Customer Reviews

The Dinosaur Heresies: New Theories Unlocking the Mystery of the Dinosaurs and Their Extinction

5 star:		(41)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Dinosaur Heresies is everything a popular science title should be. This book is a free-wheeling, thought-provoking, incredibly fun jaunt through the range of controversies and rethinkings paleontology has seen in the past twenty years or so.

Robert Bakker, first of all, is probably the best popular science writer I've ever come across. His voice is accessible, full of humor and character, and he writes a lean, sharply-turned argument that's easy and fun to follow without being at all pedantic. You don't think, at all, about the welter of disparate arguments Bakker's making in this book, because he just tells them so darn well, he really does. This book is pure delight for anyone with even a passing interest in dinosaurs.

I will mention, again, that this is a pop science title. It's a summary of the sorts of things that show up in academic articles, and a broad, idea-spinning take on those issues and problems. If, reading some other reviews here, you get the impression Robert Bakker singlehandedly rethought the whole cold-bloodedness thing, well, don't get too carried away. Pop science books don't do that work. Peer-review journals are where the evidence lives, in science, and books like Dinosaur Heresies get the word out to you and me.

I would recommend this as a gift to give anyone twelve or older who has an interest in Dinosaurs. Later on someone may be enthused enough to try Jack Horner, who's slightly less accessible in my experience, and closer to the journal writers than Heresies is. Then, too, reading this book might throw you in all sorts of other directions. (I personally became really excited about prehistoric mammals.) I hate to be hackneyed, but that's what a dazzlingly good popular science book will do; it'll broaden your world and make you remember what curiosity is good for. Dinosaur Heresies does that, in spades. You'll reread it.

I've been reading dinosaur books ever since I was a little boy in the 1970s. I remember being fascinated at these creatures that the then "conventional wisdom" said were bulky, obese, overweight, dumb, slow witted, slow moving, cold blooded swamp dwellers. Ha! Our knowledge of dinosaurs sure has come far since then. In this book, Bakker presents a tremendous amount of evidence to challenge many of the popular ideas about dinosaurs. Bakker uses evidence in the fossil record to argue that dinosaurs were warm blooded, active creatures who lived in groups, and migrated, and raised their young, and were capable of running at rather rapid speeds, and who did not live in swamps. Actually, many of these ideas had been proposed during the 19th century, only to be swept under the rug. Bakker revives many of these ideas, as well as coming up with many original ideas of his own. This is an excellent book.

Any dinosaur enthusiasist should have this book. The text is eminently readable, and many of the proposls made are ahead of their time and thought-provoking. The drawings are excellent and more realistically approximate the probable apppearance of dinosaurs, especially ceratopsins, than any others I've seen.
Bakker is entitled to his occasional displays of hubris given the number of times he has successfully defied convention and been proven correct. However, I cannot agree with his theories regarding extinction of these animals, since the impact theory is simply too compelling in terms of hard evidence. Only for this reason do I not give the book a five star rating. Even so, it is a must read.

Mr. Bakker presents many incredibly obvious arguments in this book. Most of his reasoning is flawless, and while many call it deviating too far from old-fashioned ideas, the plain truth is that in many places the conventional ideas were just wrong and needed to be corrected. The only major mistake in the book is Mr Bakker's assertion of the weakness of Tyrannosaurus' front limbs. In more recent findings it has been discovered that the front limb's were actually much shorter than previously believed and much stronger. In fact, most tyrannosaurs could probably bench-press about three hundred pounds or more. Aside from that one misunderstanding, however, the book rates five stars in my view.

This was one of the first 'serious' dinosaur texts I ever read. The second in fact, after Adrian Desmond's 'The Hot-Blooded Dinosaurs'. Bakker writes engagingly and spiritedly, and eloquently (although sometimes with more than a hint of pedantry) guides his reader through a host of problems involving dinosaurs and his ideas about them. From the beginning, Bakker makes clear that a lot of them are controversial. What becomes less clear is how outrageous they sometimes are - this is, above all, a propaganda pamphlet. That detracts little from its entertainment, but don't mistake it for mainstream science or a sum-up of generally accepted theories. What is more objectionable is that he portrayal of evidence sometimes fails to mention contrary or nuancing evidence that was well known at the period the book was written (e.g., the hot-blooded dinosaur part), thus suggesting that Bakker keeps a lot of crucial aces up his sleeve.
Finally, it has to be pointed out that a lot of the text in this book (which was written during the first half of the 80s) has now become rather antiquated. The chapter on bird evolution, for instance, now has little more than historical value.
On the flipside, there is no denying that Robert Bakker is deeply committed to his theories. It would have been nice, though, if this presentation had been less one-sided.

