Synopsis
An up-to-date account of the most recent discoveries made about dinosaurs by a new generation of enthusiastic paleontologists details new evidence about previously unknown dinosaur behaviors and theories about their demise. 30,000 first printing.
Reviews
These are exciting times in the field of dinosaur paleontology--new discoveries, techniques, interpretation and controversies. Lessem, founder of the Dinosaur Society, presents a lively sampling of current and significant work on dinosaurs worldwide. He introduces taphonomy, the study of circumstances of dinosaur death and preservation, and cladistics, a classification system that helps define relationships among dinosaurs. We meet scientists Robert Bakker, Peter Dodson, John Ostrum, Phil Currie, Paul Soreno, Jack Horner and others who have upended the traditional world of dinosaur studies with theories of warm-bloodedness, nurture and migration. Examining plausible causes of extinction, Lessem tends to support climatic change, though he concedes a possible catastrophic meteor impact. This is the best book on the subject since Robert Bakker's Dinosaur Heresies and a treat for buffs. Illustrations not seen by PW.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.
A Baedeker to the sprawling, brawling world of dinosaur research. Lessem, a science journalist who has founded the Dinosaur Foundation to promote the study of every kid's favorite beasties, delivers a comprehensive survey that rarely takes sides. That's no mean feat, for dinosaur studies are in an uproar. Depending on who's talking--or shouting--dinosaurs were either swift or slow, smart or stupid, hot- or cold-blooded, solitary or communal. Lessem reports it all, which gives his book a loose-jointed feel (like one of those fossil skeletons that barely hangs together) but nonetheless catches the heady energy running through the field these days. The scope is worldwide. In China, paleontologists make spectacular finds in a repressive academic environment. In Nova Scotia, Paul Olsen studies an ``event''--an asteroid-Earth collision--that may have aided the rise of the dinosaurs. In Argentina, Paul Serino hunts for the first dinosaur and finds a possible candidate. Everywhere looms the neon-bright, pony-tailed, cowboy-hatted presence of Robert Bakker, the media hotshot who popularized the idea that dinosaurs were hotblooded beasts that eventually evolved into our neighborhood songbirds. Lessem, while ever the diplomat, seems more partial to soft-spoken Jack Horner, an expert on fossil eggs and nests who sees duckbilled dinosaurs as paragons of mother love. Enjoyable if unfocused, offering ample evidence that paleontological research, which once seemed dry as dust and cold as clay, is now a red-hot bone of contention. -- Copyright ©1992, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
Dinosaur paleontology has been a sensationalist science since the beginning; from the Crystal Palace dinner inside a model Iguanodon, to the Cope and March dinosaur wars, to Roy C. Andrews's dinosaur egg auction. Modern dinosaur paleontologists have carried on the tradition of public spectacle and controversy with the discovery of ever huger dinosaurs (given names like "Ultrasaurus"), flamboyant comet-impact extinction theories, and new interpretations of the link between dinosaurs and birds. In describing the current research of some famous and some less well-known paleontologists, the author takes a noticeably accepting and uncritical attitude toward both meticulous and dubious theories and projects. Dinosaur fans may find this book interesting, but a bit misleading. For general science collections. Illustrations not seen.
- Amy Brunvand, Fort Lewis Coll. Lib., Durango, Col.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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