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The Story of the Dinosaurs in 25 Discoveries: Amazing Fossils and the People Who Found Them
Today, any kid can rattle off the names of dozens of dinosaurs. But it took centuries of scientific effort―and a lot of luck―to discover and establish the diversity of dinosaur species we now know. How did we learn that Triceratops had three horns? Why don’t many paleontologists consider Brontosaurus a valid species? What convinced scientists that modern birds are relatives of ancient Velociraptor ?
In The Story of the Dinosaurs in 25 Discoveries , Donald R. Prothero tells the fascinating stories behind the most important fossil finds and the intrepid researchers who unearthed them. In twenty-five vivid vignettes, he weaves together dramatic tales of dinosaur discoveries with what modern science now knows about the species to which they belong. Prothero takes us from eighteenth-century sightings of colossal bones taken for biblical giants through recent discoveries of enormous predators even larger than Tyrannosaurus . He recounts the escapades of the larger-than-life personalities who made modern paleontology, including scientific rivalries like the nineteenth-century “Bone Wars.” Prothero also details how to draw the boundaries between species and explores debates such as whether dinosaurs had feathers, explaining the findings that settled them or keep them going. Throughout, he offers a clear and rigorous look at what paleontologists consider sound interpretation of evidence. An essential read for any dinosaur lover, this book teaches us to see an ancient world ruled by giant majestic creatures anew.
In The Story of the Dinosaurs in 25 Discoveries , Donald R. Prothero tells the fascinating stories behind the most important fossil finds and the intrepid researchers who unearthed them. In twenty-five vivid vignettes, he weaves together dramatic tales of dinosaur discoveries with what modern science now knows about the species to which they belong. Prothero takes us from eighteenth-century sightings of colossal bones taken for biblical giants through recent discoveries of enormous predators even larger than Tyrannosaurus . He recounts the escapades of the larger-than-life personalities who made modern paleontology, including scientific rivalries like the nineteenth-century “Bone Wars.” Prothero also details how to draw the boundaries between species and explores debates such as whether dinosaurs had feathers, explaining the findings that settled them or keep them going. Throughout, he offers a clear and rigorous look at what paleontologists consider sound interpretation of evidence. An essential read for any dinosaur lover, this book teaches us to see an ancient world ruled by giant majestic creatures anew.
488 pages, Hardcover
Published July 16, 2019
48 people are currently reading
500 people want to read
About the author
Donald R. Prothero
54 books146 followersDonald R. Prothero is a Professor of Geology at Occidental College and Lecturer in Geobiology at the California Institute of Technology. He teaches Physical and Historical Geology, Sedimentary Geology, and Paleontology. His specialties are mammalian paleontology and magnetic stratigraphy of the Cenozoic. His current research focuses on the dating of the climatic changes that occurred between 30 and 40 million years ago, using the technique of magnetic stratigraphy. Dr. Prothero has been a Guggenheim and NSF Fellow, a Fellow of the Linnean Society, and in 1991 received the Schuchert Award of the Paleontological Society for outstanding paleontologist under the age of 40, the same award won by the renowned paleontologist Stephen Jay Gould. He has authored or co-edited numerous books, including Horns, Tusks, Hooves and Flippers: The Evolution of Hoofed Mammals, the best-selling textbook from McGraw-Hill, Evolution of the Earth, Evolution: What the Fossils Say & Why it Matters, Bringing Fossils to Life, After the Dinosaurs, and the textbook Sedimentary Geology. He is also a Technical Editor of the Journal of Paleontology.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 30 reviews
May 20, 2020
Excellent book! Now I just need to write up my 7 pages of notes....
OK, here's a great anecdote to open with: in 1888, paleontologist John Bell Hatcher was collecting fossils in eastern Wyoming for Othniel C Marsh of Bone Wars fame. Hatcher happened to meet a local rancher, who told him that one of his cowboys had spotted a huge skull weathering out of the bank of a wash, just out of reach. So the cowboy *lassoed* the huge horns and pulled down the skull! A unique way to collect a specimen. Thus was Triceratops discovered -- the Cover Dino for this book.
Unfortunately, the skull shattered when it fell. Hatcher was able to recover the rest of it, and (eventually) reassemble the thing. It was *enormous*, weighing over a ton. Triceratops had the largest skulls known of any land animal!
