to be inspiring... but exciting and with really cool reading, too! "Throughout the book, I have tried to capture a sense of the excitement of paleobiology and have tried to convey why we try to do what we do.
Students today are very results-oriented, so in the back of my mind their persistent question "What's the point? " guided my writing. As I wrote, I kept in mind what 20 years of experience with some of the best undergraduates in the country... has taught me about what students retain and what ideas excite them and keep their interest. " --Donald R. Prothero (1997) 
