A publication on the archaeological and paleontological research in the Lagoa Santa region since the nineteenth century, focusing on the early human occupation and its implications for the colonization of the Americas, is a most welcome and long-awaited contribution. Part of the research done in Lagoa Santa, especially concerning graduate theses and dissertations, has been published in Portuguese, so the efforts of the editors in launching a comprehensive book on the topic written in English are fully acknowledged. Certainly, Lagoa Santa is a region that has been in the spotlight of archaeological and paleontological research since the nineteenth century, thanks to the exhaustive work first developed by Danish naturalist Peter Lund. Many of Lund's hypotheses, including the contemporaneity of humans and megamastofauna, as well as the antiquity of human populations in the Americas, have been repeatedly revisited throughout the twentieth and twenty-first centuries from different research approaches. The fact that Lagoa Santa rockshelters revealed the largest collection of early human remains in the Americas, and the fact that such remains presented a distinct cranial morphology in comparison to later specimens, has contributed to the increase in attention given the region since the nineteenth century.

The book is organized into two parts. The first part gathers eight chapters that present research projects developed in the region that involved at least some sort of collection of archaeological or paleontological materials. The second part includes four chapters on different areas of research on human remains from Lagoa Santa, as well as chapters about paleontology, rock art, lithic studies, and geoarchaeology. All but two of the chapters from the second part (paleontology and rock art) present results that are at least in part directly related to the ambitious research project led by one of the editors (Neves) from 2000 to 2009.

The first part begins with two chapters devoted to Peter Lund's life and scientific contribution, presenting a biography and the main questions he raised while doing research in Lagoa Santa, mainly on rock shelters. His contribution to the initial research in many areas in Lagoa Santa cannot be underestimated. Like many naturalists at that time, Lund presented a truly interdisciplinary erudition, being able to transit with grace in different albeit important and complementary areas: geomorphology, paleontology, taphonomy, among others. Such a comprehensive approach would be taken up by Neves more than 150 years later.

Three chapters are devoted to the contribution of the National Museum in the anthropological debates from the late nineteenth to the late twentieth century through the study of Lagoa Santa materials, including the antiquity of humans in the Americas and the coexistence of humans and megafauna in the past. The first two chapters could be merged, thus avoiding repetition. However, these chapters are instrumental in giving the reader access to information from unpublished reports and letters, as well as obscure publications, mostly in Portuguese. The other chapters of the first part present a much-needed review of little-known research developed by the Minas Gerais Academy of Sciences, an independent institution made up of amateurs, which was nevertheless responsible for important archaeological and paleontological fieldwork in Lagoa Santa during the mid-twentieth century; as well as a review of the North American-Brazilian and Franco-Brazilian missions that took place in the 1950s and 1970s. The first part of the book ends with a chapter detailing the research project led by Neves from 2000 to 2009, which is a good general introduction to the second part of the book. The chapter also presents the research developed by Neves since the late 1980s, further supporting the presence of a distinct cranial morphology in Lagoa Santa individuals and the proposed model to explain such diversity. Given these results, as well as the evidence of human remains older than Clovis, the authors justify the need to develop a research project in the region that would include new and systematic excavations in order to increase the sample of human skeletons, as well as to collect other contextual archaeological evidence (e.g., faunal remains, lithics, sediment). Moreover, they endorse the testing of specific hypotheses, including the long-lived hypothesis first proposed by Lund about the contemporaneity of humans and megamastofauna.

Given the history of the research developed by Neves, it is no surprise that there are four chapters devoted to human remains in the second part of the book. Two of them (which could be merged into one) present a debate on the distinct cranial morphology of Lagoa Santa skeletons. Unfortunately, these chapters present little information on genetics from current or ancient groups in America, or data on the archaeological or paleoenvironmental record (these areas have greatly contributed to the latest discussion of the peopling of the Americas). However, they give a good overview of craniometrics and the interpretation of such data. The chapters about health and burial practices are important, mostly because the Lagoa Santa collection is unique in terms of numbers and contextual information, being possibly the only collection that can provide such populational information about early Americans.

The following chapter presents a review of paleontological research in Lagoa Santa focusing on Lund's research and complemented by what has been done since then. It is a particularly important chapter, given that the term paleontological research is part of the title of the book. It is followed by a chapter on rock art that does not directly address the early Americans but nevertheless presents a good review on the area. The chapter on lithic technology provides important contextual information, but it would greatly benefit from a thoughtful revision of the graphs and the inclusion of tables. Lastly, there is a final chapter on the valuable contributions of tropical geoarchaeology, stemming mainly from the project led by Neves.

Although the study of faunal remains from archaeological sites in Lagoa Santa using a zooarchaeological approach is mentioned in the book, a chapter dealing exclusively with that topic would be useful to add knowledge to the rich contextual information provided by other areas. Chapters on other topics, such as paleobotanic data (both macroremains and microremains) and bone tools, could also be assets for this book. Nevertheless, Archaeological and Paleontological Research in Lagoa Santa is a significant contribution to the literature concerning the early Americans and provides useful historical and interpretative information about the research that has been undertaken since the nineteenth century in an important region. Undoubtedly, this book is a landmark in research about the peopling of the Americas, and it demonstrates how important Lagoa Santa was and will continue to be in the debate.