Hatcher then went to work for Princeton in 1893. He proposed a collecting trip to Patagonia, in the footsteps of Darwin, and left on the long voyage in 1896. He turned out to be an accomplished card shark, cleaned out his fellow passengers, and made enough money gambling to finance the 1896 expedition, and two more in 1897-98! Whoa!
Birds are descended from dinosaurs: this idea dates back to T.H. Huxley, "Darwin's Bulldog," in 1863. He made a pretty convincing case, based on the discovery of Archaeopteryx, the first fossil bird found, discovered in 1861. The idea somehow fell out of favor in the 1870s, and was almost forgotten until John Ostrom https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Os... revived it in the 1970s, by comparing Archaeopteryx to Velociraptor (there's a cute story here, too: NOT the movie-star critter! See Note #1). A rump group fought Ostrom’s revival of this old idea, but the discovery of Chinese feathered dinosaurs, starting in 1986, pretty well cinched Ostrom’s case. A long series of discoveries of feathered dinosaurs followed, some flying, most not, and it’s now universally accepted that birds are, indeed, the last survivors of the great mass extinction that killed off all the other dinosaurs (and many other species) 66 million years ago, at the end of the Cretaceous. And that many dinosaurs-- possibly even T. Rex! -- had feathers.
OK, still 3-4 pages of notes. And Prothero does have a couple of annoying tics. One in particular: his repeated use of “primitive” vs. “advanced” critters, for what he means as ancestral vs. descendants. Not a big deal, I guess -- but it grated on me every time: his use implies teleological reasoning, which is a no-no in modern science. And his constant criticisms, bordering on slander, of private collectors of fossils. Like, the pros should have a monopoly? And museum basements are full of stuff they've never even gotten around to uncrating? Bah.
So, 4.5 stars, and he tells a a LOT of good stories. But I'd be here for a week if I tried to retail all the good ones. Barnum Brown! Roy Chapman Andrews! Basically, if you are a dino nut (like me) and like to read stories of science in the field (which is what I did) -- this is the book for you! Have fun.
OK, here's a great anecdote to open with: in 1888, paleontologist John Bell Hatcher was collecting fossils in eastern Wyoming for Othniel C Marsh of Bone Wars fame. Hatcher happened to meet a local rancher, who told him that one of his cowboys had spotted a huge skull weathering out of the bank of a wash, just out of reach. So the cowboy *lassoed* the huge horns and pulled down the skull! A unique way to collect a specimen. Thus was Triceratops discovered -- the Cover Dino for this book.
Unfortunately, the skull shattered when it fell. Hatcher was able to recover the rest of it, and (eventually) reassemble the thing. It was *enormous*, weighing over a ton. Triceratops had the largest skulls known of any land animal!
Hatcher then went to work for Princeton in 1893. He proposed a collecting trip to Patagonia, in the footsteps of Darwin, and left on the long voyage in 1896. He turned out to be an accomplished card shark, cleaned out his fellow passengers, and made enough money gambling to finance the 1896 expedition, and two more in 1897-98! Whoa!
Birds are descended from dinosaurs: this idea dates back to T.H. Huxley, "Darwin's Bulldog," in 1863. He made a pretty convincing case, based on the discovery of Archaeopteryx, the first fossil bird found, discovered in 1861. The idea somehow fell out of favor in the 1870s, and was almost forgotten until John Ostrom https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Os... revived it in the 1970s, by comparing Archaeopteryx to Velociraptor (there's a cute story here, too: NOT the movie-star critter! See Note #1). A rump group fought Ostrom’s revival of this old idea, but the discovery of Chinese feathered dinosaurs, starting in 1986, pretty well cinched Ostrom’s case. A long series of discoveries of feathered dinosaurs followed, some flying, most not, and it’s now universally accepted that birds are, indeed, the last survivors of the great mass extinction that killed off all the other dinosaurs (and many other species) 66 million years ago, at the end of the Cretaceous. And that many dinosaurs-- possibly even T. Rex! -- had feathers.
OK, still 3-4 pages of notes. And Prothero does have a couple of annoying tics. One in particular: his repeated use of “primitive” vs. “advanced” critters, for what he means as ancestral vs. descendants. Not a big deal, I guess -- but it grated on me every time: his use implies teleological reasoning, which is a no-no in modern science. And his constant criticisms, bordering on slander, of private collectors of fossils. Like, the pros should have a monopoly? And museum basements are full of stuff they've never even gotten around to uncrating? Bah.
