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In November 1997, paleontologists Luis Chiappe and Lowell Dingus came across a remarkable find on the cold plains of southern Argentina: a dinosaur nesting ground, where some ancient but unknown species deposited tens of thousands of eggs that never hatched. Their work, as they recount in this memoir of discovery, thus had many components: among other matters, Chiappe and Dingus needed to determine the creatures that had left their offspring in the Patagonian sandstone, how many millions of years ago they had done so, and what had happened to prevent the eggs from hatching in the first place.

Finding the answer to the first occupies much of Chiappe and Dingus's account, as they compare their evidence against similar finds in Spain and the Gobi. Determining the second affords the authors a chance to discuss newly developed dating techniques, including DNA analysis--which caused overly enthusiastic reporters to announce that the authors were on the brink of cloning sauropods from long-dead embryos. ("We do not know nearly enough about how DNA works," the authors write, to pull off such a feat.) Finally, their reconstruction of the ancient environment of Patagonia offers clues for how the unlucky eggs had come to be buried in prehistoric mud.

A spirited book about how paleontologists make and test hypotheses and go about their fieldwork, this makes a fine addition to any dinosaur buff's collection. --Gregory McNamee ... Read more

Reviews (2)

An interesting walk through fossil discovery
QUICK REVIEW
This is a fairly good book about the discovery of dinosaur eggs (and a few other fossils) in Argentina and what scientists learned from studying them. An interesting book.

FULL REVIEW
This book is written about a couple of things. Mainly it is the story of what a group of paleontologists discovered at a site in Argentina. They found a number of incredible fossils (some of which had never been seen before) and were able to piece together a picture of what Sauropod dinosaur embryos looked like and what happened to them. They mostly unearthed eggs but they also stumbled across two other skeletons. Overall it was amazing what they found. But the book is also about other things. Within the overall story we are given a history of other dinosaur fossil discoveries as well as lessons on different types of dinosaurs and their classification. We are given a timeline of when dinosaurs lived and some background on how paleontologists collect fossils. All of these things make up the book, so it is not just a simple telling of the story of the discovery. The book isn't fantastic but it is pretty good and generally keeps the attention of the reader. This is the kind of book where if you think you'll be interested in it, there's a good possibility you will but if you aren't interested in it and don't think you'll enjoy it you almost certainly will not. For readers who think they'll be interested, the authors do a good job of taking you through the story by the excitement of discovery. You follow along with them as they come across one great find after another. Sometimes they get a little too technical for the average reader but at other times they don't give as much technical information as the reader may want. And the authors rely a little too much on evolution to try to explain things that aren't full understood. Instead of just saying scientists don't know how something happened or that they can't figure out the whole story, they try to squeeze things into the box of general evolution just because they don't have any other answer at the moment. There are also some slow parts while they go off on a tangent now and then, but it basically flows pretty well and if the readers feel somewhat interested they probably will enjoy this book.

For Dinosaur Lovers
In a highly readable account, the authors describe a 1997 scientific expedition to Patagonia, in the desolate, remote region of central Argentina, which results in the discovery of tens of thousands of fossilized dinosaur eggs. Some of the eggs contain the first fossils of embryonic dinosaur skin ever found. In the full flush of discovery, the team of scientists dub their new find 'Auca Mahuevo,' as a pun on the volcano Auca Mahuida around which the field is located, combined with 'mas' 'huevos' or more eggs, in Spanish.

By means of a number of questions, which the authors then proceed to answer in successive chapters, the reader is lucidly lead on the path of scientific discovery. For example, in one chapter, the authors ask and answer: "What Were We Searching For and How Did We Decide Where to Look?" There is one exception to this lucidity, however. In one chapter the authors feel it necessary to provide a primer on dinosaurs, in order to establish all the possible species whose eggs these could be. In my opinion this chapter was a total flop. If you are a dinosaur maven, it was probably unnecessary, and if you are not, as is my case, it was far too technical and dragged on and on. At the end of the 1997 expedition we are treated to the spectacle of an overflow press conference, with all types of media imaginable in attendance.

