Book Description

The large, quadrupedal herbivores known as sauropods were widespread around the planet from the Jurassic to the end of the Cretaceous. With the longest necks and tails of all of the dinosaurs, some sauropods were 40 meters in length and weighed upwards of 100,000 kilograms, more than 20 tons. The popular image of these lumbering giants, placidly consuming ferns has been greatly revised in recent years. New discoveries and new theories about behavior and physiology have continued to enrich the study of these remarkable beasts. This book presents 21 new studies of the sauropods. The book is organized into four parts. The first part looks at some sauropods old and new, the second at juvenile and adult specimens and ontogenetic variation within species. Part three concerns morphology and biomechanics, while part four takes up issues of biogeography.

The contributors are Sebastián Apesteguía, Malcolm W. Bedell, Jr., David S. Berman, Matthew F. Bonnan, Kenneth Carpenter, Sankar Chatterjee, Rodolfo A. Coria,Fabio M. Dalla Vecchia, John Foster, Peter M. Galton, Jacques van Heerden, Takehito Ikejiri, Jean Le Loeuff,D. M. Mohabey, John S. McIntosh, J. Michael Parrish, Bruce M. Rothschild, Leonardo Salgado, Steven W. Salisbury,Allen Shaw, Kenneth Stadtman, Kent A. Stevens, Virginia Tidwell, David Trexler, Ray Wilhite, Adam M. Yates, and Zhong Zheng. ... Read more

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The Burgess Shale of British Columbia "is the most precious and important of all fossil localities," writes Stephen Jay Gould. These 600-million-year-old rocks preserve the soft parts of a collection of animals unlike any other. Just how unlike is the subject of Gould's book.

Gould describes how the Burgess Shale fauna was discovered, reassembled, and analyzed in detail so clear that the reader actually gets some feeling for what paleobiologists do, in the field and in the lab. The many line drawings are unusually beautiful, and now can be compared to a wonderful collection of photographs in Fossils of the Burgess Shale by Derek Briggs, one of Gould's students.

Burgess Shale animals have been called a "paleontological Rorschach test," and not every geologist by any means agrees with Gould's thesis that they represent a "road not taken" in the history of life. Simon Conway Morris, one of the subjects of Wonderful Life, has expressed his disagreement in Crucible of Creation. Wonderful Life was published in 1989, and there has been an explosion of scientific interest in the pre-Cambrian and Cambrian periods, with radical new ideas fighting for dominance. But even though many scientists disagree with Gould about the radical oddity of the Burgess Shale animals, his argument that the history of life is profoundly contingent--as in the movie It's a Wonderful Life, from which this book takes its title--has become more accepted, in theories such as Ward and Brownlee's Rare Earth hypothesis. And Gould's loving, detailed exposition of the labor it took to understand the Burgess Shale remains one of the best explanations of scientific work around. --Mary Ellen Curtin ... Read more

Reviews (41)

Gould's genius
This is the first book that I read of Steven Jay Gould. I recieved it as a child and never did much more than skim over a few pages. However, I later read through the whole thing and found that Gould describes things in an amazing way. He explains how unpredictable circumstances have had a lot to do with evolution. It hasn't always been a survival of the fittest. It has sometimes been a survival of the most lucky. This book introduces a lot of the fauna of the Burgess Shale, which is pretty wild. A lot more has been learned about these creatures since this book was written, and many of them have been classified. This book allows us a glimpse of the ancient past of life on earth.

Even Gould Can Be Wrong
I gave this book 3 stars because it is well written, if a bit ornate; the reader is really left with a sense of awe and wonder at the wonderfulness of Life. At least I know I was.

I didn't give it more than 3 stars because, scientifically speaking, it stinks. It is by far Goulds worst book.

I would recommend people to read this book, but when you do, try to remember that the taxonomic rank of phylum, contrary to what Gould claims, lacks a definition; that a 'fundamental body plan' is a wholly arbitrary after-the-fact construction; that neither the rank of phylum or 'fundamental body plans' has any whatsoever evolutionary significance; and that no-one knows why or how the animals of Burgess Shale went extinct.

But on to the book. It is, on the surface, about some remarkable fossils found at a place called Burgess Shale.

Gould spends a substantial part of the book expounding how the psychosocial background of the original discoverer, C. Walcott, led him ("preconditioned" is the word Gould uses) to Get It All Wrong when he classified ("shoehorned") the fossils in known phyla, whereas the zeitgeist of the late 20th century allows a group of whacky new researchers to Get It All Right and see that they belong to previously unknown phyla.

One is then treated to a nice exposé of some really interesting fossils, and there's not much to say about them except that most have since the book was published been re-evaluated, and are today classified as velvet worms, arthropods or annelids (still as interesting, but less enigmatic - and ironically much like Walcott first "shoehorned" them).

Why, Gould asks, did essentially all modern phyla arise in a short period in the cambrian, as well as, allegedly, a large number of phyla which today are extinct, when no new phyla have arisen in the subsequent 550 million years? And the extinct phyla, they seem complex and 'seaworthy' enough - surely which phylum lived and which went extinct must have been purely decided by chance? Surely, if we re-played evolution, the world today would be very different?

There are two errors in that line of reasoning. Firstly the most pervasive: the reification of the taxonomic rank of Phylum and of the concept of 'body plan'.

Gould in this book equals the taxonomic rank of Phylum to the concept of 'fundamental body plan': one body plan = one phylum. This is a bit backwards - the rank of phylum is arbitrary and lacks a definition, but is historically (but not always) afforded the most inclusive groups of animals between which interrelationship is unclear. The concept of 'bauplan' or 'fundamental body plan'is similarly wholly arbitrary - a body plan is a collection of traits deemed characteristic for the group, and can be created for any group, regardless of inclusivity: you take a group of species, such as a phylum, determine what is characteristic for the group, and voilá, there's the fundamental body plan.

What does this mean? That neither the rank of phylum nor the concept of 'bauplan'/'fundamental body plan' has any evolutionary significance - and yet this is what Gould bases his argumentation on in this book.

The second error is a logical one, and is that _even if_ Opabinia, Anomalocaris and the others had represented "new" phyla, and _even if_ phylum had been the same as "fundamental body plan", and _even if_ that had meant something from an evolutionary point of view, this isn't support for Goulds view that evolution is stochastic, driven by chance extinctions rather than adaptation.

All we know is that Burgess Shale organisms went extinct - we do not know why. For all we know these organisms were outcompeted, and would be outcompeted again and again if we 're-played' the history of Earth. The support Gould thinks they give his pet theory isn't there.

So, to sum things up - in this book Gould uses psychosocial arguments to dismiss the science of Walcott and support that of Simon Conway Morris; misunderstands what a phylum is; misunderstands what a "fundamental body plan" is; bases his reasoning on misidentified fossils; and draws conclusions which aren't supported by the supplied evidence.

But he does it in a really enthusing way. There's no denying it's a good read.

Simon Conway Morris, the chief "hero" in this book, has since done his best to distance himself from Gould - to the point that he tends to deem it necessary to explain what a phylum is in his articles, and has written the Gould-critical book "Crucibles of creation" (which isn't that great either).

500 Million Year Old Shale Gives Great Insights
This book is an excellent and fascinating introduction to paleontology - the study of ancient creatures through the study of their fossils. This is not a dull book by any stretch of the imagination. After reading you will want to learn more about the subject.

