About the Author

Edward L. Crisp is an emeritus professor of geology at West Virginia University at Parkersburg. He received a B.S. in geology (minor in biology) from Morehead State University, Morehead, Kentucky; a M.S. in geology from the University of Kentucky, Lexington, Kentucky; and a Ph.D. in geology (major area: paleontology, minor area: biology) from Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana. Dr. Crisp spent the first fifteen years of his career as a petroleum exploration geologist, primarily working the geology of the subsurface in the Texas Gulf Coast region, except for an eighteen-month stint in Damascus, Syria, exploring for petroleum in eastern Syria. He then spent the remaining twenty-four years of his career as a professor in higher education, the last twenty-two years at WVU at Parkersburg, teaching primarily geology, earth science, astronomy, and physical science; but several years also teaching the two courses, the paleobiology of dinosaurs and the principles of biologic evolution. Dr. Crisp lives in Vienna, West Virginia, with his wife Susan Sowards.