Next, a 1999 expedition to Auca Mahuevo is described. In this expedition more evidence about egg laying patterns is gathered and another startling fossil discovery is made. a completely new species of dinosaur is found, and the fossil is collected and named: Aucasaurus garridoi. Finally, a 2000, Y2k expedition is described.

On the whole, this is a very enjoyable read, with only a few dull spots, and I recommend it to you. ... Read more

Book Description

The family Equidae have an extensive fossil record spanning the past 58 million years, and the evolution of the horse has frequently been used as a classic example of long-term evolution.In recent years, however, there have been many important discoveries of fossil horses, and these, in conjunction with such new methods as cladistics, and techniques such as precise geochronology, have allowed us to achieve a much greater understanding of the evolution and biology of this important group.This book synthesizes the large body of data and research relevant to an understanding of fossil horses from several disciplines including biology, geology and paleontology. Using horses as the central theme, the author weaves together in the text such topics as modern geochronology, paleobiogeography, climate change, evolution and extinction, functional morphology, and population biology during the Cenozoic period. This book will be exciting reading for researchers and graduate students in vertebrate paleontology, evolution, and zoology. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Best fossil horse book out there
I'm a novice trying to understand the incredibly complex history, 58 million years, of the horse. I went on a dig and had the fun of finding bones and teeth from Miocene thru Pleistocene horses. I had a lot of questions after I got home about various issues raised by what we found. This book answered them and more. It's a real scientist's book, not a coffee table book, so it takes some concentrated reading, but I learned things that allowed me to go the natural history museum and perceive the fine points in the display. There were interesting asides also about the perspectives of scientists from the last few centuries, and earlier graphics to compare to new ones illustrating how the understanding of evolution has changed over the years. I'm going on another dig and this time I may know what I'm looking at.

Primarily for the specialist
I got this book brand new for 50 pence as apparently the book had no buyers.

For 10,000 years human civilization depended on horses and unsurprisingly horse evolution was a hot scientific topic at a time when people had no faster means of personal transport. History and its emperors are littered with tales of the horse and the equine symbollism in war and heroism is still with us. Given such a magical subject McFadden's book represents a somewhat staid academic account in the style of a scientific paper. Peppered with many references McFadden treats the reader like an academic used to such presentation and fails to enliven his topic. He touches all too briefly on the cultural importance of the horse and the book lacks any decent illustrations save several charts and technical drawings.

McFadden has certainly put in a great deal of hard work and covers many topics from the history of the study of horse evolution to geneology, geological time and the work he and his co-workers have produced. The book is too specific on the Equidae and does not deal adequately with recently extinct members of this family like the quagga and prehistoric species. Nor does it explain clearly why horses may have dissapeared from the Americas. Parts of the book, e.g., the limb locking mechanism were for me hard to follow. The book is afraid of speculation.

It provides ample materials and references to the student and to the paleontologist and is a good textbook. It fails to dramatise its subject and to attract a "lay audience". We are not really treated to what makes horses so special but to its credit it represents a highly authoritative and up to (its) date digest. ... Read more

Book Description

Here The New York Times journalists examine the latest theories of all types of evolution.

The New York Times Book of Fossils and Evolution traces life's first foothold on Earth and the explosion of creation in the Cambrian era, through the reigning years of the largest animals to ever walk the planet-the dinosaurs of the Mesozoic-to the emergence of Homo sapiens two hundred thousand years ago.

This illustrated book reports on extraordinary fossil finds and currently vying theories of evolution. Itself a trove of treasures, this book will be enjoyed by amateur archeologists, naturalists, students, dinosaur enthusiasts, and everyone interested in science. ... Read more

Book Description

Full-color photos. "From cover to cover, this openly invites the reader to discover the delights of dinosaurs. The visual appeal is impressive. The text is informative. Fossilization, skeleton reconstruction, and a superb time scale round out a stunning and compelling book. Complete, authoritative, exact, and imaginative, it is sure to survive when other dinosaur books become extinct."--(starred) Science Books & Films. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

beautifully presented photos and drawings
The DK series of eyewitness books are all fabulous, but this has to be my favorite. Dinosaurs are always appealing to children and adults and this book is no disappointment. Superb studio-quality, well lit photographs give you close-up shots of teeth and bones so real, you'll feel like they're right there for you to touch and pick up.