What differentiates an average scientist to someone that can make a truly new and important discovery is the ability to sees that small variations from the expected. That is looking at raw experimental data experimental a great scientist can see how the observations do not fit theoretical expectations, and they can only be explained by revisions to existing theories. Sometimes these can be dramatic as in the case of radiation from a body or nuclear effects that had inconsistencies that could only be explained with new theories such as quantum mechanics in modern physics.

This book is similar but it applies to the theory of evolution and paleontology. Early theories of evolution were based on a "cone" of evolution that explained increased diversification with time. That concept also fits in with certain religious theories. This book explains how that idea was debunked by a very lengthy and detailed study of The Burgess Shale - located in the Canadian Rockies- that had an explosion of diversity all in a short time span about 500 (plus) million years ago.

These complicated little creatures have been frozen in time, captured in the shale complete with much detail. The study indicates that the number of "body plans" or what the scientists call "disparity" was more diverse at an earlier time which contradicts the idea of increased diversity with time in evolution. Instead scientists think that there is an early "decimation" of the species to give us more species with fewer "body plans" at a later date.

Initially the observations were incorrectly around made and left unchallenged for about 60 years. More recently they were re-discovered after very detailed studies of the shale and new interpretations and conclusions were made.

This is a very unusual and interesting book with many illustrations and comments and insights. Once you read it you will have a grasp of modern paleontology and will want to learn more.

Jack in Toronto

530 million years ago...
530 million years ago something happened that would change the way scientists would look at evolution and it would take the humor, knowledge and artistic skill of Stephen Jay Gould to explain WHY it changed the way they look at evolution and WHY we should all care.
Mr. Gould takes evolution and shows how it worked in the ancient sea and why it seemed to change how it works now. Mr. Gould is an honest writer, brave enough to say that what he says might be proven wrong later on, but is willing to dive right in anyway. He is willing to get his hands messy while trying to work out the paleontological puzzle of the Burgess Shale and he takes us along, we go together during every step, we watch scientists overcome every barrier and we are able to judge the results that we saw built right before our eyes, piece by piece.
Great read.

Another magnificent tome
This is more than an explanation of one particular site of fossils. It is that but the ramifications of that site are stupendous, namely that life on Earth has undergone regular catasclysmic destruction. The Burgess Shale is perhaps the most valuable scientific find of a century in what it proves and disproves.

The shale itself dates from 530 million years ago and teems with an extraordinary variety of life - life that was almost terminated by a rock from space. The important thing Gould determines is that if not for this near extinction, life would have developed in a completely different manner and humans - indeed vertebrates -would not be the dominant creatures.

Must one conclude that our presence is a fluke or an accident? Those opting for a divine plan must surely question why their divinity went to all the trouble to create such an incredible variety of life only to have it destroyed. All we can do is work with what we have.

The descriptions of the shale beings are incredibly interesting as is the discovery, loss and recovery of the site. Then there is Marianne Collins and her magnificent interpretations of the weird inhabitants of the shales. One must remember that most of these were crushed and smashed and had to be reconstructed not only physically but mentally. The Shale asks questions about Evolutions such as how can new species form so rapidly when classic theory calls for long eons in development? Which, if any of the Shale traits survived the destruction? In the end Gould attacks (for about the zillionth time) the standard evolutionary charts as not representative of the "true" status of beings with aphids on the bottom and humans at top.

But then history is written by the winners and though our lifespan has been short and may be shorter still, we are still the only creatures that recognize that face. Perhaps that is why we design anthropomorthic charts and think in terms of low and high evolution. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Very informative, shows more than only the best specimens.
I have used this book to refer to numerous times.
It gives a very good perspective of the diversity of the geography of Texas.
Good book, thanks for writing it, Chuck.
Jessy Boedeker
The Texas Fossil Collector

A great guide to texas fossils
This book is easy to use, informative and quite helpful to the texas fossil hunter. The pictures cover a very broad range of texas fossils, and though not always in color, are very helpful in identification. ... Read more

Amazon.com

In Gorgon, geologist Peter Ward turns his attention reluctantly away from the asteroid collision that killed all the dinosaurs and instead focuses on a much older extinction event. As it turns out, the Permian extinction of 250 million years ago dwarfs the dino's 65-million-year-old Cretaceous-Tertiary armageddon. Ward's book is not a dry accounting of the fossil discoveries leading to this conclusion, but rather an intimate, first-person account of some of his triumphs and disappointments as a scientist. He draws a nice parallel between the Permian extinction and his own rather abrupt in research focus, revealing the agonizing steps he had to take to educate himself about a set of prehistoric creatures about which he knew almost nothing. These were the Gorgons, carnivorous reptiles whose ecological dominance preceded that of the more pop-culture-ready dinosaurs.

They would have had huge heads with very large, saberlike teeth, large lizard eyes, no visible ears, and perhaps a mixture of reptilian scales and tufts of mammalian hair.... The Gorgons ruled a world of animals that were but one short evolutionary step away from being mammals.

With characteristic enthusiasm, Ward transports readers with him to South Africa's Karoo desert, where he participated in field expeditions seeking fossils of these fearsome creatures. He suffers routine tick patrols, puff-adder avoidance lessons, stultifying thirst, and the everyday humiliations of being the new guy on a field team. Besides telling a fascinating paleological story, Gorgon lets readers feel a bone-hunter's passion and pain. --Therese Littleton ... Read more

Reviews (7)

excellent, but read his book on mammoths
I like this book, this coming from a chemistry professor who dreamed of being a paleontologist/archaeologist. Had I not read his earler book "The Call of Distant Mammoths", I could've given this 5 stars. I liked the interweaving of personal experience with scientific story, but the science story became lost now and then, and not as clear a case is made here than in the earlier book. As a scientist, I found the isotopes conjectures needed more supporting discussion than was provided. Overall, I think the author should have minimized and compartmentalized his own personal history and experiences to be a much more minor portion, since this became too large a distraction from the scientiifc conclusions.

Readable paleontology
"It's not as glamorous as you think," is the underlying theme in Peter Ward's book Gorgon. Ward describes the efforts to understand what caused the Permian-Triassic (P/T) extinction that occurred 250 Million years ago and brought about the demise of over 90% of the species of plant and animal life on earth. The reader is taken on several trips to the Karoo, a semi-arid plateau in the southwest of South Africa to try and tease answers out of the strata.
In addition to the physical hardships provided by a harsh climate, taxing work, and poisonous snakes, the shadow of the upheaval brought about by the end of apartheid makes the tedious search for fossils life threatening at times.
Gorgon is short for gorgonopsian, a mammal-like reptile that Ward describes as the T.rex of the Permian era. Named for the three hideous sisters in Greek mythology, the gorgon was about 10 feet long with the body of a lizard and a huge head with teeth that resemble those of a saber-toothed tiger, obviously adapted for capturing and shredding animals.
Most interesting to me were the various methods used to determine the character of the extinction, a key to learning its cause. What was the time span of the extinction: was it sudden, like the K/T event caused by a comet, or, was there a slow die off over millions of years? No single clue could provide all the answers and several methods were discussed that required the scientists become intimate with the layers of rock that, 250 Million years ago, were the surface of the earth. Ward gave understandable descriptions of paleostratigraphy, the study of the makeup of each stratum; isotopic perturbation, the analysis of the relative carbon content of each stratum; and magnetostratigraphy; use of the earth's periodic geomagnetic reversal to isolate a time frame for each stratum.
Ward came to the P/T extinction project with a great deal of experience; he had participated in the work done throughout the 1980s to prove the cause of the Cretaceous-Tertiary (K/T) extinction that occurred about 65 Million years ago. This sudden extinction, the result of a comet striking the earth, raised questions about the causes of other extinctions and led Ward to delve into the P/T event.
The unbroken chain of life; that is what makes the paleontology so interesting. In his book, A Short History of Nearly Everything, Bill Bryson congratulates the reader for "making it here," for being fortunate enough to have been part of an unbroken lineage that began... well, at the beginning. Ward's book brings the thought back time and again by showing that even through the biggest catastrophe in history, some of our more tenacious, more fortunate relatives survived.