So, 4.5 stars, and he tells a a LOT of good stories. But I'd be here for a week if I tried to retail all the good ones. Barnum Brown! Roy Chapman Andrews! Basically, if you are a dino nut (like me) and like to read stories of science in the field (which is what I did) -- this is the book for you! Have fun.
December 10, 2019
Two things worried me about this book. One was the title. Publishers love the 'topic in n chunks' style for some reason, but often such books feel too bitty and insubstantial. And then there have been quite a lot of palaeontology books recently, making dinosaurs seem old hat. But I needn't have worried. After a couple of pages, Donald Prothero had me hooked. As his easy style introduced the earliest fossil discoveries, from a giant salamander originally assumed to be an antediluvian man (even though he or she would have had a head shape more suited to a Dr Who alien) to the knee-end of a dinosaur thigh bone that briefly gave the first identified dinosaur (megalosaurus) the Latin name 'Scrotum humanum', learning about our gradually growing understanding of the dinosaurs with Prothero was like attending the best kind of dinner party, replete with entertaining stories.
Although Prothero does give us plenty of information about the various dinosaurs covered (the 25 chapters are based around 25 specific species, including all the old favourites, and some less well-known, such as cryolophosaurus and heterodontosaurus, there are plenty of other species introduced along the way), the reason the book works so well is that he drives his narrative from the individuals involved in making the discoveries and attempting to piece together what was represented from sometimes very fragmentary finds.
So, for example, in that first chapter on megalosaurus, we see how it was assumed that it walked on four legs, looking something like a giant armoured crocodile (hence the totally inaccurate representation amongst the Crystal Palace concrete dinosaurs). We discover the contributions of William Buckland (a renowned eccentric who famously tried to eat pretty well every living thing) and Richard Owen, while the second chapter, focusing on Gideon Mantell, includes the story of a dinner being hosted inside the shell used to cast an iguanodon figure. And so it goes through the 25 chapters with a whole host of eccentrics (palaeontology seems to attract more than few of these), and even a few normal scientists helping us to get a far better feel for how the discoveries were made and interpreted than a collection of dry information about dry bones would ever have achieved.
A must for any dinosaur-lover, or anyone who enjoys a history of science that has a distinctly human touch.
Although Prothero does give us plenty of information about the various dinosaurs covered (the 25 chapters are based around 25 specific species, including all the old favourites, and some less well-known, such as cryolophosaurus and heterodontosaurus, there are plenty of other species introduced along the way), the reason the book works so well is that he drives his narrative from the individuals involved in making the discoveries and attempting to piece together what was represented from sometimes very fragmentary finds.
So, for example, in that first chapter on megalosaurus, we see how it was assumed that it walked on four legs, looking something like a giant armoured crocodile (hence the totally inaccurate representation amongst the Crystal Palace concrete dinosaurs). We discover the contributions of William Buckland (a renowned eccentric who famously tried to eat pretty well every living thing) and Richard Owen, while the second chapter, focusing on Gideon Mantell, includes the story of a dinner being hosted inside the shell used to cast an iguanodon figure. And so it goes through the 25 chapters with a whole host of eccentrics (palaeontology seems to attract more than few of these), and even a few normal scientists helping us to get a far better feel for how the discoveries were made and interpreted than a collection of dry information about dry bones would ever have achieved.
A must for any dinosaur-lover, or anyone who enjoys a history of science that has a distinctly human touch.
July 21, 2020
This one is quite an expensive tome, so I was pleased when the library got it for me in ebook! It’s not quite as good as being able to see the full-colour, full-size illustrations, but I’m not very visual so I was here for the text anyway. I could get a quick look at the interesting ones, and that’s enough for me; I recommend experiencing it in colour, though, and probably in pbook form instead of ebook.
Overall, it was… pretty much as I’d expect, from a fairly generalised dinosaur book: there was a lot that I already knew, with some nuggets that I didn’t, and different interpretations of some fossils while trying to portray a fairly broad consensus. There are some gossipy stories about palaeontologists and work in the field, enough to give you a little taste of the conditions fossils get collected in and the history around their study.
There’s nothing particularly surprising, if you’re interested in dinosaurs and tend to pounce on books about them… but for me it was nice to wander through the Cretaceous landscapes for a while and let it wash over me. It’d be great if you were interested in dinosaurs as a kid, don’t know much about them now, and would like a refresher that brings up to date whilst being informative and fairly thorough.