Theories on how dinosaurs really looked on the outside and how they walked are explored. Every caption has a tidbit of information that is interesting to anyone who reads it. A book like this will keep a child of any reading age occupied for no less than an hour on a road trip... and it will constantly be read over and over again... it's just intriguing and beautifully presented.

Great DINOsaur book...
I appreciate this book because it gives you drawings and paintings of how prehistoric creatures lived millions of years ago. It gives a perfect understanding of the study and also art of Paleontology. This book is, in my opinion, 1 of 2 of my most favorite books ever published for the scientific review of more than just a few species...This concludes my review. ... Read more

Book Description

The fascinating story of an archaeological hoaxer. ... Read more

Book Description

Pages of full-color photos identify mineral formations as common asiron and sulfur and as precious as diamonds and rubies. Minerals are shown asthey occur both in natural deposits and in their cut-and-polished states.Readers get an overview of mineral sources, gem cutting, imitation gems, metalsand metal working, and much more. Also described and shown are meteorites thathave fallen to earth from outer space. Perhaps most fascinating of all are themany color photos of fossils, including insects, shell fish, vegetable forms,and animal skeletons, preserved in fossilized formations for millions of years. ... Read more

Book Description

A practical guide to identifying, understanding and hunting for fossils.

The Firefly Guide to Fossils is a practical, pocket-sized and beautifully illustrated field guide. Its introduction explains how fossils form and the history of ancient life. Fossil classification and distribution are described, providing essential background information for students and collectors.

Fossil hunting is described in detail with practical advice on everything from finding sites to displaying specimens. The main part of the book presents major groups of fossils, from trilobites to tree ferns in a wide international range, from the common and easy-to-find, to dinosaur bones that would crown any collection. The entries are illustrated with color images accompanied by clear descriptive text.

A quick reference identification key organizes the 400 specimens by the major fossil classification, making it easier to find detailed information for each one. ... Read more

Book Description

Crinoids have graced the oceans for more than 500 million years. Among the most attractive fossils, crinoids had a key role in the ecology of marine communities through much of the fossil record, and their remains are prominent rock forming constituents of many limestones. This is the first comprehensive volume to bring together their form and function, classification, evolutionary history, occurrence, preservation and ecology. The main part of the book is devoted to assemblages of intact fossil crinoids, which are described in their geological setting in twenty-three chapters ranging from the Ordovician to the Tertiary. The final chapter deals with living sea lilies and feather stars. The volume is exquisitely illustrated with abundant photographs and line drawings of crinoids from sites around the world. This authoritative account recreates a fascinating picture of fossil crinoids for paleontologists, geologists, evolutionary and marine biologists, ecologists and amateur fossil collectors. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Wow - if you ever wanted to know about crinoids ...
I recently bought a plate of fossil crinoids and wanted to identify them. This book has been helpful but not perfect for the task. What the book did do is allow me to come to a radically deeper understanding of what I was looking at (which is what I really wanted). Great diagrams and photos! Magnificent clear explanation! If you have any interest in these funny little animals buy this book. ... Read more

Book Description

In 1861, just a few years after the publication of Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species, a scientist named Hermann von Meyer made an amazing discovery. Hidden in the Bavarian region of Germany was a fossil skeleton so exquisitely preserved that its wings and feathers were as obvious as its reptilian jaws and tail. This transitional creature offered tangible proof of Darwin's theory of evolution.

Hailed as the First Bird, Archaeopteryx has remained the subject of heated debates for the last 140 years. Are birds actually living dinosaurs? Where does the fossil record really lead? Did flight originate from the "ground up" or "trees down"? Pat Shipman traces the age-old human desire to soar above the earth and to understand what has come before us. Taking Wing is science as adventure story, told with all the drama by which scientific understanding unfolds. ... Read more

Reviews (9)