A thoroughly enjoyable read!
Peter Ward's "Gorgon: Paleontology, Obsession, and the Greatest Catastrophe in Earth's History" is a very interesting read. It takes a bit to get going, and the ending seems rushed, but it remains informative and entertaining throughout.

Peter Ward has a long professional association with mass extinctions, as his many previous books will attest. "Gorgon" opens with definitive statements about the conclusiveness of research intended to show that an extraterrestrial impact wiped out the nonavian dinosaurs 65 million years ago; those who feel that there are still some points to be debated about this interpretation will find nothing here, for Ward is absolute in his convictions. And this adamant stance is his jumping-off point for the rest of the book, as he views the terminal Permian extinction through the lens of his views on the Cretaceous event.

"Gorgon" seems a bit of a departure from many of Ward's earlier books. While details of the science read well and are clearly and often engagingly presented, the science does seem a bit thin. This is surprising, given the amount of work that has been conducted regarding the colossal extinction pulse at the end of the Permian. Fortunately, what Ward uses to fill the gaps is more personal, thoughtful and introspective than a strict presentation of scientific theories might otherwise permit. I felt that he beautifully captured the joys and the hardships of paleontological field work, from the desperate need to focus when prospecting, to the primitive yet often idyllic field and camp locales, to the kinship (and infrequent conflict) one feels with one's field mates, to the adrenaline rush when one discovers a significant new find.

As for the science itself, it too seems well presented. The reader will see what Ward and his colleagues observed in the Karoo region of South Africa, and will be led to understand its significance in the discussion of the Permian extinction. I personally would have preferred additional photographs, maps, and diagrams to supplement the text, but that's just me.

I'm giving the book four stars rather than five because I felt that the conclusion of the volume seemed rushed. Chapter 11, for example, discussed the conclusions and subsequent challenges to the hypothesis that an extraterrestrial impact caused the Permian extinction. The chapter ended with a paragraph stating, "By the year 2000 it was generally accepted that ... an impact *did* occur, some 250 million years ago ... [t]he question that remained ... was whether or not this fiery messenger from space was the sole assassin." Chapter 12 discussed the Permian extinction as being fast and occurring in pulses. Chapter 13 then discussed Ward's own newly-advanced interpretations, which do not involve any sort of extraterrestrial impact (and which it would be unfair of me to present here; if you want to know what Ward thinks, read the book!). [As a side note, there are implications of Ward's interpretations regarding the evolution of dinosaurs and birds that are fascinating to consider, but which he leaves frustratingly defleshed -- building up to his point, then abruptly ending the chapter. I do wish he'd extrapolated a bit more.] Finally, the Epilogue then stated, "I now believe that the Permian extinction yields but a single important lesson: Planets with higher life ... *can be rendered abiotic*, and that asteroid impact can certainly do the job." So we're taken from extraterrestrial impact being part or all of the cause of the Permian extinction, to such an impact being unnecessary to explain the extinction, then right back to the Permian teaching us that asteroids can cause mass extinctions. If that sounds confused, it's because it is. I wonder if there was a publication deadline involved, as the writing seems to betray some haste here. I felt that the conclusion of the book would have been more satisfying, and the book itself more thoroughly enjoyable, had Ward and his editors spend a little more time on the last few chapters. Maybe I'm misreading things, but that's how it appears to me after several re-readings.

In all, then, an entertaining and informative read, with insights and expressions of personal feelings that stand out from Ward's earlier works, and with a conclusion that leaves one wanting more. The flaws are minor, and the book is well worth reading. I strongly recommend it.

Solving a Riddle
When I was a boy, I remember reading about the dinosaurs' extinction and the great question about the reasons behind it, which at the time ranged from the theological to more or less pure guesswork. And I wondered about the other great extinctions, where even less was known. Would it ever be possible to determine their causes, and their meaning for life on earth?

Well, now we know that the question of the dinosaurs's extinction has been answered to everyone's satisfactions, save that of a few cranky holdouts. It was a huge meteor, and the killing mechanisms are largely worked out. Now many of the scientists who worked so successfully on that problem have turned their attention to the other four great extinctions, using many of the same techniques and methods developed over the decades.

This book is about one of those men, who tells the story of the PT extinction of 250 million years ago from a personal point of view, with lots of well-explained science mixed together with an engrossing tale of personalities and adventures, hardships and triumphs tossed together into a most pleasing and engrossing way. His struggle is an inspiring one, for it is a most human tale of overcoming obstacles in a determined way, showing the failures as well as the times when chance and persistence overcame paltry funding, errors and muddles.

Ward makes a convincing case that the PT extinction is well on its way to being solved, though much clearly remains to be done before a scientific consensus is reliably established. But more than that, he has written a terrific thoughtful chapter in which he comes to speculate on the implications for these events. He persuasively argues that life on earth is fragile, at the mercy of chance events which we are only beginning to understand. Much like our own life...

But for me, the main message of the book is that a few dozen scientists, armed with the tools of thousands of their fellows, can tackle the big questions which seemed so out of reach only a few mere decades ago.

I was obsessed with finishing this book
I stayed up late last night finishing it... I was dying to figure out how the Permian extinction happened. More science books ought to be written like this, exploring the evidence, letting the reader figure out the theory as the scientist figured it out. Well worth any science lover's time. ... Read more

Amazon.com

The premise of Michael Crichton's Jurassic Parkand the Steven Spielbergmovie that it spawned (along with its sequel, The Lost World) is simple enough. Scientists extract dinosaur DNA remnants lingering in the stomachs of insects entombed in amber formillions of years, reconstitute them into complete copies of dinosaur DNA, and then "grow"dinosaurs inside the lab. It sounds intuitively plausible--if far-fetched--but could it really work? In thisfascinating book, Rob DeSalle and David Lindley explain in detail how scientists might attempt thispainstaking task and the challenges they would face. In the process, they provide a running tutorial on thetechniques of genetic engineering and play spoilsport to the occasional sloppy science of the Crichton andSpielberg works. The result is thoroughly entertaining yet simultaneously enlightening. ... Read more

Reviews (6)

Explanations of the fundamental problems using Dino DNA
"Jurassic Park" and "The Lost World" are two movies that involve dinosaurs that have been recreated using advanced genetic engineering techniques. They are exciting and intense as the sight of the dinosaurs makes your heart race. Based on books by Michael Crichton, the engineering strategies used to develop the dinosaurs are explained in a great deal of detail. With all the advancements in genetic engineering, the obvious question to ask is, " Is it now possible to recreate dinosaurs?" The purpose of this book is to answer that question, and the explanations are very well done.
The primary focus is on the many problems of obtaining viable dinosaur DNA, properly sequencing it and getting it to reproduce in a viable manner. These problems are currently overwhelming and the authors explain it in a manner that requires at most the knowledge acquired in high school science classes.
What I liked most about the book is that the authors do not stop after explaining the problems with genetics. Other problems thoroughly discussed deal with difficulties such as the natural immunities that dinosaurs born in their natural habitat would have acquired but would no longer be available, what kind of foods that they would eat and how many dinosaurs could the islands really support. These are questions that would have created additional problems and collectively would have prevented a viable dinosaur ecology from being formed.
Fortunately, movies do not have to be based on solid science to be exciting. In this book you learn the holes in the science which formed the premise of the two movies. Well written and informative, it kept me interested from the first page to the last.