Overall, it was… pretty much as I’d expect, from a fairly generalised dinosaur book: there was a lot that I already knew, with some nuggets that I didn’t, and different interpretations of some fossils while trying to portray a fairly broad consensus. There are some gossipy stories about palaeontologists and work in the field, enough to give you a little taste of the conditions fossils get collected in and the history around their study.
There’s nothing particularly surprising, if you’re interested in dinosaurs and tend to pounce on books about them… but for me it was nice to wander through the Cretaceous landscapes for a while and let it wash over me. It’d be great if you were interested in dinosaurs as a kid, don’t know much about them now, and would like a refresher that brings up to date whilst being informative and fairly thorough.
January 29, 2023
Se potessi darei sei stelle!
Donald R. Prothero, in questo libro, non ripercorre solo la storia dei dinosauri, ma quella dell'intera Paleontologia tra Guerre dei Fossili, Spionaggi per l'antenato della CIA, esplorazioni degne di Indiana Jones e il Rinascimento dei Dinosauri. Veniamo immersi nelle vite di alcuni dei paleontologi e collezionisti di fossili che hanno fatto la storia della scienza, da Mary Anning a John Ostrom.
Ci sarebbe materiale per fare non so quanti film ma dopo Jurassic World (abbiate pazienza) i film sui dinosauri sono impantanati nella tamarraggine: la bestia satanica dell'ultimo film mi ha provocato un'ulcera.
Comunque tornando ai dinosauri, il libro comincia con le primissime specie scoperte, come lo Scrotum humanum (poi chiamato Megalosauro), fino alle ultime novità come il Deinocherius. Ovviamente passando anche per le specie più iconiche.
Con un approccio a tratti molto conservativo, Prothero ne ricostruisce la biologia e mostra anche come è cambiata la loro rappresentazione nel tempo, prendendo in considerazione anche i prodotti per l'intrattenimento. Ci sono un po' di frecciatine, qualcuna meritata, a Jurassic Park però allo stesso tempo vengono riconosciuti anche i meriti dei primi film: aver fatto entrare i dinosauri nella cultura pop e aver modificato radicalmente l'idea che il pubblico generalista aveva di loro.
Come per il primo libro, anche qui la prosa è molto efficace e adatta anche ai non naturalisti.
Nota importante: si tratta di una panoramica sui dinosauri e su tutto il mondo che ruota attorno a loro tra trafficanti, interpretazioni dei fossili frutto di bias ideologici (mi ricorderò per sempre il povero T Rex che per alcuni è solo un saprofago, per i creazionisti addirittura usava i denti per aprire le noci di cocco), documentari farlocchi e tanto altro. Quindi magari per chi è già più specializzato potrebbe risultare ripetitivo.
Rimane però uno dei migliori libri di divulgazione che io abbia mai letto.
Donald R. Prothero, in questo libro, non ripercorre solo la storia dei dinosauri, ma quella dell'intera Paleontologia tra Guerre dei Fossili, Spionaggi per l'antenato della CIA, esplorazioni degne di Indiana Jones e il Rinascimento dei Dinosauri. Veniamo immersi nelle vite di alcuni dei paleontologi e collezionisti di fossili che hanno fatto la storia della scienza, da Mary Anning a John Ostrom.
Ci sarebbe materiale per fare non so quanti film ma dopo Jurassic World (abbiate pazienza) i film sui dinosauri sono impantanati nella tamarraggine: la bestia satanica dell'ultimo film mi ha provocato un'ulcera.
Comunque tornando ai dinosauri, il libro comincia con le primissime specie scoperte, come lo Scrotum humanum (poi chiamato Megalosauro), fino alle ultime novità come il Deinocherius. Ovviamente passando anche per le specie più iconiche.
Con un approccio a tratti molto conservativo, Prothero ne ricostruisce la biologia e mostra anche come è cambiata la loro rappresentazione nel tempo, prendendo in considerazione anche i prodotti per l'intrattenimento. Ci sono un po' di frecciatine, qualcuna meritata, a Jurassic Park però allo stesso tempo vengono riconosciuti anche i meriti dei primi film: aver fatto entrare i dinosauri nella cultura pop e aver modificato radicalmente l'idea che il pubblico generalista aveva di loro.
Come per il primo libro, anche qui la prosa è molto efficace e adatta anche ai non naturalisti.