Details but a lack of structure
This book is rich in detail and a great study of the tactics taken by paleontolgists in proposing theories and testing those proposals by working with fossils and similar living creatures that may cast light on the theory. But inevitably, it seems, for every proposal and positive test result someone else will come up with another test for the same proposal and the results will be negative. In the end there are so many questions without firm answers that it becomes hard to know which, if any, or which combinations of these questions, would resolve the matter. It seems that Archaeopteryx had feathers (although there is discussion of those who thought the feather impressions were forgeries). It seems that it was a dinosaur (not a bird). But was it 'proaves' the precursor bird? Apparently the fossil record of primitive birds is too poor for us to know - I would have liked more details about these early fossil birds. Was Archaeopteryx warm blooded? Were any dinosaurs? Could Archaeopteryx fly or were the feathers merely for heat insulation? For me I would have liked more on 'pro-feather' - the precursor to feathers. At the very end of the book we learn of a find in 1996 in China of a dinosaur that did not have wings but appears to have feathers on its back and sides. Other flying creatures are discussed - pterosaurs, insects, bats (surprisingly from the fossil record quite recently evolved) and gliding mammals such a sugar gliders. There is also some aerodynamics in this book as researchers try to determine if Archaeopteryx could fly. The result of their aerodynamic studies? As always - uncertainty!

I am reviewing a paperback copy of this book published by Wiedenfeld and Nicolson. It's a handsome book but I cannot understand what possessed the publishers to put a pterosaur fossil on the front cover rather than Archaeopteryx. To be fair, they do point this out on the back cover which is how I finalised realised this - but who pays much attention to back cover blurbs?

out-of-print?
This beautifully written and engaging book is still available in hardback at a surprisingly low price from Daedalus.com (at least when I last checked August 1, 2002).

Highly recommended for both its written style and content.

Excellent study on bird's flight
high quality of work done by Shipman as seen so many in other comments & I also totally agree with it. The only shame is that she holds her interpretation on the theories "ground up" or "tree down". The right answer which could convince both sides, so far, can't be expected. Even so, I wish she had expressed her own opinion inspired through her labourious studies. The component & development of the text is simply excellent. That's why I feel something missed.

A Triumph of Science Writing
The other reviews accurately describe the contents of this book. What I want to emphasize is Shipman's writing. This is probably the best written science book I have ever read. The author breaks down the book into smaller stories, such as the discovery of the fossils themselves, the structure of the skeletal joints of dinosaurs and modern birds, and the evolution and aerodynamics of feathers to name a few. Also recounted are the some of the more interesting human characters interpreting the fossil record of these little birds for the past 150 years. All of this is told in a lively, informal fashion. Yet Shipman does not shy away from some of the more technical details, and that is part of the joy of this book. Instead, she takes us by the hand and leads us through the details, never trying to oversimplify things, but never boring us, either. It reads like a novel.

My only complaint is that the illustrations, in the paperback edition I read, are reduced to such a tiny size that they are often very hard or impossible to read. This is a shame, because the illustrations are really necessary to understand some of the concepts presented here. But don't let that stop you--get a magnifying glass and let your mind soar back tens of thousands of millenia to the time when little Archaeopteryx lived and died.

This is a great book.

Ancient flight plan
TAKING WING is the story of Archaeopteryx and therefore it's about the origins of birds and the evolution of flight. Beginning with a history of the 8 fossil remains (7 skeletons and 1 feather) we read about the dozens of people from the myriad sciences (paleontology, biology, ornithology, aeronautics and engineering) that have puzzled over the significance of Archaeopteryx lithographica (Ancient wing from the printing stone). Even the name seems a puzzle until you realize it's named for the smooth limestone slabs that were used in printing. The quarries where most of the fossils were found are in Germany.

One of the persons mentioned in the book is John Ostrom, who Ms Shipman gives full credit for reviving the dinosaur to bird hypothesis for the evolution of aves (birds). Arguments over the origins of birds are legion, and with good reason says Ms Shipman. The morphology of Archaeopteryx "is genuinely ambiguous." Just where do birds belong in the taxonomy of life? Ms Shipman talks about the morphology of hands and wings and provides an interesting synopsis of two different ways of interpreting evolutionary anatomy - homology and analogy. Very briefly, homology looks for evolutionary modifications of some common structure wheras analogy sees similarities based on function, not on common descent.

The two, big, bird questions are:

(1) Did birds descend from dinosaurs or from some older common reptilian ancestor of both dinosaurs and birds?

