Customer Reviews

The Evolution and Extinction of the Dinosaurs

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I've read several dinosaur books and I've generally found them to be very good. This one, along with "The Complete Dinosaur", ranks as one of my favorites. The reason I was interested in this book was that I was looking for something that focused on the evolution of dinosaurs and how the various taxa of dinosaurs related to each other. I was also looking for something at an intermediate level. This book exceeded my expectations on all fronts.

The first two chapters mainly covered background material such as geological time scales, isotopic dating and fossilization. The next two introduced some concepts of evolution (not including natural selection, an understanding of this is presumed) and a very high level view of chordates. The discussion of clade diagrams was very through.

After a chapter on the origin of dinosaurs, the book goes on devotes the next several chapters to describing a wide variety of dinosaur taxa and how they are related to each other. The chapters are grouped into parts, each part starts off with some high level discussion of a taxon. Then the individual chapters go on to elaborate the points by describing the taxa within the taxon. The chapters usually start with a description of the taxa's anatomy, distribution and behavior. Typically a fairly coarse grained clade diagram is presented early and more fine grained diagrams are presented as the chapter continues. The characteristics that distinguish one taxa from another are also described. The material isn't just presented as facts, it is justified by evidence from the fossil record. I liked the level of detail the authors typically chose, however someone else may want more or less.

The final two chapters of the theropod part deal with the evolution of birds. I found the discussion of the origin of feathers to be very good. I especially enjoyed the illustrations (I thought the illustrations throughout the book were quite good) showing how they evolved and the structure of feathers used for flying versus those primarily useful for insulation.

The remainder of the book deals with dinosaurs as a whole. I thought the chapter on thermoregulation was very good, much of the information being useful for studying animals in general, not just dinosaurs (the same could be said for several other parts of the book too). Following the thermoregulation chapter there is a chapter on patterns in dinosaur evolution that I thought really tied the previous material in the book together. The treatment of non-avian dinosaur extinction was excellent and balanced.

My one quibble about the content concerns what I consider to be an omission. The authors address the question of "is a cow a fish". They naturally answer "yes". In my opinion it would have been nice if they had then gone on to discuss this in more detail, explaining how this means fish don't form a clade. This would have been a good opportunity to discuss the concept of a grade and perhaps paraclade too. The reason I this discussing fish as a grade is important is that basically everybody has an idea that there is a group of animals they can classify as fish and this group doesn't include cows. I think it would've been nice to help them understand what they mean when they think of fish and why it doesn't conflict with the statement "a cow is a fish".

There are a couple errors, but they are easily recognized. For example on page 77 they refer to synapids as reptiles then on the following two pages they break up amniotes into synapsids and reptiles. Maybe I'm missing something, but it seems like a contradiction.

As much as I liked this book it's not for everyone (what book would be?). Obviously it's not cheap. If you're not interesting in dinosaur cladistics this book probably is not a great choice. If your main interest is more along the lines of a dinosaur catalog with descriptions of various dinosaur ways of life you can certainly find better books, especially at the price (although I still think this would be a good book). However, if you are interested in dinosaur evolution, along with how dinosaurs made their way in the world, then I think this is a great book.

As an avid dinosaur buff, this undergraduate level textbook is a mandatory part of one's collection. The text is very readable yet complete, filling a void between child-oriented dinosaur books and books written for professional paleontologists. I must confess I could not put the book down. Although it is several hundred pages in length, I read the book in less than a week. Topics range from basic dinosaur paleontology to special subjects such as the evolutionary relationship between dinosaurs and birds. If you are a dino-phile, this textbook is a must-read.

Brett J. Guinn, MD

"Dinosaur!" The word still makes children's faces bright with excitement. "Can we go to the museum, Dad?" - and a golf game is set aside. The authors note how pervasive the dinosaur has become in our society. We live in "dinosaur-crazy times with documentaries, colouring books and films - "we have thrice feasted on Jurassic Park movies". The authors feel this familiarity is all to the good - we learn something of Nature's ways from some of this exposure. They want us to take the next step and learn something of what the professional paleontologist does to bring the wealth of information about dinosaurs to our ken. We also need to understand what conditions prevailed while dinosaurs dominated the planet for 160 million years. That's a real success story and it deserves our attention.