Nota importante: si tratta di una panoramica sui dinosauri e su tutto il mondo che ruota attorno a loro tra trafficanti, interpretazioni dei fossili frutto di bias ideologici (mi ricorderò per sempre il povero T Rex che per alcuni è solo un saprofago, per i creazionisti addirittura usava i denti per aprire le noci di cocco), documentari farlocchi e tanto altro. Quindi magari per chi è già più specializzato potrebbe risultare ripetitivo.
Rimane però uno dei migliori libri di divulgazione che io abbia mai letto.
August 14, 2020
Dinosaurs are cool.
A book on dinosaurs has a low threshold to jump for me. It helps that Prothero is a paleontologist who loves to tell us about discovering them.
This book is about 25 dinosaur discoveries (well, multiples of 25 as we get a lot of extra ones jammed in there). There’s a lot to think about, especially as perspectives have changed over time:
We have come a long way from Mantell's or Owen's early notions of a giant saurian pachyderm to the more delicately built biped and quadrupled we known today.
Turns out we can reasonably speculate on a wide range of features, like air chambers and hollow bones to make dinosaurs lighter (similar to their avian descendants), the environment they inhabited, growth rates, colour, whether they were hot or cold blooded, how they stayed warm, or whether they were diurnal or nocturnal. Basically this review could be a very long list of things, right down to how they stood (thanks to looking at ossified tendons in their tails).
I can’t personally judge how accurate this all is, and would just note he ends with a teaser on what he believes caused their extinction, before telling you to read The Story of the Earth in 25 Rocks on that (appreciate the cross book marketing there).
If I did have a criticism, there is a tension between the different kinds of dinosaurs, and how they were discovered, with the same major figures repeating themselves. Cope and Marsh are your classics, but a few others get in there. The result is a bit of jumping round and backtracking in time and space and, to be heretical, other than the Austro-Hungarian wildcard Nospcsa and (perhaps) the aforementioned combatants in the Bone Wars, none of them really moved me. However, Prothero covers a lot of ground quickly and it’s a good book for dipping your toes in. Not just about dinosaurs, but how we discover life and the world it existed in.
And dinosaurs are cool.
A book on dinosaurs has a low threshold to jump for me. It helps that Prothero is a paleontologist who loves to tell us about discovering them.
This book is about 25 dinosaur discoveries (well, multiples of 25 as we get a lot of extra ones jammed in there). There’s a lot to think about, especially as perspectives have changed over time:
We have come a long way from Mantell's or Owen's early notions of a giant saurian pachyderm to the more delicately built biped and quadrupled we known today.
Turns out we can reasonably speculate on a wide range of features, like air chambers and hollow bones to make dinosaurs lighter (similar to their avian descendants), the environment they inhabited, growth rates, colour, whether they were hot or cold blooded, how they stayed warm, or whether they were diurnal or nocturnal. Basically this review could be a very long list of things, right down to how they stood (thanks to looking at ossified tendons in their tails).
I can’t personally judge how accurate this all is, and would just note he ends with a teaser on what he believes caused their extinction, before telling you to read The Story of the Earth in 25 Rocks on that (appreciate the cross book marketing there).
If I did have a criticism, there is a tension between the different kinds of dinosaurs, and how they were discovered, with the same major figures repeating themselves. Cope and Marsh are your classics, but a few others get in there. The result is a bit of jumping round and backtracking in time and space and, to be heretical, other than the Austro-Hungarian wildcard Nospcsa and (perhaps) the aforementioned combatants in the Bone Wars, none of them really moved me. However, Prothero covers a lot of ground quickly and it’s a good book for dipping your toes in. Not just about dinosaurs, but how we discover life and the world it existed in.
And dinosaurs are cool.
April 24, 2024
Una interessante narrazione degli scopritori di dinosauri, dal 1800 a oggi.
Molto interessante, ben scritta, approfondita. A volte troppi nomi senza avere sempre a disposizione un albero o dei richiami a quelli già visti, cosa che ti fa perdere un poco, ma comunque leggibilissimo.
Molto interessante, ben scritta, approfondita. A volte troppi nomi senza avere sempre a disposizione un albero o dei richiami a quelli già visti, cosa che ti fa perdere un poco, ma comunque leggibilissimo.
February 16, 2025
This book is well written but there's some false advertising here 😅
Rather than the story of dinosaurs, you're really getting the story of early paleontology and the work behind digging up fossils
Rather than the story of dinosaurs, you're really getting the story of early paleontology and the work behind digging up fossils
July 22, 2024
What, no mention of Gasosaurus?