(2) How did birds learn to fly. "Down from the trees," parachuting, then gliding, then powered flight or "up from the ground," running, then hopping, then flapping to get airborne?

Ms Shipman, after offering a balanced and detailed analysis of the subject, has her own opinion. She states that predatory dinosaurs known as theropods are "the most probable ancestors of birds." On the question of flying she says, "I am now convinced that Archaeopteryx was such a large-winged creature that it could take off from the ground, with either a reptilian or an avian physiology."

I'm just as impressed with Archaeopteryx as I am with the vast amounts of scientific research trying to explain its origins. For a little creature no bigger than a crow, that lived 150 million years ago, this book is a rather impressive tribute. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Seismosaurus
An excellent book, but the material is a little outdated, considering seismosaurus is no longer considered the longest dinosaur. All in all very well written and compiled, with beautiful paintings by Mark Hallett, dinosaur artist extrodinaire. Well done. ... Read more

Book Description

Book Description

For decades the remains of fossils found in Piltdown, England were believed to come from a 'missing link,' a creature with a human cranium and an ape's jaw.Dr. Weiner shows how he discovered the truth about these remains, and went on to expose one of the world's greatest scientific frauds. ... Read more

Book Description

Reviews (2)

A shame it's out of print . . . highly, highly recommended
Starting with a 36,000-year-old bison mummy washed out of ancient permafrost by a gold miner, zoologist and paleontologist R. Dale Guthrie discusses the events that led to Blue Babe's death and the preservation of his carcass.

That's what a bare-bones summary of this book would be, but that doesn't do it justice. In a clear, readable (but not grammar-school) style, Guthrie wanders through related subjects such as frozen mammoths, the ecology and behavior of "Ice-Age" steppe bison, wild horses, mammoths and even Alaskan lions, and how Blue Babe probably looked in life -- and makes them fascinating.

Readers may have trouble understanding chapters 8 and 9 of this book if they haven't read "Paleoecology of Beringia", another out-of-print gem which anthologizes the work of several paleontologists. Guthrie is a proponent of the "Mammoth Steppe" theory, which holds that during the Pleistocene most of Alaska and Siberia were not covered by soggy tundra or coniferous trees but by a cold, dry steppe or brushland that could support mammoths, horses, bison and other large grazers. In these two chapters, he turns away from Blue Babe to tackle and refute the objections raised by two other scientists in "Paleoecology..." (successfully, in my non-scientist opinion).

I suspect most readers will find this the dullest part of the book, but it's hard to discuss the big animals of the Pleistocene without talking about why they could exist then but are extinct or much rarer in our warmer modern world.

A superb look at the excavation, history of an ice-age bison
Written in a clear and enjoyable style, this book's description of the discovery, excavation, and the background of Blue Babe, a 35,000-year-old bison from Alaska's late Pleistocene is complete with many color and B&W photos as well as explanatory line-drawings.The discovery was made in 1979 about 15 miles north of Fairbanks, Alaska, at a goldmining operation. For the reader interested in ice-age mammals, how such specimens are found, recovered, and prepared for exhibition, this book is a good general guide through those stages.Dr. Guthrie has a long and outstanding career studying the Pleistocene mammals of Alaska,and his expertise and experience in explaining such topics to the lay-reader comes through well. ... Read more

Book Description

Fossil Invertebrates introduces readers to the biosphere as it was hundreds of millions of years ago, when seas teemed with animal forms both familiar and strange: ammonites and corals, mollusks and sponges, crinoids and trilobites. On land, terrestrial forms were beginning to make their mark, leaving behind traces such as burrows and track ways and other fossil evidence of the important transition to life on land.The plates in this book capture the incredibly detailed impressions and casts of ancient life, contrasting them with forms, such as the horseshoe crab and the chambered nautilus, that persist today virtually unchanged.

The shells and hard exoskeletons of invertebrates make them excellent candidates for fossilization, and the amateur fossil collectors are more likely to uncover an invertebrate fossil than any other kind. The fossilized remains of invertebrates dominate university collections and museum holdings worldwide and their study continues to yield important insights into the nature of evolutionary change and the impact of climate change on biodiversity, as great explosions of diversity were succeeded by mass extinctions. Paul D. Taylor and David N. Lewis, both of the Natural History Museum, London, have written a comprehensive and accessible resource, one that provides undergraduates and amateur fossil enthusiasts with a means to understand and interpret this rich fossil record.