In presenting their story of these impressive animals, the authors start with the general environment. Dating rocks is a fundamental aspect of how dinosaurs developed over time. The explain the science of "chronostratigraphy" using the classical examples of layered rock and moving on to how radioactive isotopes provide dating. They portray what an organism goes through in the process of fossilisation, and how fortunate we are to have anything to assess. Continental drift, which at once complicates and explains what would otherwise appear as anomolies, adds background. Climate is a further tool to explain how the creatures studied lived at the time.

With this background provided, they move on to depict the origin of dinosaurs. It's not a simple picture, as these "terrible lizards" didn't engage in a "takeover" of the planet as a given. It was a long, slow process from small beginnings. The first fossils, named by Darwin's major nemesis, Richard Owen, were an enigma. Years of study and conjecture led to the beginnings of dinosaur classification. The years of "the bone wars" in North America provided much insight into dinosaur development and diversity. As the story unfolds, the authors turn to an organisational method known as "cladistics". Clade diagrams demonstrating relationship between organisms are used to link more recent forms with their ancestral roots. It's an effective method, requiring only visible physical traits to establish the relationships. That, however, remains its greatest limitation and the source of enduring controversy.

Each segment of the book depicts a type - Stegosauria with their massive back plates, Ceratopsia with their massive horns and frilled skulls and Theropoda, "nature red in tooth and claw". The types are described in detail, with an anatomy lesson provided for the type. The evolution of each is traced, with additional material on eating habits, social make-up and how they attacked or defended themselves. Capping each section is an account of how each was first discovered, with biographies of the major figures in paleontology appended. In this second edition, the book updates the information gathered in the past decade. The update shows how the profession of palaeontology has expanded and enriched our knowledge. With lavish illustration by John Sibbick, the presentation is flawless, providing a wealth of new and detailed information.

Palaeontology is not without its disputes, and the authors carefully explain the issues, the scientists holding disparate views and how these are likely to be resolved. Among the enduring issues are whether dinosaurs were warm-blooded and the relationship between them and modern birds. The authors are unequivocal in their stance on these debates, sustaining their case on the available evidence. Their approach gives full voice to the disputants in these controversies, providing complete assessment of the data.

The book is a treasure for anyone interested in these animals that loomed so large in the history of life on our planet. Given the environmental, dietary, body structure and development information provided here, another edition will likely be some time in appearing. If your child mentions the word "dinosaur", have this book handy for answering their questions. And when they ask you to defer your golf match for a trip to the museum to see the reconstructions of these mighty, and not so mighty, animals, donate the time without remorse. You, too, may see them again with a child's eyes. But you will be prepared for what you'll be seeing. [stephen a. haines - Ottawa, Canada]

I cannot say enough good things about this text! It covers the bulk of the dinosaur research up to the time that writing of the book ended and does so in a fairly unjudgmental fashion. It makes a point to show the multiple views of the arguments found within its covers. The authors' writing is also in a style that encourages the reader to continue reading, and is quite lively in places which gives new "spring" to the reader's "steps" as they journey through.

This book starts by introducing the reader to fossils and their collecting. It then sets the stage of "when" the book is speaking of so as to aid the reader's understanding of the subject. In setting this "when" the book discusses subjects like plate tectonics, stratigraphy and climatology. It then explains about how paleontology classifies creatures and a bit about organic evolution. After this the book talks of the relationships between the various animals out in the world which have backbones, collectively called vertebrates. This is the first four chapters and 94 pages setting the stage for the reader. Some may describe this as "boring" but it is necessary for a greater understanding of the dinosaur section of the text. In chapter five we are introduced to the origin of dinosaurs both as animals in the Mesozoic Time and in modern science in the 19th Century. This ends Part I of the text.