Informative, but tedious and repitious at times
Good book, but the authors writing styles are somewhat 'horrible'! Very repititous in some parts. A decent buy...(I lost my copy, and I will be buying another one and reading it again...)

If your a fan of Jurassic Park get this book, you'll love it
I have read both Jurassic Park and the Lost world, and if your like me you wish it could be true. In this book two scientist take you on a first person view of what it would be like to be on Jurassic Park and how (if possible) to build a dinosaur. You will learn first hand how close, or far away Steven Spielberg was to the real thing. You will learn a lot of informaion on building a dinosaur like what you would need, were to fing the DNA (not where you would expect, or Spielberg for that matter.) You go to the labs with the scientist and get to make a baby dinosaur. So if you would like to make a dinosaur later in your life read this book!

Could have been less technical
This book would have been more accurately titled " 176 pages of technical reasons why you can't build a dinosaur." I realize that these are complex issues, but it was still quite dry in places. On the other hand, I did read the whole thing. I guess I was hoping they would say that bringing a dinosaur back was just around the corner.

A fascinating look at some true science in science-fiction.
"First preheat your oven to 350 degrees". How many recipes have you seen have started with that familiar instruction? Consider: "Take a piece of amber containing an insect that lived in the the Jurassic along with the dinosaurs". That is what Michael Crichton had millions of us believe was the first step in his recipe for creating the dinosaurs in his book Jurassic Park. It sounded so logical and straightforward to the general reader that we all took it at face value that everything that Ingen Corporation's scientists did was correct. We then read on, never thinking to question the science again. Until now. It reminds one of the scene in the Wizard of Oz when Toto pulls back the screen and reveals the real wizard. We ignored the man behind the curtain until Rob DeSalle & David Lindley forced us to look beyond the smoke & mirrors. They have written an excellent "expose" on the errors of the dinosaur creation, but have done so in such a fun and enlightening way so as not to make the Wizard (aka M ... Read more

Book Description

Missing Links: Evolutionary Concepts and Transitions Through Time provides readers with a compendium of scientific evidence of extinct organisms, or "missing links," that bridge the evolutionary gaps between primordial species and modern life. The book introduces newcomers to the field of evolutionary science with an accessible discussion of basic scientific practices, rock and fossil dating techniques, and schools of classification. Readers are then ushered through a fascinating array of examples of evolutionary transition at all chronological and geographical scales, from the ultimate origins of life on Earth to the morphological changes that readers will observe during their lifetimes.

Offering a lucid primer on evolutionary science, as well as a series of case studies and fossil histories in support of evolutionary theory, Missing Links serves as an ideal short introduction to evolution for students and general readers ... Read more

Reviews (1)

SUPERB!!!
Read this book if you ever wanted to know anything about evolution! It is full of interesting and incredibly insightful information on the subject!! ... Read more

Book Description

This reference work is the third supplement to Dinosaurs: The Encyclopedia (a 1998 American Library Association Outstanding Reference Book) and follows the intent and format of the encyclopedia and the first two supplements.

This continuation of what is now the standard encyclopedia provides up-to-date concepts, based on the latest original research of paleontologists, on such topics as the Mesozoic Era; new discoveries, ideas and studies; ectothermy versus endothermy; dinosaurs and birds; dinosaur extinctions; dinosaurian systematics; dinosaurian genera; nomina nuda and excluded genera; and an appendix discussing dinosaur tracks and eggs. ... Read more

Reviews (4)

The Glut of Dinosaurs continues
A year after the second supplement, here's another! Donald Glut's indefatigable efforts at keeping us posted about all developments in the world of dinosaurs are nothing short of astounding. Always fascinating reading for specialist and general maniac alike.

Fantastic and comprehensive
If you are a serious dinosaur lover with some money to spend, this is the book. At the time of publication, every classified species was included, along with pertinent details and from 1-3 pages of write-up. It talks of the holotypes, it has 1-2 photos on every page, it gives it all. It is exhaustive, well written, and just simply outstanding. Put it this way, paleontologists and reconstructionist-artists keep this on their desk like the military folk keep a copy of Jane's, it's simply far and away the best reference on the various species of dinosaurs. Is it pricey? Yup. However, you could easily spend far more buying every dinosaur encyclopedia sold on Amazon and still come up with a fraction of the material that is in this book. To be blunt, no other reference is in it's class. Throw in that periodic supplements are published that describe all of the new species and information discovered from the previous release, and you simply can't go wrong.

If I have to pick one flaw, it's that some of the photographs are of poor quality, however most of these seem to be because the only surviving photo is a zerox or what have you, so the quality is dependant on the source picture, not due to any corner-cutting (of which there seems to be NONE) in the book.

The ultimate reference
If you want to find all there is known about each and every dinosaur, this is the place to look. It's technically comprehensive, accurate and complete. An overwhelming undertaking. Required reading for the serious dino-freak.

Very scholarly
A good review of the synapomorphies and research of dinosaurs before Sinosauropteryx was described. ... Read more

Book Description

In the bestselling tradition of The Map that Changed the World and Longitude comes the tale of a seventeenth-century scientist-turned-priest who forever changed our understanding of the Earth and created a new field of science.

It was an ancient puzzle that stymied history's greatest minds: How did the fossils of seashells find their way far inland, sometimes high up into the mountains?Fossils only made sense in a world old enough to form them, and in the seventeenth century, few people could imagine such a thing. Texts no less authoritative than the Old Testament laid out very clearly the timescale of Earth's past; in fact one Anglican archbishop went so far as to calculate the exact date of Creation...October 23, 4004, B.C.

A revolution was in the making, however, and it was started by the brilliant and enigmatic Nicholas Steno, the man whom Stephen Jay Gould called "the founder of geology." Steno explored beyond the pages of the Bible, looking directly at the clues left in the layers of the Earth. With his groundbreaking answer to the fossil question, Steno would not only confound the religious and scientific thinking of his own time, he would set the stage for the modern science that came after him. He would open the door to the concept of "deep time," which imagined a world with a history of millions or billions of years. And at the very moment his expansive new ideas began to unravel the Bible's authoritative claim as to the age of the Earth, Steno would enter the priesthood and rise to become a bishop, ultimately becoming venerated as a saint and beatified by the Catholic Church in 1988.

