In the years since first publication of this book, paleopedology has grown from a long childhood into gawky adolescence. Paleopedology's infancy was well captured on the opening page of Vladimir Nabokov's (1955) Lolita, in which it is offered as the epitome of an obscure scientific interest of Humbert. Now, it is no longer a surprise to find a paleosol or a paleopedologist. Emphasis now is on interpretation of large suites of paleosols, for example, tracking past fluctuations in atmospheric carbon dioxide from the isotopic composition of carbonate nodules in paleosols. Such isotopic studies of paleosols demonstrate that they really were soils of the past. Their message about former environments and ecosystems goes beyond their surface appearance. The study of these remarkable rocks is now in a phase limited mainly by human ingenuity. Isotopy, cathodoluminescence, magnetic susceptibility, X‐radiography, and microtomography are opening new vistas into the formerly hidden world of paleosols.

The first edition of this book was mainly ideas and questions. This edition is devoted more to procedures and answers. The way of paleopedology is currently being mapped out on several fronts. Global change, coevolution, mass extinctions and comparative planetary geology are some of the currently important topics informed by paleosols. In pursuit of these broader objectives, procedures for recognition and study of paleosols are becoming routine. Much of the first edition outlining such procedures has now been consigned to tables. I have also written another book (Retallack 1997a) as a source book of terminology and procedures for professionals. Here, however, emphasis remains on what paleosols can tell us of the way the world works. The theory and issues of paleopedology continue to grow in the quirky, sometimes upsetting and sometimes inspiring, manner of adolescence. In another ten years, perhaps the field will have settled into comfortable middle age. For the moment however, as the Chinese proverb has it, we live in interesting times.

Landscapes viewed from afar have a timeless quality that is soothing to the human spirit. Yet a tranquil wilderness scene is but a snapshot in the stream of surficial change. Wind, water, and human activities constantly reshape the landscape by means of catastrophic, and usually irreversible events. Much of this change destroys past landscapes, but at some times and places, landscapes are buried in the rock record. This work is dedicated to the discovery of past landscapes and their life through the fossil record of soils. A long history of surficial changes extending back almost to the origin of our planet can be deciphered from the study of these buried soils, or paleosols. Some rudiments of this history, and our place in it, are outlined in a final section of this book. But first it is necessary to learn something of the language of soils, of what happens to them when buried in the rock record, and which of the forces of nature can be confidently reconstructed from their remains. Much of this preliminary material is borrowed from soil science, but throughout, emphasis is laid on features that provide the most reliable evidence of landscapes during the distant geological past.

This book has evolved primarily as a text for senior level university courses in paleopedology: the study of fossil soils. It is not the usual view of this subject from the perspectives of soil science, Quaternary research or land use planning. It is rather the view of an Earth historian and paleontologist. Compared with the elegant outlines of a fossil skull or the intricate venation on a fossil leaf, fossil soils may at first appear unprepossessing subjects for scientific investigation. These massive, clayey and weathered zones are fossils in their own way. Their identification within a classification of modern soils presupposes particular past conditions, in the same way as the lifestyle that can be inferred from modern relatives of a fossil species of skull or leaf. Particular features of paleosols may also reflect factors in their formation in the same way as ancient diet can be inferred from the shape of fossil teeth, or former climate from the marginal outline of a fossil leaf. This book is an exploration of the idea that paleosols are trace fossils of ecosystems.

Examples in this book are drawn largely from my own work on fossil soils, some of it not yet published elsewhere. Theoretical concepts have been borrowed more widely from allied areas of science including geomorphology, coal petrography, plant ecology, astronomy and soil science, to name a few. The fossil record of soils is a new focus for integrating existing knowledge about land surfaces and their biota. Paleopedology remains an infant discipline, hungry for theory and data of the most elementary kinds. This book is one attempt to partially quell the growing pains.

This book on paleosols would be slender indeed without extensive borrowing of facts, experiments, ideas and inspiration from allied areas of science. I have been fortunate to be able to draw upon the wise counsel of prominent sedimentologists (J.R.L. Allen, A. Basu, D.R. Lowe, R.M.H. Smith, E.F. McBride, and L.J. Suttner), paleontologists (R. Beerbower, A.K. Knoll, J.W. Schopf, C.E. Strømberg, and P. Shipman), geochemists (G.G. Goles, J.M. Hayes, H.D. Holland, W.T. Holser, and T.E. Cerling), and soil scientists (P.W. Birkeland, S.W. Buol, L.D. McFadden, P.F. McDowell, L.R. Follmer, D.L. Johnson, and A.J. Busacca). Among the emerging cadre of paleopedologists concerned with rocks older than Quaternary it is a pleasure to acknowledge stimulating discussions with D.E. Fastovsky, M.J. Kraus, W.R. Sigleo, V.P. Wright, D.O. Breecker, L.C. Nordt, and S.G. Driese. Last and certainly not least, many of my ideas have been reshaped by students at the University of Oregon (E.A. Bestland, D.P. Dugas, C.R. Feakes, P.R. Miller, J.A. Pratt, S.C. Radosevich, G.S. Smith, G.D. Thackray, E.S. Krull, J.G. Wynn, N.D. Sheldon, and A.P. Broz). They gave real meaning to the Socratic dictum that the unexamined life is not worth living.

Photographs, specimens and other illustrative materials were generously and promptly provided by H.J. Anderson, J.B. Adams, T.M. Bown, J. Gray, R. Greeley, M.J. Kraus, S.C. Morris, NASA Space Science Center and C.J. Percival. Others graciously acquiesced in my adaptation of their published work. For several fine photographs, I thank Sean Poston. I would like to thank Antony Sami, Mary Malin and the team at Wiley for their editorial assistance. Above all, the writing would not have proceeded nearly so much to my satisfaction without the happy home life created by Diane, Nicholas and Jeremy.