Quest for the African Dinosaurs: Ancient Roots of the Modern World

A leading American paleontologist records the landmark discoveries he has made on the continent of Africa, addressing, at the same time, many questions about the world of paleontology in general

Excavating in the highlands above Africa's Lake Malawi, paleontologist Jacobs unearthed the remains of a strange crocodile and three dinosaurs, one of which provided a missing link in the fossil record. He uses the story of his discoveries to depict Africa as it was 100 million years ago, when the continent was breaking away from the rest of the world land mass. Taking readers on-site to observe excavation and field work, he elucidates the process of dinosaur identification and the intricacies of their anatomies. Later, visiting a fossil bed in Cameroon's Koum Basin, he notes that the African fossil record covers a great deal of dinosaur history but is frustratingly spotty and incomplete. His own research with the titanosaurid sauropod Malawi-saurus , which chronicles an unbroken 79-million-year history, fills in some of the blanks. This fine book is an important volume for dinosaur fans.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Some important side effects of the popularity of dinosaurs have been to teach many nonscientists about science and to attract students to scientific fields. Paleontologist Jacobs (an expert on the tiny mammals that coexisted with the dinosaurs) packs a huge amount of interesting scientific information into this book and supplements it with entertaining travel stories from Malawi and Cameroon, a dose of African history, informative illustrations, and a bit of scientific skepticism. Lest we think dinosaurs are just a fad in the United States, an interesting subtext tells how Jacobs's paleontological expeditions captured the imagination of local people and led a few African students to study paleontology. Jacobs recounts his adventures with exemplary clarity and a quirky sense of humor and, in the end, produces a good dinosaur book for popular collections.
- Amy Brunvand, Fort Lewis Coll. Lib., Durango, Col.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.