Combining a thrilling scientific investigation with world-altering history and the portrait of an extraordinary genius, The Seashell on the Mountaintop gives us new insight into the very old planet on which we live, revealing how we learned to read the story told to us by the Earth itself, written in rock and stone. ... Read more

Reviews (17)

a class act
Seashell on the Mountaintop intrigued me from page one. The work brings to life a fascinating time in the history of science that seems far different from our own. That rocks grow, or are in fact spontaneously generated seems absurd, ridiculous,.. but Cutlers's investigation into the life and times of Nicholas Steno seems to acurately portray a time and people who nearly held these ideas as inevitable. In Steno we find a man both spiritual and scientific whose independent, open minded, study and observations led to different conclusions. No revolutions, no public outcries, just a different set of conclusions from the same hard facts. The result, a new science of the past, present and future, called geology. That Steno, unlike other great scientists of the 17th century better known to us today, did not run a foul of the Catholic Church, and towards the winter of his life leaves science behind to become a priest, later saint, suggests that neither science nor religious belief hold firm precedence when interpreting the world. A view lacking today, and one impeding politics, society and civilization. Cutlers book is an excellent read, scholarly without heaviness and like Steno, intriguing with humble relevance.

Mysteries in moutaintops
This engaging and informative little book traces the life of the founder of the science of geology. One of the intitial voices of the Enlightenment, Nicholas Steno spent a life wandering over the face of Europe. In this biography, Cutler's luminous prose takes the reader back to the mid-17th Century intellectual environment. He eloquently describes the rise of "the new science" in the face of traditional dogma. It wasn't a straightforward confrontation, however. Personalities and ideas alike clashed, sometimes savagely. Cutler ably shows how science struggled to find its feet in this time, with Steno's career and heritage providing the exemplary model.

Nicholas Steno, born in Lutheran Denmark, led a peripatetic erratic life. He was an anatomist, geologist, innovator and a proponent of empirical science. In an age steeped in ancient philosophy, in which tradition substituted for measurement and experiment, Steno rejected what could not be observed or proven. He mingled with Dutch merchants and the many religions existing in that Calvinist, yet commercial republic. Later, in Florence, he noted the stability provided by the well-established Church. In an age of inquiry, the Church tolerated the emerging science, so long as published works didn't directly challenge Scripture. The Galileo episode, says Cutler, cast a long shadow, and the Vatican didn't want a reprise. Steno not only evaded Church censorship, notes Cutler, he was encouraged to further his studies. Thus, his later conversion to Roman Catholicism shocked many, not least because he abandoned his studies for an ascetic life and attempts to convert Protestants.

In Florence, Steno was championed by the ruling Medici family. He took up the question of fossil seashells, a topic that had intrigued the Greek philosophers and Leonardo alike. Were they "spontaneously generated" in the deep earth, remnants of ancient life, or evidence of Noah's cataclysmic Flood? Steno's solution was not novel in itself. His real contribution was his explanation of how these shells and "tonguestones" were found on high mountain locations. Although published in a brief volume, his "De solido", would ultimately become the foundation stone of modern geology. Indirectly, writes Cutler, Steno's ideas and meagre publications led to the greatest idea of all - Darwin's concept of evolution by natural selection.

Cutler has encompassed many and varying themes in this book. It is one of the finest presentations of the issues addressed by the Englightenment in print. The names of such notaries as Newton, Leibnitz, and Boyle flit through the narrative. Even Thomas Jefferson makes an appearance - with lines that may surprise. Just enough graphics are used to illuminate the characters or a point. Highly recommended for many reasons, not least of which is the persistence of centuries-old dogmas in the face of the revelations of science. [stephen a. haines - Ottawa, Canada]

The founder of geology was a devout Christian
This well-written and mercifully brief account of the life of Nicholaus Steno helps demonsrate yet again that Christians can be very fine scientists. The issue that Steno resolved was the organic origin of fossils. Steno was trained as an anatomist, and he was extremely gifted with a scalpel. When a very large (2,800 pound) shark was caught by Italian fisherman, Steno's patron, Ferdinando de Medici had the head sent to Steno for disection. Steno noted the uncanny resemblance of the shark's teeth to fossils called "tongue stones" found in greatest abundance on the Island of Malta. Steno argued that "tongue stones" looked like sharks' teeth because they were sharks' teeth that had been buried in sediment, the sediment subsequently hardening into stone.

This seems obvious today, but it was anything but obvious in Steno's time. Many argued that the earth had some sort of "plastic power" that produced stones in the shapes of sea creatures, or anything else. It didn't seem possible that fossils found on mountaintops many miles from the ocean could be the remains of real sea creatures, no matter how closely they resemble those creatures. And then there was also the problem of extinct forms, fossils that didn't correspond to any living creatures. The idea that God would allow any of his creatures to die out completely was unacceptable to many thinkers of Steno's day.

The fossil problem led Steno to meditate on question of how any solid object, like a fossil, could be found with another solid object, like a layer of rock. He concluded that the fossil must have been hard first, and must have been carried along by waterborne sediments that subsequently came to rest, creating a layer of mud, enclosing the fossil and later hardening into rock. Hence, a solid fossil came to be enclosed within a layer of solid rock.

An interesting fact that emerges from this book is that Steno, essentially a creationist who never wrote anything that contradicted Scripture, laid the foundations for the science of geology. Cutler seems at pains to try to claim Steno's legacy for modern long-ages geology, but the age of the earth was never any part of Steno's argument. Moreover, the person who did the most to popularize Steno's view of the organic origin of fossils in the English-speaking world (without giving Steno proper credit) was John Woodward, an even more outspoken creationist who argued that the fossils had been buried in Noah's flood. Meanwhile, the famous skeptic Voltaire argued that fossils were spontaneously generated within the earth. In fact, Voltaire was still making that argument many decades after Steno had proven the contrary case. Meanwhile, Steno abandoned science and spent his final years ministering to the small Roman Catholic minority in northern Germany. It just goes to show that religious faith does not a bad scientist make, nor does skepticism make a good one.

Fascinating Portrait
One of the most hotly debated topics of 17th century science concerned a naturally occurring riddle. Why do seashell fossils appear in mountainous areas so far away from the sea? The great flood that created the need for Noah's arc might be one explanation, but scientists quickly noted that a flood of 40 days duration was not enough time for clams to move to such distant and elevated locations. This problem engendered a number of interesting hypotheses, among them that the earth somehow created the shells.

The riddle was finally solved, at least for the scientifically minded, through the careful observations of a Danish scientist named Nicolaus Steno. Steno traveled far from his native Copenhagen and ultimately moved to Italy where he observed fossilized seashells in the Italian Mountains. Already famous for his work in anatomy, Steno was a true Renaissance man with a passion for collecting and understanding items from nature. His observations led to his theory that the earth has a history and that this history includes periods of changing seas and powerful geologic forces that deposit rocks, minerals, and fossils far inland. His pioneering work has earned him the title of founder of geology among contemporary scientists.

Geologist Alan Cutler paints a fascinating portrait of Steno. Given various elements of Steno's personality and the time in which he lived, this is no small feat. Steno was a deeply religious man, and Cutler doesn't miss the irony involved with his formulating theories that were at odds with the officially sanctioned explanations of the earth. The fact is that as he aged Steno became more concerned with religion than with science. He eventually converted from the Lutheranism of Denmark to Catholicism and died a Bishop at the age of forty-eight. Although his fame as a clergyman never matched that of his fame as a scientist, the Catholic Church beatified Steno in 1988. In writing about Steno as a scientist and as a religious figure, Cutler gives us an entertaining and balanced look at the life of a little known but influential thinker.

An interesting life
I read this book for a Geology project. I love a good biography and Cutler delvered a good biography. Was his portrayal of Steno accurate? I don't know. Part of the problem seems to be that much of Steno's work has never been available in English. We should at least give Cutler credit for trying to make Steno more accessible to English readers.

One of the parts covered in the book is Steno's conversion from Lutheranism to Romanism. Since other reviewers have not covered this aspect I thought it might be helpful to do so.