Parts II & III, 8 chapters and 216 pages, are where all the dinosaur lovers want to be - the parts that actually discuss the various types of dinosaurs. Part II talks of Ornithischia or "bird-hipped" dinosaurs while Part III is about Saurischia or "lizard-hipped" dinosaurs. What is absolutely inspired is the structure of each of the dinosaur chapters. Each chapter starts speaking of the history of the discoveries of that type of dinosaur's fossils. It then defines that general type of dinosaur and proceeds with talking about the diversity of that type and its evolutionary path. After that the book takes the reader into the Paleobiology and Paleoecology on that dinosaur type - the FUN STUFF! Why is it the FUN STUFF? Because most of these sections of each of these chapters is educated dreaming or speculation. The authors speak on a variety of matters such as the feeding, reproductive and social habits of these animals and they do so credibly without resorting to uncontrolled flights of fancy.

Part IV carries the learning experience on through some final serious issues concerning dinosaurs. Were they endothermic or "warm-blooded"? How were they distributed through the Mesozoic Era? What is an extinction? Lastly, what is and caused the Cretaceous-Tertiary Extinction where dinosaurs disappeared? What is commendable is that the authors describe all of the possible theories for the dinosaurs' extinction.

Some prior reviewers have made disparaging comments on the illustrations and diagrams found herein. I, too, wish there were more illustrations and diagrams, especially artwork and illustrations from some of the leading artisans in the PaleoArt field. BUT I have purchased enough textbooks in my college career to realize that the authors have made some financial considerations for those who would be buying this book. If they had acquired what could be considered a dreamy-level of quality illustrations for this book, my experience dictates that this volume would have been as much as 75% more expensive, thereby being almost useless to its main target audience, "Intro to Paleo" students. Why? Because no college faculty member would expect ones students to spend such an outrageous amount on an intro text. Simply, lots of high quality art is nice, but is extremely expensive because the artists and their work are worth a goodly sum.

In closing, I must comment on a prior reviewer's review. The reviewer had several complaints. Too much cladistics, too many chronologies, too much on evolutionary relationships, laughable illustrations and poor writing to only name a few of them. I feel that the reviewer should not have reviewed this book. Why? Because all the reviewer is doing is whining about how this book (and most likely the reviewer's Intro-to-Paleo professor) did not spoon-feed the reviewer enough. The reviewer wanted an introductory hard science class to be of the hand-feeding sort that a documentary for general-public consumption can be, and that expectation is unreasonable, but unfortunately typical in this day and age. I am not saying that "Walking With Dinosaurs" was a documentary series with poor science in it. I am saying that anyone who has the expectation that a hard science book and class, even an introductory one, is going to be written like "pop" TV needs to have another look at reality. If someone wants a dinosaur book of the entertainment-only variety, I would direct them to any of the quality children's-level volumes from DK publishing. If those are still not entertaining enough, then the only stop left of any quality would be The Magic Schoolbus series for elementary/primary school children. Otherwise, if you, the reader, can handle some science and like dinosaurs, this book by Fastovsky and Weishampel is the book to springboard you into the exciting and challenging area called Dinosaur Vertebrate Paleontology!

A fascinating and up-to-date look at the whole topic of dinosaurs and how they fit into the scheme of life. I really enjoyed the light and humorous touch on what can often be a very heavy topic. I have to make a comment I don't often use for texts - I couldn't put the book down. As a science teacher, I can recommend this book as good science, and as a book that lets the reader see how the authors and other people "do" science. Some diagrams, like the diagnostics on birds, were very helpful, but some diagrams that would have helped were missing or not as well done as they could have been.

