General Introduction

Abstract The first record of the Grand Canyon to appear in the scientific literature was a brief mention by Hitchcock (1857, pp. 116, 125). Relying only on hearsay, he wrote simply that the canyon, known then as “Big Cafton,” was probably deeper tfw the height of the Grand Falls of the Little Colorado River, about 120 feet (36 m). In 1858, the first scientist reached the canyon, the geologist John Strong Newberry, who was attached to a military exploring expedition under the command of Joseph C. Ives. His report (Newberry, 1861) included the first stratigraphic section of the Grand Canyon and the first description of fossils from there. Since then, thousands of papers and monographs have included observations on geological aspects of the Grand Canyon, and the many subdisciplines of paleontology are well represented.Reviews of geological studies in the Grand Canyon region have been presented by McKee (1969) and Spamer (1984a, 1989). An annotated bibliographyof Grand Canyon geology, with a catalog of tyPe fossils from the Grand Canyon, has been published thusfar in five volumes (Spamer, 1983, 1984b, 1988, 199Oa, 1992a). A more comprehensive, non-annotated bibliography (Spamer, 1991, Part 3) adds referenceson the stratigraphiccontinuityof the Grand Canyon's stratigraphic units. Guides to the non-paleontological Plata published throughout the Grand Canyon geological literature have been compiled by Spamer (l990b, 1992b). Reviews of geological studies in the Grand Canyon region have been presented by McKee (1969) and Spamer (1984a, 1989). An annotated bibliographyof Grand Canyon geology, with a catalog of tyPe fossils from the