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

Mark Norell (Author), Lowell Dingus (Author), Eugene Gaffney (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0520225015 | ISBN-13: 978-0520225015 | Publication Date: April 8, 2000 | Edition: 1

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.
ALERT: ONE LINE IS MISSING FROM PAGE XIII OF THIS BOOK. THE COMPLETE LINE SHOULD READ:
"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.

Editorial Reviews

From Scientific American

"Plenty of fine pictures of fossils, tracks, casts, and older graphics fill the well-written, well-designed volume. . . . The authors, three New York paleontologists, offer fresh, compelling arguments that dinosaurs include both Tyrannosaurus rex and modern birds. Birds retained dinosaur forelimb structures, but at last they invented feathers. Our ostriches and canaries are the last dinosaurs."

About the Author

Mark A. Norell, Chairman of the Department of Vertebrate Paleontology at the Museum of Natural History, has been co-leader of the Museum's Gobi Desert yearly expeditions since 1990, in the course of which he has discovered fossil remains of a number of new species of dinosaurs, a dinosaur nesting its eggs, and a unique dinosaur embryo. Eugene S. Gaffney is Curator of Vertebrate Paleontology at the Museum. He is one of the world's leading specialists on fossil turtles. Lowell Dingus is director of the Museum's Fossil Halls renovation. He has served as head geologist on the Gobi Desert expeditions.

Product Details

• Paperback: 239 pages
• Publisher: University of California Press; 1 edition (April 8, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0520225015
• ISBN-13: 978-0520225015
• Product Dimensions: 10.1 x 9 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #789,832 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #92 in Books > Professional & Technical > Professional Science > Biological Sciences > Animals > Dinosaurs

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the better pop-dinosaur books I've seen, July 31, 2011

By 

Peter D. Tillman (Taos, NM USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Discovering Dinosaurs: Evolution, Extinction, and the Lessons of Prehistory, Expanded and Updated (Paperback)

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!

Happy reading--
Peter D. Tillman
Consulting Geologist, Arizona and New Mexico (USA)

2 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars What do we really know about dinosaurs?, July 7, 2001

By 

Carl A. Redman (Austin, TX United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Discovering Dinosaurs: Evolution, Extinction, and the Lessons of Prehistory, Expanded and Updated (Paperback)

After visiting the National Musuem of Natural History, I wondered about many of the claims that the museum made. So I decided to read a book about the "terrible lizards" and found out what I had guessed -- the study of dinosaurs and their fossils is not an exact science and many of the fundamental questions we have about them cannot be answered, including:

How old are they? How fast were they? How big were they? What did they look like? What color were they? What is their relation to birds? How are fossils aged? Do we have any dinosaur DNA?

The authors of this book do a good job at trying to answer many of these questions about dinosaurs, but in the end their explanations merely lay out the science of guesswork. The first part of this book is fifty questions about dinosaurs, and I would recommend this section to anyone interested in the subject. The next two sections are about dinosaurs digs and specific dinosaur species, and is a little bit extensive for the "casual dino reader."