Finding this book was a pleasant surprise as there aren't many current books available out there to the layperson on the subject of general paleontology. The relatively new usage of the science of cladistics in the classification of dinosaurs was extremely interesting and enlightening. There is also a section dealing with the evolution of birds from dinosaurs that is worth the read. My only real knock with this undergraduates textbook is that the illustrations are quite bad, in fact I was very surprised to see illustrations of such poor caliber. Would have given this book a higher rating but for the graphics of this text

The number one complaint I have heard about this book is that it is too dry; that it does not focus enough on the dinosaurs, and instead focuses on cladograms, evolution, and just in general, things that aren't dinosaurs. I suggest to those complaining to read the title of the book, "The Evolution and Extinction of Dinosaurs". No, it's not "Everything You Want to Know About Dinosaurs," and no, it's not "Information About Dinosaurs Themselves, And Not Their Evolution" either. This book is about what the title suggests it is about: the evolution and extinction of dinosaurs, and I find that it does an amazing job of explaining just that. If you are looking for a book containing everything you need to know about dinosaurs themselves, I believe one of Weishampel's other works, "The Dinosauria", will suit your needs.

The book, as others have mentioned, is divided into 4 parts:

Part I: Setting the Stage goes over everything you'll need to know to appreciate the rest of the book. The introduction chapter reviews the process of collecting fossils, and introduces the reader to paleontology in general. The next chapter describes how we analyze the fossils and discusses techniques to date fossils such as chronostratigraphy, lithostratigraphy etc. Chapter 3 then moves on to discussing cladograms and how we graphically represent evolutionary trees. Chapters 4 and 5 then discuss the very origins of dinosaurs, starting with the very origins of chordates. Overall, this isn't particularly interesting if what you really want to know about is dinosaurs, but it still provides a good background to paleontology. This section also discusses how dinosaurs came to exist, in terms of evolution, which in my opinion is just as important as what evolutionary processes took place during and after the time of the dinosaurs.

Part II: Ornithischia and Part III: Saurischia discuss the dinosaurs themselves and follow a very intuitive and organized format. Each chapter discusses a different set of dinosaurs and follows the same basic organization: a "Lives and Lifestyles" section, containing what we know of feeding habits, mating, etc, a section on evolution, and a section on the history of the group's discovery. The only chapters that deviate from this are 13- The Origin of Birds, which discusses the ancestry of living birds and the the evolution of feathered dinosaurs, and chapter 14- The Early Evolution of Birds, which, as can be guessed, discusses the evolution of actual birds from dinosaurs. This section contains a lot of information about the dinosaurs themselves, as well as information concerning the evolution of the various types of dinosaurs. Although it does not contain a as much information on the dinosaurs themselves as you'd find from other books, as I have mentioned, that is not the main focus. This book excels, however, at providing detailed information on the evolution and history of discovery of each clade, and these sections offer the most specific evolutionary information in the book, while other sections describe evolution in terms of dinosaurs as a whole and patterns in evolution.

Part IV: Endothermy, Environments, And Extinction takes the focus off of the dinosaurs themselves and discusses three key points. Chapter 15 discusses the evidence of warm-bloodedness in dinosaurs, and is one of the most interesting chapters in the book, in my opinion. Chapter 16 tracks the evolutionary patterns of dinosaurs through time, while chapters 17 and 18 discuss the various mass extinctions affecting the dinosaurs, including the most famous one 65 million years ago. Other than chapter 15, I would consider this the driest section of the book. There are some interesting points, but overall it just doesn't seem to hold my attention.

Overall, the book is very informative and very suitable for use in college courses, or even by the amateur paleontologist. This book doesn't offer an amazing breadth of information regarding the actual characteristics of dinosaurs, but it's really not supposed to. What this book DOES offer is a very in-depth look at the evolutionary tree of dinosaurs: the evolution of dinosaurs as a whole from the primitive archosaurs of pre-mesozoic times, the evolution of the hundreds of species of dinosaurs that came about during the mesozoic, and the evolution of the descendants of the dinosaurs: birds. This is the best book I have read on the subject of the hsitory of dinosaurs, including their rise, their downfall, and their legacy.

Like many others, I used this book for a course. The edition I am reviewing is the second edition, published in 2005. I noticed almost no typos or grammatical errors, so I assume reviewers complaining of such were reviewing the first edition, and these issues were fixed in the reprint.

The Evolution and Extinction of the Dinosaurs written by David E. Fastovsky and David B. Weishampel is primarily designed as a textbook. Although very readable this text can be used as a resource, the chapters build sequentially reflecting the nature our the science.