January 2, 2022
I dinosauri sono sempre stati animali affascinanti, ma spesso ancora conosciuti al grande pubblico come i rettili di Jurassic Park. Questo libro ripercorre come ogni scoperta fossile abbia cambiato la nostra concezione della storia prima, e della _loro_ storia poi, compresa quella più recenti sul rapporto con gli uccelli odierni.
Consigliato agli appassionati.
Consigliato agli appassionati.
December 15, 2019
A good, detailed read that offers not only the history of the dinosaurs, but a history of paleontology and how human have viewed dinosaurs over the years. By breaking the saga up into 25 different sections, based on discovery of various dinosaur fossils, Prothero is able to weave science and history into this narrative. It does not too overboard on either natural science or history, but is a reasonable balance. One drawback was that I was reading this as an e-book, and thus, some of the illustrations and diagrams were not as easily analyzed/read as if it was in a hard-copy book. It does cover a good deal of modern developments of dinosaurs, noting some of key failings in how we used to look at, and how we still, look at dinosaurs (mislabeling velociraptors as the big killers in the Jurassic Park movies, when they should have been more appropriately labelled as Deinonychus, the struggle over brontosaurus vs. apatosaurus, the mis-representation of other dinosaurs from Jurassic Park, etc). For me, it was interesting to see what changed in how we view dinosaurs since I was last into them as a kid many, many years ago. I was glad to read up on some of the newer developments with dinosaurs (outside of Jurassic Park). Worth the time, especially for dino-lovers (and/or for those with kids who like dinosaurs).
July 11, 2024
As I've said before I was very much a dino kid and it's an interest that periodically comes back in my life. I've always been very into dinosaurs, but I never really cared much about their discovery or how the paleontologist figured it all out. Well in this most recent spike of curiosity I suddenly discovered I finally wanted to read up on it. This was just the book for that, it covered a whole lot and it was organized and easy to understand. It's likely just basic knowledge on a lot of the major dinosaurs and their discovery, but it is certainly the most in depth I've ever read up on these fossils. The knowledge we have of dinosaurs today feels like common sense, but so much of what we know took decades of careful research. It was like a shot in the dark, and I think it's just that much more amazing that these people were able to piece these things together. This book was one I had to be in a mood for because sometimes it was so much information at once, but I still throughly enjoyed it. I liked the authors writing style and even though the passages weren't in time order, they were still easy to follow like a regular novel. Overall I really enjoyed this book and I think it fueled my desire to be an even more annoying dino kid. Though I'm still trying to get back to eight-year-old me-fighting-with-a-museum-curator level.
January 6, 2021
It is, without any doubt, engaging and interesting, especially for the layman. I have not counted the list of dinosaur species reported or even mentioned, but it is in the hundreds, a sign that the book has been written with a clear picture in mind. Tens of photographs (even though black and white) enrich the tales and few but comprehensive cladograms and drawings helps the understanding of the few phylogenetic information given by the author. It contains perhaps more information about dinosaurs than other recent titles and for this reason I strongly recommend it to those that want to read something about dinosaurs.
Even though some chapters, especially in the first section, were more about the history of the discovery than on the science of the discovery (and by this I mean the hypothesis about physiology, if possibile, and ecology of the animal), I appreciated the effort to tell a complete story of paleontology.
Well done!
Even though some chapters, especially in the first section, were more about the history of the discovery than on the science of the discovery (and by this I mean the hypothesis about physiology, if possibile, and ecology of the animal), I appreciated the effort to tell a complete story of paleontology.
Well done!
August 18, 2023
An information overload of dinosaurs and of the people who discovered them! The chapters are dedicated to certain fossil hunters and their finds, so the overall organization is easy to follow and reference. The chapters themselves read like an excited infodump from a very knowledgeable professional. As someone who tells stories like this I could follow along okay enough but it does get confusing at points when the connecting thread between the fossils and people blurs. Is best read when you have some background knowledge on the topic.
August 18, 2019
I wanted to get some distraction from reading books on social, economical and political issues, so I picked this one, even though I'm not really into dinosaurs.
Other than the findings themselves, I found the stories, especially the personalities, very fascinating. I knew some, such as Owen, Cope, Marsh, Nopcsa, etc., but this book covered many more.
In addition, the author seems to be in the camp of volcanic cause of dinosaur extinction.