Reviews (2)

A very detailed overview of Ice-Age Eastern Europe...
John F. Hoffecker gives us a book about Ice-Age settlement in Eastern Europe. Starting with the Neanderthals and moving on to modern humans, he writes about how both adapted to the cold climates with technology, social organization, language and even the use of, or lack of, symbols.
'Desolate Landscapes' is one of the most detailed, most complete record of archaeological information I have ever found in any book. Primary sources from Russian literature added greatly to the knowledge we already have about Neanderthals and early modern man. Not light reading, but it can be delightful reading if you enjoy books on early humans or history.

Highly scholarly treatment of an amazing tale of survival
First of all, it should be clarified that John F. Hoffecker's version of what constitutes "Eastern Europe" is the land between the Carpathian Mountains on the west and the Ural Mountains on the east. (Compare this with my review of "The Palgrave Concise Historical Atlas of Eastern Europe"). The imprecise title may cause disappointment to some readers expecting a wider geographical scope for the book.

While this book can be seen a follow-up to his mentor Richard G. Klein's 1973 work "Ice-Age Hunters of the Ukraine", Mr. Hoffecker brings to the subject his own unique expertise in the general study of the archeology of people living in cold environments and applies it to the specific case of these people who amazingly managed to survive in this highly inhospitiable environment during the height of the Ice Age.

The book is divided into seven chapters. The first discusses general anthropological principles and theories pertaining to human adaptation and development in cold environments. The second outlines the environmental conditions of the specific area under study in the book.

The next two chapters focus on Neanderthal finds in the area. The following two chapters discuss the replacement of the local Neanderthal population by the Cro-magnons, and the development of their way of life in the cold Loess Steppe environment. The final chapter summarizes the discussion and is followed by an extremely valuable and extensive bibliography, more than half of which consists of non-English (primarily Russian) sources.

In reading this work I was struck by the ingenuity of these people in the ways they adapted to survive (such as cutting "meat freezers" into the permafrost ground to preserve food for leaner months ahead), and felt that they were much more intelligent than we generally credit prehistoric people as having been. Given the same materials and conditions to survive under, I doubt that I could do half as well as they did.

In summary, this book makes an extremely worthy contribution to the dire lack of knowledge about this subject available in English. The author makes extensive use of the work of Russian and Ukrainian archeologists, as well as knowledge gained from his own participation in digs in the area and access to collections of finds previously closed to Western scholars during the Soviet era.

My only reason for giving this book 4 stars instead of 5 is due to some disappointment with the illustrations in the book. All of them are merely reproductions of drawings of artifacts from earlier Soviet-era publications. With his access to the jealously-guarded collections Mr. Hoffecker has written of, it would seem to have been desirable to include new photographs of at least some of these artifacts which have never been seen by Western eyes.

It is hoped that this oversight can be remedied in the future by some sort of companion volume which focuses more on providing a visual record of the artifacts and sites in question to supplement the excellent information the author has provided in the present work. ... Read more

Book Description

In this fascinating exploration of the fossil record, Niles Eldredge overturns the traditional view of evolution as a slow and inevitable process, and he shows that lifeforms generally do not evolve to any significant degree until after massive extinction. This rhythm of life--a concept developed by Eldredge and Stephen Jay Gould known as punctuated equilibria in evolution-- is revealed by the fossilized remains of the earth's ancient flora and fauna. Distinguished photographer Murray Alcosser augments Eldredge's text with 160 luminous color plates illustrating more than 250 different fossil specimens. In this new paperback edition, Fossils becomes an accessible text with appeal to a broad audience, including natural history readers and students. ... Read more

Reviews (3)

A Book for the Rest of Us
Scientists love to write books for other scientists, and overall deplore having to explain their science to the public. Universities work overtime to close their walls to the general public, even going as far as removing their funding from the general scrutiny of the public by catagorizing themselves as "non-constitutional" and in effect keeping themselves out of the public eye. While the general rule for professors is "publish or perish" they tend to attempt to publish in a university press, which is usually a black hole that sucks out lots of money from the university, and is usually funded by grants and endowments and hardly ever from sales - unless those sales are done by making those books "required reading" for University or College students, who can hardly afford another expensive item in their life.