Cutler gives quite a few details about is Steno's Christianity. Cutler describes Steno's Lutheran upbringing, his exposure to the religious pluralism afforded by the enterprising Dutch Calvinists (pg. 35), and finally his embrace of the Italian Catholics. Particularly noted by Cutler are two aspects of Steno's conversion to Roman Catholicism. First was his rejection of the Bible as the literal word of God (pg. 144). Secondly, Steno seemed to be "emotional[ly]" drawn to Romanism by its ceremony, or maybe more accurately, by its superstition. (pg. 91) Eventually, Steno became a Roman Catholic priest, and then the titular Bishop of Titiopolis. This sounds impressive but it is actually rather tragic. The Bishopric was of an area long abandoned to Muslims, and in the region where Steno was sent to minister he was rejected by most of his fellow Catholics as being too serious. His life ends with him starving himself into poor health, and eventually death. It was a sad end to a brilliant man. ... Read more

Book Description

The dramatic story of the discovery that forever changed man's perception of his place in the universe.

In 1812, the skeleton of a monster was discovered beneath the cliffs of Dorset, setting in motion a collision between science and religion and among scientists eager to claim supremacy in a brand-new field. For Reverend William Buckland, an eccentric naturalist at Oxford University, the fossil remains of a creature that existed before Noah's flood inspired an attempt to prove the accuracy of the biblical record. Gideon Mantell, a naturalist who uncovered giant bones in a Sussex quarry, also became obsessed with the ancient past, risking everything to promote his vision of the lost world of reptiles. Soon the eminent anatomist Richard Owen entered the fray, claiming the credit for the discovery of the dinosaurs.

In a fast-paced narrative, Terrible Lizard reveals a strange, awesome prehistoric era and the struggle that set the stage for Darwin's shattering theories-and for controversies that still rage today. ... Read more

Reviews (7)

Witness the Birth of A New Science
The story of how a few great and nimble minds knocked relentlessly at the doors of established scientific thought and were, by dint of excellent work and bold imagination, eventually admitted.
From the painstaking, earnest and underappreciated Gideon Mantell to the flamboyant and eccentric Dean Buckland. From Sir Richard Owen, perhaps the finest comparative anatomist of his time, to the poverty-stricken fossilist Mary Anning here is a tale of fortunes won and lost and discoveries celebrated and forgotten, where brilliance walks hand in hand with heartache and madness...
Best of all, its true.

Interesting story about the first dinosaur hunters
An absorbing account of the pioneer 19th-century British geologists and fossil collectors. Our hero is Gideon Mantell, of a noble family long fallen on hard times. The son of a shoemaker, Mantell was smitten with fossils at an early age. Without resources but recognized as a prodigy, he was apprenticed to a surgeon and became a doctor in London. For the rest of his life he would balance his unenthusiastic practice of medicine with a passionate devotion to fossils. Enter one Mary Anning, who supported her family by gathering fossil "trinkets" from the dangerous coastal cliffs of Dorset to sell to tourists. Her keen eye led to her recognition as a prime "fossilist" among geologists and collectors, including Mantell. One of her major finds was the fossil remains of a giant sea lizard; little by little, other huge reptilian bones were unearthed by Mary and others, but not without controversy. Mantell waited years before the eminent Baron Cuvier in Paris agreed that he had found the remains of a huge herbivorous land reptile (reversing his earlier opinion that the fossil was mammalian). But the plot thickened with the appearance of the wicked Richard Owen, who rose to pinnacles of power within the Royal Society and the Geological Society, became a social lion, and was an intimate of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. At every step of the way he did his best to discredit and ridicule Mantell, at the same time claiming some of Mantell's fossils as his own. His comeuppance (and the recognition of Mantell's true worth) was the result of both his egregious behavior and his being on the wrong (creationist) side of the evolutionary debate as the scientific tide turned to Darwinian theory. "He lied for God and for malice," an Oxford don declared. "A bad case." A scholarly account infused with a rare drama and suspense: read it not only for the science, but to learn what happened to all these wonderful characters.

Bitter bones
Deborah Cadbury does the burgeoning genre of popular science proud with this book. It has all the necessary elements. A human interest story with heroes and villians, an interesting historical setting and a good scientific foundation. The history and science revolves around the gigantic fossilized bones that were being discovered throughout southern England in the early 19th century. Paleontology and Geology were just beginning as sciences. Evolution was a concept but not yet a theory as this was pre-Darwin's ORIGIN OF SPECIES. Indeed in 1812 when an uneducated and simple villager named Mary Anning found a gigantic skeleton on a beach under the Dorset cliffs, there was nothing else to call it but a monster. The word "dinosaur" didn't exist. It was coined in 1842 by Richard Owen, one of the principal characters in this story.

Mary's discovery started the great quest to identify, categorize, name and date these bones. We meet Gideon Mantell, the poor son of a shoemaker who by dint of hard work and education became a country doctor and a member of the scientific community. He is the sympathetic character this story revolves around and the author wants us to embrace him. Mantell was one of THE DINOSAUR HUNTERS which is in fact the more appropriate title used for this book's edition in Britain. Mantell was typical of these amateur paleontologists who were combing southern England in the hopes of making some great discovery. It's true that only some were eccentric but it's also fair to say they all shared an obsession for bones. Mantell filled his home with fossils, developing one of the finest private collections in England. His devotion to the world of dead creatures came at a cost. It drained all the life out of his marriage and his wife left him in 1839. Mantell did at least have some success, discovering the skeleton of what would later be named the Iguanadon. That's about the only success he had though and his life story as told here is one of disappointment and bitterness with a sad ending.

If Mantell is the sympathetic character then the opposite emotional responses should be directed towards Richard Owen. Cadbury paints a very unflattering portrait of the man (Sir Richard eventually) who founded the Natural History Museum, invented "Dinosauria", and was consulted by royalty, prime ministers, and academia on all things fossilized. The author says he was "instinctively predatory" and if Cadbury rather than her publishers chose the title for the book, then it's very appropriate as it's quite clear from her writing who she sees as the TERRIBLE LIZARD.

Mantell is reminiscent of William "Strata" Smith in THE MAP THAT CHANGED THE WORLD. The same disdain as shown by the scientific elite and similar financial difficulties. Smith's story however had an ultimately redeeming end. Not so here. Mantell had to sell his fossil collection to the Natural History Museum and following a carriage accident which badly damaged his spine and left him with severe backaches he declined rapidly. He died from an ovedose of the opiates that he took to relieve the pain. Owen's success had been at the direct expense of Mantell as he had been quite willing to claim Mantell's work as his own. From his well connected position within the scientific community Owen was very effective in preventing recognition for others and garnering it for himself. A bit of poetic justice arrived by way of Thomas Huxley who discredited some of Owen's work (specifically his view on the differences between human and ape brains). In doing so Huxley did in large measure what Owen had done to Mantell. Owen had also argued that Dinosaurs were proof against evolution. He reasoned that since evolution said life progressed it was impossible then that ancient and extinct creatures should be more splendid than those living today. Since fossils proved that dinosaurs were in fact many times more magnificent that the reptiles Owen saw around him, then evolution must be wrong he said. If Huxley embarrassed him then Darwin's stunning and well reasoned theory of evolution published in 1859 pretty much put paid to Owen's arguments. He outlived Darwin but only to his chagrin as he finally accepted the reality of Darwinism and the sting of being bettered scientifically.