Other than the findings themselves, I found the stories, especially the personalities, very fascinating. I knew some, such as Owen, Cope, Marsh, Nopcsa, etc., but this book covered many more.
In addition, the author seems to be in the camp of volcanic cause of dinosaur extinction.
March 24, 2021
The book was very education but the author presumed a fairly high understanding of paleontology and of dinosaurs in writing the book. So I struggled in each chapter understanding some of the technical language particularly the constant use of different scientific names without sufficient context. I learned a great deal but it was difficult with each chapter being a new story to feel like I had a grasp of the material.
December 7, 2021
Tohle je skvělá kniha pro všechny fanoušky paleontologie v rozmezí 4-99 let. Má jen dvě vady. Jednak ji místy poněkud svazuje formát, takže třeba slavné Bone Wars jsou roztahané asi v deseti kapitolách, zatímco jiné příběhy jsou poněkud nesmyslně nalepené tam, kam se zrovna vešly (Nopsca). Ale to je ten menší problém. Nejsmutnější je, že jsou všechny fotky černobílé. V roce 2019 to je myslím celkem ostuda, zvlášť u populárně naučné publikace.
June 20, 2020
The Story of Dinosaurs in 25 Discoveries is a well-executed and absorbing series of vignettes of famous dinosaurs, their biology, and the colourful characters who discovered them. See my full review at https://inquisitivebiologist.com/2020...
May 16, 2021
This one took me a while but I think it was really good. I definitely found the first third a bit of a slog and the last third really engaging. It's good for conveying what we think know about dinosaurs, why we think we know it, and how what we know has changed. It also conveys how 'wild west' and unscientific the early days of dinosaur collecting were.
December 11, 2021
This book is a fascinating history of paleontology, paleontologists, and the dinosaurs that paleontologists have discovered so far. It's a lot of text and fairly dense, but still very readable. I did wish for a timeline occasionally, since some of the stories jump around chronologically, but would definitely put this book on my list to read again in the future.
April 16, 2024
Comprehensively knowledgeable expert takes 25 selected dinosaurs, talks about their discovery, the scientists that studied them, and how what we think about them has developed over time. Excellent illustrations and photographs. He does this on lots of paleontology topics, and I always learn a lot.
July 23, 2019
This is a fascinating look at what dinosaurs are, how and who discovered them, how they are named and categorized, and what is known about them.
January 3, 2020
This is a great book that talks about evidence and not speculation about the great dinosaurs.
August 3, 2020
Talks about major dinosaur discoveries, plus the characters who discovered them (paleontologists are an odd lot!).
December 3, 2020
Good, quick bites for a beginner paleontologist. Sometimes it was a little dense to read, but Prothero did a good job of mixing science and history.
May 1, 2022
The book was a quick read, and each chapter stands on its own so its easy to set it down and pick up again later. Good illustrations, personable, and interesting but related side stories.
May 25, 2022
A fun tour through the different dinosaurs and their discoverers. Recommended.
January 23, 2023
An interesting read for those who are looking for history of dinosaur science. Very beautifully he has woven evolutionary biology and history into his narrative.
Professor Prothero squeezed the encyclopaedic content to mini reviews of various dinosaur families. From eighteenth-century sightings of colossal bones to Tyrannosaurus, he has given us the picture of 165 million years of fossil organisms existence.
More from my blog post: The Story of the Dinosaurs in 25 Discoveries by Donald R. Prothero
Professor Prothero squeezed the encyclopaedic content to mini reviews of various dinosaur families. From eighteenth-century sightings of colossal bones to Tyrannosaurus, he has given us the picture of 165 million years of fossil organisms existence.
More from my blog post: The Story of the Dinosaurs in 25 Discoveries by Donald R. Prothero
February 1, 2023
Fantastico! Uno dei saggi storici/archeologici più belli che abbia mai letto. Curioso, avvincente e soprattutto istruttivo, per gli appassionati di paleontologia e preistoria.
March 30, 2022
Unspeakably dull. At least a quarter of the book is humble-bragging and name-dropping.
May 25, 2021
Pretty interesting material overall. There were lots of paragraphs listing species in a genus, or comparing the size of dinosaurs, but I guess that is a big part of paleontology. The short bios of key figures in paleontological history provided nice context. The best sections were those that described a debate or question about dinosaurs (Were they warm or cold blooded? What color were they?) and walked the reader through the different arguments and the evidence. I think I recommend the book, conditional on the reader being willing to skim over sections of text enumerating species and such.
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