NEW RELEASE!

Avocational paleontologist Mark Renz stumbles onto a 500,000 year-old ancient Florida river bed and discovers dozens of skeletons of lumbering mammoth and mastodon elephants, bull-size ground sloths, llamas, old-world horses, pig-like peccaries, primitive wolves and deer. The discovery triggers many questions. Was it a major storm, flood, drought or plague that killed so many creatures at once? Or do their bones represent one animal dying every ten years for thousands of years? What signs do scientists look for to determine cause and time of death? What are the ethical considerations for amateur fossil hunters who come across such a site? How do you determine who to contact and how to excavate if given permission? Nearly 800 field photos offer tantalizing clues about how these animals lived and died.

From the Foreword: "All of the dedication and hard work by Renz and his crew, so richly displayed in these pages, has paid off bountifully in fossils from an interval of geologic time that was previously poorly known in Florida. Thanks to them, we now know much more than we did before about the animals that lived in Southwest Florida approximately 500,000 years ago." -- Dr. Richard C. Hulbert, Jr., Vertebrate Paleontology Collections Manager, Florida Museum of Natural History

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Author: Mark Renz Illustrator: Marisa Renz Publisher: PaleoPress Release date: November 15, 2008 33 page CD Book for imaginative kids 4-6 years old, or adults who think like kids. Price: $9.95 plus 2.00 shipping/handling, and 6% sales tax for Florida residents. Send check to PaleoPress, 213 Lincoln Ave., Lehigh Acres, FL 33972, or call 239-368-3252 for credit card phone order. Inquire by e-mail "fossilx@earthlink.net" for overseas orders. FOR MORE PHOTOS AND INFO, CLICK HERE

What does the town mayor do when he discovers a giant shark tooth in the local river where everyone swims? He calls the famous doggie detectives Coonie and Taz. Together the fearless and clever canines get to the bottom of the "Megalodon Mystery"!

A 33-page, fun, fictional story on a CD that weaves in the basics of paleontology and geology. Actual photos of Coonie and Taz in the Peace River in Florida. Geared for kids 4-6 years-old or silly adults.

REVIEWS:

"Bone Gripping!" -- Dog World News

"Three woofs!" -- Canine Gazette

"Two Paws up!" -- Daily Barker

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Illustrated paperback book, 127 pages, fiction, for young adults Author: Mark Renz Illustrators: Cover: Steve Bufter, Inside: Marisa Renz Publisher: PaleoPress Signed copies available Price: 9.95 plus 3.75 shipping (U.S. only) and 6 percent sales tax (.90) for Florida residents. Overseas orders, please e-mail us for shipping price. Send check or money order to PaleoPress, 213 Lincoln Avenue, Lehigh Acres, FL 33972. Or for credit card orders, call 239-368-3252.

Illustrated paperback book, 127 pages, fiction, for young adults

WHO IS DOUG? An inquisitive dung beetle who meets weekly at the watering hole with Millie the mammoth, Cedric the camel, Herb the horse and Shutzal the sloth. Together, the five youngsters argue about such topics as thinking, happiness, specie-ism, religion, ethics, evolution, kindness, death, education, love, hunting, sports and the art of rolling the perfect dung ball. They may not provide us with all of life’s answers, but they sure pose a lot of intriguing questions.

FROM THE FOREWORDS:

A fascinating novel…inspired by a pile of dirt! - Dick Mol, Expedition Paleontologist, Discovery Channel‘s “Raising the Mammoth”

A clever version of the story of life…Seeing our modern-day world through the eyes and thoughts of these creatures living in a bygone era shows us our own present-day foibles in a less threatening context. Doug‘s world is our world. - David A. Zacharias, The Whitney Lab, University of Florida College of Medicine, Department of Neuroscience

I go on record to predict that Doug's Ark will be a least seller until discovered by religious fundamentalists and banned from school libraries. At that point, Renz's little iconoclast primer for young free thinkers will sell like Mad magazine to much the same crowd. - Ron Wiggins - Palm Beach Post