Would make a fascinating film
An excellent read, an excellent *story*, told by a very capable author. I actually picked up TERRIBLE LIZARD on a fluke, but I'm glad I did; while a little too light on the science for even my non-scientific tastes, it reads as well as many novels. The story of Gideon Mantell, in particular, is a page-turner, and ultimately a depressing one, while William Buckland's sad and desperate attempts to reconcile reality with Biblical myth is almost funny. I finished the book particularly disliking Richard Owen, and you probably will, too.

I can see this tale, as it's told here, making an interesting film.

My absolute must read of 2001!!!
If you have an interest in fossils, the Regency/Georgian period of English history, or anything Darwin - then I think you will enjoy this book as much as I did. This is my definite must read of 2001.

I picked up the story because of my fascination for Georgian and Regency England, and that is where this book begins. I kept reading because Cadbury has a wonderful style - and tells the story (and it is quite a story) without drama. It unfolds beautifully in fact. From the first discoveries and theories of the rocks and geology of Britain to the final acceptance of a world beyond the bible's theory of creationism.

I just loved how Cadbury refrained from turning this into some kind of tabloid/overly dramatic presentation. The story itself is dramatic enough and has tension, jealousy, pride, and a fair amount of mystery in it to keep the reader thoroughly absorbed. There are 4 main characters in this book - beginning with Mary Anning who without training or even education began to uncover the most amazing fossil shapes in and around Lyme Regis - following in her father's footsteps. Until this time the fossils had been sold without really knowing what they were - but in 1812 she uncovered what could only be the skeleton of a monster and the search for an explanation of what it was and how it got there began. Even at this stage the research was done with rudimentary knowledge of geology and formations - and any explanations conflicted with the accepted church teachings that god created earth in a week. After all - how could monsters have ever roamed the earth in another time? God created all things perfectly in 7 days.

The main defence for the church, the man who tried to marry religious doctrine with the increasing evidence of other generations of strange prehistoric creations, was William Buckland. His role became increasingly more difficult as evidence mounted both in England and in France.

However this is mainly the story of two men - Gideon Mantell, a rather poor English Doctor who dedicated all his spare time to trying to piece together the past from his obsessive fascination with fossils - and his rivalry with the pathologically jealous Richard Owen.

That in itself makes a story to rival the worst excesses of an Aaron Spelling TV series. Owen's strange behaviour and jealous protection of what he felt was his territory ended up crippling more than one avid researcher to the period, and certainly ended up crippling Mantell.

The story comes together so well. Cadbury has carefully pieced together each stage of the journey to discovery of our Dinosaur age, and its influence on later thinkers such as Darwin - as well as deftly writing of the personal troubles of all the main characters in the book. I found this book compulsive reading and highly recommend it. ... Read more

Reviews (4)

A true masterpiece about extinction of Ice Age megafauna
This book is not for the novice. However, it is an excellently organized and drafted presentation of 40 papers on the variously submitted causes for the extinction of many dominant and marvelous animals, from the end of the Ice Age to our own time. Since no formal records were kept on this decline, even though many vanishings occurred during the time of record-keeping people, the scientist is left to investigate and to hypothesize on the cause or causes of the extinctions. Recorded here are many of those investigations and their results. The diversity of opinion is an exciting testament, not only to the ingenuity of the investigators, but to the processes of science itself.

Some investigations are restricted, both in terms of time, area, and species. Others are far broader, even global in scale. It would appear from a perusal of the articles that climate and consequent botanical change, or the coming of man into a successful hunter, were the primary cause(s) of the tragedy. But, as some contributors note, other causes may be relevant as well.

Among the notorious RECENT extinctions discussed are the mammoth, less than 3,500 years ago, the Irish elk, in 500 A.D., or so, the moa of New Zealand, the Aepyornis, or elephant bird, and the giant lemur, both of Madagascar, within possibly the last 200 years. It seems germane that the islands, where man arrived only in the past 200 to 500 years, had the last megafauna to disappear, but, of course, the process goes on even in our own time, as witness the mountain gorilla, black rhinoceros, Javanese Tiger, Tasmanian Tiger, passenger pigeon, etc.

As noted at the outset, some background in Ice Age paleontology is probably necessary for a full enjoyment of this book. If you haven't one, I suggest that you read "The Ice Age Animals of North America", by Ian Lange, and then read this book.

The volume at hand is one of the most fascinating books I have ever read. I'd give it ten stars, if I could. As to persons who have some scientific background, my recommendation is off the scale.

Complete, well organized, easy to read.
Being a French speaker, I didn't have any problem understand it and reading it. The subject is really well covered and written by many scientists. Many causes are explained.

The authoritative source for data and theories
This is the best, most comprehensive treatment of available data (which has grown some) and theories (which have grown but not multiplied) on land vertebrate extinctions of the last 100,000 years. If you are a mammoth/sabertooth extinction hound, this book will feed you better than any other. It does require some specialized knowledge in a few chapters, but the gist is accessible for the educated layperson. It's worth hunting for or buying used.

A more recent offering, though briefer, is "Extinctions in Near Time," Ross MacPhee, ed.

I appreciate the candor in labeling two of the major sections, entitled 'the theoretical marketplace: geologic-climactic models' and 'the theoretical marketplace: cultural models' which encompass variations on each of the two main theories for the extinction.

In addition to theories, the book describes the various mammals as well as their pattern of disappearance region by region worldwide. At 867 pages, it will keep you going for a while, but it's worth every page.

There is only one chapter on birds, only passing references to a tortise, lizard, or fish, and nothing on plants. I would love to find similar treatments for changes in characteristic flora for the same time period.

Interested in extinctions?
This is THE reference on Quaternary extinctions. The beauty of this book is that it isn't just one person's opinion, but a collection of well-researched articles on Quaternary topics by some of the top minds in the field. College students, especially in the biosciences and geography disciplines, BUY THIS BOOK AND KEEP IT HANDY! ... Read more

Amazon.com

One of the fields of study opened up by the collapse of Communism is, oddly enough, that of the distant past: Western archeologists have for the first time in six decades been allowed to explore the Gobi Desert in Mongolia. This is the region explored in the 1930s by the famed Roy Chapman Andrews of the American Museum of Natural History. It is also the region wonderfully described in this stirring book by Michael Novacek, the current curator of the museum's department of vertebrate paleontology, who led the recent expeditions onto the high desert and into the heart of the Cretaceous Period in Asia. In 1993, Novacek's expedition found an astonishing trove of fossils in a wasteland called Ukhaa Tolgod, not too far from the Flaming Cliffs where Andrews made his most important finds. But, as with all great travel adventure stories, getting to Ukhaa Tolgod is the real tale. ... Read more

Reviews (9)

Return to Xanadu: A Paleontologist's Paradise
.....Only once in a great while does a book appear which makes a great leap forward in our understanding of paleontology and the per-history of the planet, and dinosaurs in particular. Such a book is "Dinosaurs of the Flaming Cliffs." It is an account of the American Museum of Natural History/Mongolian expeditions to the Gobi desert in 1990-95, a place first explored by Roy Chapman Andrews of the AMNH in the 1920s, where the first scientifically studied dinosaur eggs were discovered.