The Dinosaur Heresies by Robert T. Bakker, Ph.D. is a forward and progressive look at unlocking the mystery of the dinosaurs and their extinction.

Misconceptions are always associated with dinosaurs, because we do NOT understand completely as to how they looked, nor will we ever, unless we go back in time and see directly. So, we have to extrapolate from the fossil record. Which then leads to interpretation, as the clues are being uncovered, it takes a good detective with a vision to put the pieces together.

I believe that Bakker has done that in this book as he paints a revolutionary picture of dinosauria. And a dynamic, robust picture it is. This book opens eyes as to how things could have been or were at that time. As more information becomes available, the tapesty of that time begins to fill in and a picture emerges. I believe that Bakker is on the right track. This book will enlighten and educate as well.

I found the text to explain well as to why Bakker believes what he believes and makes a compelling argument to that. Whether you agree or disagree with Bakker's theory, the dead bones in the right hands seem to come alive a tell a most enthralling story.

If you like dinosaurs, this is a brilliant and unquestionably well written book. There are spectacular illustrations throughout to highlight this well told story.

Never in a million years (and I use this timing advisedly) would I have thought that dinosaurs could be made obsolete at about the same pace as computers and software.

And yet it is true - this book, published barely a dozen years back, was revolutionary at the time but is now accepted wisdom and other advances in dinosaurology are making waves.

Jurassic Park picked up on many of Bakker's wild ideas and now every schoolkid is aware of the link between dinosaurs and birds.

And me, well I enjoyed this book at the time it was published, and I enjoy it every bit as much now. It is a personal look at dinosaurs by a man who knows his subject intimately, and he makes his case in an engaging and very readable fashion.

I've been fascinated by dinosaurs since before I can remember, my parents bought me dinosaur books for my early birthdays, and I bought this book for a somewhat later present to myself.

To anybody contemplating buying, all I can say is: if you like dinosaurs and you are even halfway of a scientific bent, then buy this book!

A very good read, virtually unput-downable, and profusely illustrated in an elegant style by the author's own hand.

I have always been riveted by the story of the dinosaurs and Dr. Bakker has, with this book, shown me the depth of modern scholarship, its evolution of ideas, and his own story. Bakker describes his own ideas, giving full credit to those in whose (sometimes petrified) tracks he has followed, not hesitating to describe when and how he has been mistaken. I was impressed by the extreme care with which he makes his points about the hot-blooded theory, how, in fact, it has been kicked around since the early 19th Century. Another great thing about the book is the profusion of pen and ink illustration, all by Bakker. I bought this book four days ago at Western Mich. Univ. at which Dr. Bakker gave a fascinating two-hour presentation. By the way, if you can spend two hours with Robert Bakker and not want to IMMEDIATELY go on a dig then you have no life force! Before you go on the dig, read the book, eat the book: 462 pages will never go so quickly again!

Robert Bakker proves that he's more than "the chunky guy with a big beard and cowboy hat in documentary programs about Dinosaurs".

I had seen references to his book in DRAGON Magazine, of all places, before I actually read it.

I caught his act on a Dino Special, and found a copy of his book at one of the Museum Shops in D.C.

It blew me away, with his lively illos and his easy to read, intelligent, funny, and clever text.

The critters practically leap off of the page. I came away a believer, as should all who read this one.

I have read far too many books about Paleontology and Dinosaurs for a layman, but this one is the BEST.

He really knows how to ignite a controversy or 15, causing the reader to come away rethinking the issue.

As Calvin of Calvin and Hobbes would say, "It would be lame if dinosaurs were any other way than Bob Bakker describes them!".

I agree, and so will you.

Incredibly compelling book about the possible evolution of velociraptors into birds.

Dinosaur Heresies goes beyond mere dinosaur evolution, however. As an enthusiastic gardener, I was bemused and delighted to learn of the powerful link between Cretaceous herbivorous dinosaurs and the rise of flowering plants, how it was BECAUSE of these saurian herbivores that we have flowering plants instead of a world of gymnosperms (aka pines, cycads, ginko, etc.).

It was a FUN read!