In the introduction to this book Steven Jay Gould laments this problem by saying "In one particularly distressing example... scholars often look down their noses at large format books filled with attractive photographs "coffee table books" in the dismissive jargon." Mr. Gould goes on to say, however "I love this book because it embodies such a fine marriage of these tow m odes of our central vision - palpable photographs of matrials things with a distinctive text of life's history."

I couldn't say it better. Frankly, most books like this aren't very good, this one is perfect for someone with my background: a high school eduction, no chance of ever going back to college, and a overbearing curiosity for all things ancient.

Since starting to collect fossils in the Nebraska road side a year ago, my curiosity of fossils has grown tremendously. Thanks to an effort by a few scientists willling to speak of these things in lay terms, I am able to learn more about the collecting and the science of fossils every day. Books like this are useful to maintain the support scholars need to keep their science alive, and I for one am very happy to see this inexpensive effort from a scientist published and available to the general pubic.

A true "coffee table book"
The book indeed has some splendid photographs but the text moves from general to very very specific.A poor attempt to condense all fields of paleontology into a coffee table book.Buy it for the pictures not the text.

A new and exciting look at Earth's earliest hisory.
Fossils are a window into time, revealing unexpected insights into the evolution of the staggering variety of forms that life has taken on our planet. This fascinating exploration of fossils overturns the traditional view of evolution as a slow and inevitable process and shows that lifeforms gernerally do not evolve to any significant degree until massive extinction clears the way for new species. This rhythm of life--stability punctuated by burst of change--is revealed by the fossilized remains of Earth's ancient flora and fauna protrayed in 160 luminous cdolor plates and described in in a vivid style that puts the reader in touch with the most current thinking about the evolution of life and the forces that drive it. ... Read more

Book Description

The Pocket Naturalist card is a pocket-sized, folding card which provides simplified, easy-to-use introduction to familiar North American rocks, gems, minerals and fossils. Maps show distribution of important rocks and minerals. Every card is laminated so that it is waterproof and practical for use in the field. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Nice pictures, imperfect text
Dinosaur lovers (or their parents) have many books to turn to these days, in a wide range of genres: technical encyclopedias, with carefully drawn skeletons and accurate scientific information; exciting memoirs of digging expeditions; historical accounts of the "Bone Wars"; and illustrated guides for a popular audience.

"The Big Book of Dinosaurs" falls into the last category; the main credit rightly goes to the artist, Bob Walters, whose fine illustrations make this a tempting gift for any young dino-phile of your acquaintance. Like many dino-artists, Walters' style and colour preferences are quite distinct, and I find his renderings rather pleasing.

Sadly, there are some errors in the text that really shouldn't be there: Giganotosaurus comes out as Gigantosaurus, theropods become therapods, to cite two examples. When the prevailing standard for dinosaur books nowadays is meticulous accuracy (no serious palaeontologist would have let those errors slip by), this is genuinely disappointing.

For stunningly illustrated dinosaurs *with* careful, accurate accompanying text, I would turn to "Dinosaurs: the Biggest, Baddest, Strangest, Fastest" by Zimmerman/Olshevsky, to name one outstanding example.

Walters' artwork certainly deserves better; perhaps the next edition?

An ideal introduction for young readers
Showcased with the superb, science based artwork of Bob Walters, The Big Book Of Dinosaurs is an ideal introduction for young readers to the fascinating world of the dinosaur. Replete with up-to-date information on the latest discoveries in the paleontological study of dinosaurs, there are profiles of more than one hundred dinosaurs from all regions of the world presented an easy-to-read, the fact-filled text. Of special interest is the section devoted to how dinosaurs evolved over millions of years into some of the animals populating the earth today. The Big Book Of Dinosaurs is an enthusiastically recommended addition to any school or community library collection for children of all ages on the subject of the dinosaur! ... Read more