.....Dr. Michael J. Novacek, the expedition leader and Sr. Vice President and Provost of Science for the Museum, gives us a riveting first-person account of these explorations, alternating with detailed chapters on the paleontological discoveries which they made. Moving from collections of bones to an appraisal of how the animals (reptiles and mammals) lived and died, he gives us a new understanding, based on discoveries still being analyzed, of the implications to existing life on the planet, including homo sapiens. Including in his analysis all of biology as well as geology, Novacek giges us pause to consider what will survive on earth after a similar passage of time. All this without leaving out the human element: 1990s Mitsubishis are just as prone to getting stuck in the mud or sand as were 1920s Dodges!
.....The expeditions start at the Flaming Cliffs in Mongolia's Gobi Desert, where the Andrews/Granger expeditions made their most important finds, and go on to desert locations, mountains and canyons such as the Nemegt Valley, with names like Tugrugeen Shireh, Kheerman Tsav, and Ukhaa Tolgod. This last location they called Xanadu, after Kubla Khan's famous "pleasure dome," because it was such a treasure trove of new discoveries. And they were not only dinosaurs, but often tiny mammals, our true ancestors.
.....Dr. Novacek presents us with the greatest assemblage of new paleontology discoveries currently available to the average reader, beautifully and amply illustrated by Ed Heck of the Museum staff.
.....No one interested in paleontology and dinosaurs can afford not to read this book. Nor can anyone interested in the course of life on planet earth. Dr. Novacek and his colleagues' work is still going on.
.....This book is highly recommended for everyone from high school to old age. Public libraries should have it in their science collections. And don't neglect "Time Traveler," a later book also by Dr. Novacek.
.....We can only hope that explorers like this will keep on going (to use Roy Chapman Andrews' phrase) to "the ends of the earth," and come back to tell us about it!

Dinosaurs of the Flaming Cliffs
Dinosaurs of the Flaming Cliffs written by Michael Novacek is a thrilling account of one of the largest dinosaur expeditions and finds of the 20th century.

Hidden in the Gobi desert in Mongolia are the famous Flaming Cliffs and within these cliffs are a multitude of dinosaur fossil remains. This site was known about earlier but with politics as they are not until 1993 did extensive documentation of the site occur. The American Museum of Natural History and the Mongolian Academy of Sciences teamed up to explore this site in the Gobi desert. This is by far one of the most extraordinary and miraculous fossil discoveries in history to be unearthed of Cretaceous dinosaurs and mammals. So many, in fact, that it has already helped to reshap our understanding of the dinosaur age.

I found this book to be a very easy and straight forward read. The narrative has excitement and flows well giving the reader valuable information at a steady clip. What I found interesting was the size of some of the animals found in the Gobi desert region. Whether sauropods were partial to watercress salads or treetop foliage, the question concerning the manner in which huge, absurdly small-headed beasts ate invariably comes up. The long necks of sauropods remaids one of giraffes, suggesting that these dinosaurs raised their serpentine necks into the canopy for browsing among the treetops. The necks of these sauropods varied from twenty to well over thirty feet long, making for interesting movement of the body or posture. There is a general discussion within the book that gives details of body shape to eating habits... also, the tooth patterns in the skulls help in identifing what and how they ate. Could dinosaurs have used stone to grind up the greenery that the consumed? Of course, some did. Were dinosaur warm-blooded, again of couse they have to be, is some cases. What about blood pressure in and 80 ton land animal are all and more of the questions posed in this book.

If you read this book it will pose questions about dinosaurs, but also, it will give plausable answers. What follows in the story is a journey to the Gobi and the find of the dinosaur Xanadu. The story enfolds the paleontolical lessons that can be appreciated and compares life today with that of long ago making a greater triumph for the history of life.

Interesting, educational, and fascinating in detail of a life long ago past.

So You Want To Be A Paleontologist
Michael Novacek's Dinosaurs Of The Flaming Cliffs is an excellent introduction to paleontological fieldwork and expeditions AND to the science of paleontology. The chapters alternate between the trials and tribulations of each new field season and the basics of geology, paleontology, and evolutionary theory. There is the occasional minor error [which I cannot relocate and since I just read a copy of the hardback, I cannot say if those errors have been corrected in the paperback], but these do not distract from the overall excellence of the book. This book predates the confirmation of the discovery of the end of the Cretaceous impact crater in the Yucatan, so the discussion on the mass extinction at the end of the Cretaceous will seem a little out of date to the knowledgable reader. I look forward to reading Time Traveler, Novaceks newest book. I highly recommend Dinosaurs of the Flaming Cliffs to any fan of paleontology.

An essential update
Growing up in New York with the American Museum, I was an early dino fan. I made my parents get all the dinosaur books I could find, and they all had three pictures in common. The first was a poor Brontosaur being killed by an Allosaur (preferably squashing said Allosaur in it's death throes). The second was a Tyrranosaur and Triceratops locked in combat through eternity (said Triceratops preferably avenging the death of an innocent duckbill at the jaws of said Tyrranosaur). And the third was always a Protoceratops defending it's eggs from a vicious Oviraptor - the third in the unholy carnivorous dinosaur trinity, because we had never heard of Velociraptor/Utahraptor.

This was only twenty years ago, and recent discoveries have turned this whole third scenario on it's head.

The American Museum's expeditions to Mongolia have changed everything we know about Oviraptor. This one is a must for all dinosaur fans, taking us through what the expedition has learned about Mongolian dinosaurs since the seventies and describing the harrowing conditions that the expedition had to face.

Good for armchair travelers and dino fans alike
Two books in one: a look at the Cretaceous inhabitants of the Gobi, and an adventure narrative of the archaeological teams that study them. Read this to get a feeling of what it's like to be a field archaeologist in one of the most remote desert areas in the world. ... Read more

Book Description

Mammals first evolved at about the same time as dinosaurs, and their story is perhaps the more fascinating of the two--in part because it is also our own story. In this literate and entertaining book, eminent naturalist David Rains Wallace brings the saga of ancient mammals to a general audience for the first time. Using artist Rudolph Zallinger's majestic Age of Mammals mural at the Peabody Museum as a frame for his narrative, Wallace deftly moves over varied terrain--drawing from history, science, evolutionary theory, and art history--to present a lively account of fossil discoveries and an overview of what those discoveries have revealed about early mammals and their evolution.

In these pages we encounter towering mammoths, tiny horses, giant-clawed ground sloths, whales with legs, uintatheres, zhelestids, and other exotic extinct creatures as well as the scientists who discovered and wondered about their remains. We meet such memorable figures as Georges Cuvier, Richard Owen, Edward D. Cope, George Gaylord Simpson, and Stephen Jay Gould and learn of their heated disputes, from Cuvier's and Owen's fights with early evolutionists to present controversies over the Late Cretaceous mass extinction. Wallace's own lifelong interest in evolution is reflected in the book's evocative and engaging style and in the personal experiences he expertly weaves into the tale, providing an altogether expansive perspective on what Darwin described as the "grandeur" of evolution. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Useful and interesting
Benton manages to write a thorough text on various vertebrate groups and their evolutionary trends, mentioning specific important species and basic morphology without making the book as dry as a bone. As one can always state about books that are overviews, one could wish for more thorough coverage of personal groups of interest, but as an overview, this is a great book. The diagrams and phylogenetic charts are very helpful, and the case studies that are provided in offset boxes are very interesting.

One major complaint about the book is the number of typos and mislabeled diagrams...it can become rather confusing. I have taken a pen to the book and with careful reading, re-reading and cross referencing, have corrected the errors in my own copy to save me the brain strain...but on the whole, this book does what one would want from it. ... Read more