Dinosaur Lives: Unearthing an Evolutionary Saga [Hardcover]

John R. Horner (Author), Edwin Dobb (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 1997

From the purple phenomenon that is Barney to the blockbuster draw of Jurassic Park, dinosaurs still rule the earth. Dinosaur Lives explores the appeal that dinosaurs have for us, explains the latest scientific research and then takes us into their prehistoric world.

As technical adviser for both Jurassic Park and The Lost World, John Horner has the perfect vantage point for a discussion of dinosaurs' status as pop icons. As the paleontologist whose discoveries fundamentally changed our perceptions of dinosaurs, he can take us from the far-flung digs to the state-of-the-art labs where MRI scans, DNA testing and other new technologies are generating an explosion of new information about dinosaurs, from what sort of noises they made to how smart they were.

In the final section of the book, Horner offers a sweeping, detailed and largely unprecedented vision of the world 709 million years ago -- how dinosaurs evolved, what they ate, how they raised their young, their social structure, their sex lives and more.

With his enormously engaging voice and intimate knowledge of dinosaurs, Horner is sure to revolutionize the way we think about dinosaurs yet again. Dinosaur Lives is destined to be another classic.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Dinosaurs fascinate and captivate us, yet we really know relatively little about them--and that only from a fragmentary fossil record painstakingly reconstructed by paleontologists. Dinosaur Lives offers a colorful first-person account of one paleontologist as he uncovers fossilized bones, eggs, and more from the wastelands of Montana. John R. Horner and Edwin Dobb explain the process of prospecting for paleontological clues and what the fossil record tells us about dinosaur anatomy and their behavior. Much of the news is surprising: dinosaurs probably weren't reptiles at all but more closely related to birds, and many were social animals that lived in herds. Especially fascinating is trivia such as the fact that the ostensibly fearsome T. Rex was probably a scavenger akin to a vulture.

From Library Journal

Dinosaur doyen Horner changes how we look at thunder lizards.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Harpercollins; 1st edition (May 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060174862
• ISBN-13: 978-0060174866
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #694,882 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #26 in Books > Professional & Technical > Professional Science > Biological Sciences > Paleontology > Vertebrate

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent, if sometimes wordy sequel to "Digging Dinosaurs", September 7, 2001

By 

Eric B. Norris (Santa Clara, California USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

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This review is from: Dinosaur Lives: Unearthing an Evolutionary Saga (Paperback)

Dinosaur Lives introduces the lay reader (that would be you and me) to a number of exciting ideas. The book provides us with an update to Horner's field work since he wrote "Digging Dinosaurs," but it also delves deeper into some of the bigger ideas concerning dinosaurs. A large portion of the book is devoted to speculation about the behavior of dinosaurs, especially the raising of young and herd/pack associations. What interested me most, however, is Horner's deconstruction of Linnean taxonomy, and the description of cladistics as a more powerful tool to look at relationships between living and extinct creatures. For those of us raised on the idea of speciation, this is powerful stuff. You may find, as I did, that light bulbs start popping in your head as you realize that the very way you think about a subject can severely limit your ability to perceive new ideas.

If all this sounds a bit airy-fairy, Horner does a much better job than I can here explaining some pretty complex stuff in a very simple way. My only complaints about the book are that Horner sometimes can be a bit wordy while telling us what he is about to tell us. I could have used a bit more technical detail in some of his descriptions, and certainly the illustrations should have been more complete. These are minor complaints, however. This is a fascinating book for anyone who likes thinking about dinosaurs, and the endless cycles of life. You don't need to have any prior knowledge to thoroughly enjoy this book.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Dinosaur Lives: Unearthing an Evolutionary Saga, November 17, 2002

By 

Joe Zika "Khemprof" (Cincinnati, Ohio) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Dinosaur Lives: Unearthing an Evolutionary Saga (Hardcover)

Dinosaur Lives: Unearthing an Evolutionary Saga written by John R. Horner is a well-written account of paleontological fieldwork told in an engaging style. This book is the continuation of the book Digging Dinosaurs one of the author's previous books.

Horner is a thinker as has helped out on numerous motion pictures to make the dinosaurs seem real and alive. In this book we get to read (speculation) about dinosaur eggs, their young and their nests as found from the fossil record.

Horner has an infectous style when he write and you can't help but getting into lock-step with him as he writes a telling-tale, making the read feel as if you are there right along side. Our understanding of how dinosaurs grew up, raised their young, and socialized with other dinosaurs are brought out in this book.

There is still a lot of information yet to be discovered, but Horner has been making long strides in elucidating information and answering some of the nagging questions involving dinosaurs. Some of the new evidence and arguments regarding the major dinosaur controversies of the day, being that of warm-blooded verses cold-blooded are tackled in this book.

This book is a quick read and should be on your bookshelf as the author's discoveries regarding the dinosaur are ground-breaking and unparalleled. Paleontologist Robert Bakker is another forward thinker when it comes to dinosaurs.

This book gives some credence to Bakker's theory about the inland sea retreats and the dinosaurs from the eastern part of the North American continent mixed with those of the West, exchanging bacteria and other pathogens for which the recieving group had no inherent resistance. This could be a slow death or a prolonged one depending upon the pathogen involved. Also, climate was changing substantially at that time as well, becoming cooler, and more arid, this could slowly add to the demise of the dinosaurs.

This book was an enjoyable, engaging read.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Extremely informative while remaining captivating..., December 4, 1999

By 

John Thompson - See all my reviews

This review is from: Dinosaur Lives: Unearthing an Evolutionary Saga (Paperback)

Mr. Horner has made an extraordinary accomplishment with 'Diggin Dinosaurs,' as it is able to present relative information regarding the topic at hand in a manner to be easily read by the masses and hold the reader's attention. His ability to stimulate the imagination with his illustrative speach and diction is quite amazing, as is his ability to distill the necessary information from the vast amounts of data that is available for analysis. An amazing breakthrough to be certain.