Discovering Dinosaurs: Evolution, Extinction, and the Lessons of Prehistory, Expanded and Updated

by Mark Norell, Lowell Dingus

Expanded and updated

This handsome book addresses the questions of what the fossil record tells us about the evolution and extinction of dinosaurs, what their relationship to the rest of the organic world was, and what we can learn from them about our own place in the history of life on our planet. This edition has been updated throughout, with a new final chapter that details exciting recent discoveries such as the feathered dinosaur fossils in China.

ONE LINE IS MISSING FROM PAGE XIII OF THIS BOOK. THE COMPLETE LINE SHOULD

"We hope that the following pages will introduce you to some of these questions."

This error will be corrected in future editions of the book.

Genres: Nonfiction

239 pages, Paperback

First published April 8, 2000

Reviews

[Herman Diaz · Rating 5 out of 5]

The best dino Q&A book ( www.amazon.com/review/R1BP8LPRNRAT01/... ): 5/5

Short version: If you must have a dino Q&A book, get Norell et al.'s "Discovering Dinosaurs: Evolution, Extinction, and the Lessons of Prehistory, Expanded and Updated" (henceforth DD). It's as good as dino Q&A books get.

Long version: Read on.

I generally dislike the dino Q&A genre for 3 main reasons: 1) Redundant questions; 2) Vague answers; 3) Bad Q&As (I.e. Stupid or misleading questions & misleading or wrong answers). DD is the ultimate exception to said genre because it does the exact opposite of all that & MUCH more:
-Precise questions? Check! It helps that DD focuses on quality over quantity (unlike my next review's book, which features "more than 600 questions about dinosaurs").
-Concise answers? Check! Again, it helps that DD focuses on quality over quantity (E.g. DD does in 1 Q&A & 4 pages what takes my next review's book 26 Q&As & 15 pages to do).*
-Good Q&As? Check times infinity! As far as I know, they were accurate at the time of publication, & are still mostly accurate now.** It helps that Norell et al. are the curators of the American Museum of Natural History's "Hall of Dinosaurs" & thus know what they're doing (unlike the authors of my next review's book, who are neither experts nor even collaborators with experts). & if that's not good enough, DD is basically 2 books in 1, the 1st section listing the Q&As & the 2nd/3rd/4th section describing the dinos on exhibit in the AMNH's "Hall of Dinosaurs"/the AMNH's dino discoveries from the 1990s/the AMNH's dino expeditions from 1897-2000, respectively.

If I could, I'd give DD an extra half star for being extra authoritative. My only gripes are the lack of life reconstructions (The photos & drawings of fossils are great, but I like it best when a dino book is also illustrated with life reconstructions based on said fossils) & the sit-on-the-fence attitude of Norell et al. when it comes to controversial topics: 1st, see the Mallison quote for why said attitude annoys me; Then, compare the Norell et al. quote to the GSPaul quote from around the same time. However, for the purposes of this review, I'll round up to 5/5.

*I'm specifically referring to Q&A #7 in DD ("Why are birds a type of dinosaur?") & 26 Chapter 9 Q&As in my next review's book.

**Google "Dinosaurs Explained - YouTube" for updated versions of DD's Q&As.

Quoting Mallison ( http://dinosaurpalaeo.wordpress.com/2... ): "With regards to physiology and in the final chapter on extinction Steve manages to present the highly controversial topics well, the evidence provided by all sides (as opposed to the BADNits with their lack of evidence; they get ignored), then finally sticks his neck out by hanging his hat on an option. Dinosaurs were, Steve concludes, what I term "functional endotherms", whatever the details and tiny differences from birds and mammals, and were killed off either directly and indirectly by the asteroid hit, or with ample help from it.I applaud Steve's decision to not sit on the fence out of a misguided sense of having to report evenly or some such nonsense. The evidence is clearly not evenly supportive of hypotheses, and Steve does a very good job of showing why that is the case. For a scientist that may not be necessary, but many laypeople will read this book, too."

Quoting Norell et al.: "Were nonavian dinosaurs warm-blooded? The evidence is still equivocal, and most claims that all dinosaurs are "warm-blooded" are speculative. There is no clear-cut evidence that dinosaurs were either cold-blooded or warmblooded, except that dinosaurs evolved endothermy sometime in their history, as documented by living birds."

Quoting GSPaul (See "The Scientific American Book of Dinosaurs"): "Reese Barrick has been involved in leading-edge research that could have only been dreamed of in the 1970s, using bone isotope ratios to more directly measure the thermodynamics of dinosaurs. His essay combines this chemical analysis with other lines of evidence to conclude, as have most other researchers, that Bakker was correct: dinosaurs did not have reptilian energetics, and they consumed and burned oxygen at rates far higher than seen in modern reptiles."

[Peter Tillman · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of the better pop-dinosaur books I've seen

I thoroughly enjoyed the hardcover edition of this book. I haven't seen the paperback, but I thought it would be useful to cross-reference to the hardback, since Amazon didn't: Discovering Dinosaurs: in the American Museum of Natural History

The review there is close to my own reaction: this is a first-rate book. And it's available for all of $4 used. The book is a bit out-of-date -- it was published in 1995. Unless you're a specialist, you'll be fine with this book. The bones don't change, and the American Museum of Natural History still has the planet's best dinosaur collection. Handsomely produced, well-illustrated and well-written. Go for it!

[Cottageunderhill · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was a little more young adult-ish than what I wanted. A good introduction but definitely not something for a community college library.