Doug surveys a world evolving, a place of terrible beauty and unending excitement . Recognize it? Aesop never told a more illuminating fable than Mark Renz spins here. -- Edward Morris, friend

For photos and book excerpts, or to order click here

Author: Mark Renz Publisher: PaleoPress Release date: November 15, 2008 CD Book of 100 SW Florida wilderness photos (plus...see text below) Price: $14.95 plus 2.00 shipping/handling, and 6% sales tax for Florida residents. Send check to PaleoPress, 213 Lincoln Ave., Lehigh Acres, FL 33972, or call 239-368-3252 for credit card phone order. Inquire by e-mail "fossilx@earthlink.net" for overseas orders. FOR MORE PHOTOS AND INFO, CLICK HERE

FLORIDA TIME FORGOT is a CD of 100 wilderness photos and off-beat captions by Mark Renz. This is not your typical nature photo collection, but the SW Florida outback as seen from the perspective of a veteran mud-wallower with the imagination of a kid. As an added bonus, you are are welcome to pick one photo from Mark's web site, Florida Time Forgot, and you will be given permission to print your own high resolution copy for your personal use.

To get the most out of his camera, Renz thinks of it as a set of eyes that connect instantly to his brain. That means paying more attention to fractions of moments rather than scenes that allow time for detailed assessments of f-stops and shutter speeds.

"I look for emotions and dimensions beyond the obvious," says Mark. "I don't want to spend a lot of time thinking about a subject. I want to feel it, then shoot it. And because I spend a lot of time sloshing around in SW Florida streams, subjects are everywhere. I like "not" thinking about them, but feeling them. I'm not trying to sound artsy here. It just makes sense to me to shoot what I am feeling at the very second I'm feeling it. Moments are just that. They're here, then gone -- unless they make eye contact with my lens."

Although a picture speaks a thousand words, Mark likes to add a few of his own to each image. Hence even more dimensions. "What's there isn't always there," says Mark. "Photos, like words, have different meanings. I don't care so much about identifying a species of animal or a location, as I do identifying the dimension I see. My work is more a language than photography. I'm a wordsmith and photographer. That's my medium.

"A lot of photographers believe the art in photography was lost once digital made it possible to do what used to be obtainable only in a darkroom. Bull. Digital raised the bar. It gave photography new dimensions. Film was confining. Digital sets you free. Here's to freedom!"

Renz, a third-generation Lee County native, is a professional fossil-hunting guide, lecturer and author of books, including "Fossiling In Florida” (University Press of Florida). View more of his work at www.floridatimeforgot.com.



FOR MORE PHOTOS AND INFORMATION, CLICK HERE

Large Print Artist: Marisa Renz Publisher: PaleoPress "Showing Reverence". Limited edition pencil rendering on high quality linen paper, 18" x 21.5". Modern artifact hidden in print. Price: $25.00 plus 5.00 shipping/handling, and 6% sales tax for Florida residents. Send check to PaleoPress, 213 Lincoln Ave., Lehigh Acres, FL 33972, or call 239-368-3252 for credit card phone order. Inquire by e-mail at "fossilx@earthlink.net" for overseas orders. Please do not send your credit card number by e-mail.

Large Print

"Showing Reverence". Limited edition pencil rendering on high quality linen paper, 18" x 21.5". Modern artifact hidden in print. When Marisa's husband Mark returned from volunteering for the Aucilla River Prehistory Project in Northern Florida, Marisa was inspired to draw the project's conclusions. According to scientists, this was the oldest butcher shop in North America, where some of Florida's first people killed and butchered a mammoth. Rather than depict Native Americans throwing spears at the animal, she chose to show a more reverent side to the kill. The body language of the men suggests they're saying, "We hated to take your life, but must if we are to provide food and clothes for our families."