The idea within this text is simple: to use dinosaurs as an attractive vehicle to understand aspects of natural history. The dinosaurs are presented here in a phylogenetic context. The prose of phylogenetic systematics, however, can be rather vexing. For this reason, chapters in which the great groups of dinosaurs are discussed individually -in particular, Chapters 6 through 12- are organized in consistant fashion, making it easier for skimming the descriptions and systematic paleontology by going to the "Paleobiology and Paleoecology sections in the above chapters.

This text presents dinosaurs as professionals understand them... the study of dinosaurs has much to do with the history of life and of the earth, with the nature of nature, and with who we are. There are several photographs provided by museums and institutions giving the book greatly needed illustration.

Because dinosaurs have been known since 1818, a good deal is understood; by the same token, a 20-year-old revolution in methods of studying them has only in the last 10 really begun to overturn long-held ideas about them and their 160-million-year history on earth.

This textbook is divided into four parts where each part has subsequent chapters and is very well organized. The parts are:

Part 1: Setting the Stage... here we have five chapters, The introduction; The Mesozoic Era: Back to the Past; Discovering Order in the Natural World; Interrelationships of the Vertebrates; and The Origin of Dinosauria.

Part 2: Ornithischia... here we have five chapters, Stegosauria: Hot Plates; Ankylosauria: Mass and Gas;
Pachycephalosauria: Head-To-Head, with malice aforethought; Ceratopsia: Horns, Frills, and Slice-And-Dice; Ornithopoda: The Tuskers, Antelopes, and the Mightly Ducks of the Mesozoic

Part 3: Saurischia... here we have three chapters, Sauropodomorpha: The Big, The Bizarre, and The Majestic; Theropoda I: Nature Red in Tooth and Claw; and Theropoda II: The Origins of Birds.

Part 4: Endothermy, Environments, and Extinction where there are four chapters, Dinosaur Endothermy: Some Like it Hot; Dinosaurs in Space and Time; Reconstructing Extinctions: The Art of Science; and The Cretaceous-Tertiary Extinction: The Frill is Gone.

There is an extensive glossary, taxonomic index of genera, and subject index helping to reader along and for further information. If you treat this book as a textbook you can use the information found in this book to further your knowledge in the realm of dinosauria.

This is a solid 4 star book filled with information. It may read dryly at times but the information contained within its pages is invaluable.

The book is meant as a textbook at the undergraduate or graduate level. For readers who are perhaps inclined to major in paleontology. It is not a layman's book, like a typical "Dinosaur" book positioned towards readers who want to ooh and aah. Such books are indeed very important to attract a general readership to this field. But, so to speak, those books derive from this book (and others like it). Yes, maybe much of this book is "dry", as some others have remarked. So too are most advanced texts in most scientific fields.

However, if you don't have much of a technical background in dinosaur reading, the book can still be interesting reading. Provided you are willing to put in some effort. There is substantial jargon, as in any field. But many descriptions of dinosaur behaviour are still compelling reading and quite understandable.

Plus, this second edition [written in 2005] also includes fresh excavation results in places like China. Which until recent years have had relatively little dinosaur digging. There have been significant finds that have enhanced our knowledge of dinosaurs.

After reading this book---not for a class---as well as all the reviews below, I also agree with the reviewer from Albuquerque that this text could have been better written. Mr. Brackett, in his criticisms of this reviewer's comments seems to assume much about the reviewer's character and comments based upon the reviewer's status as a student, without really addressing the reviewer's comments. This book DOES err in overly emphasizing the technical at the expense of descriptive or a vivid reconstruction of a natural history of dinosaurs, and cladisitic studies, while necessary and appropriate, do dominate the text. While this is perhaps to be expected, based upon the context, subject and background of the authors, there is little question that a work such as this could offer far more if it were written with a broader emphasis upon a recreation of its subject, while at the same time including the technical data necessary for a full comprehension of the subject. Technical and academic writers often tend to write to their own peer group, without considering or being aware of the extent of their potential audience. Mr Brackett's blithe dismissal of a "student's" criticism of the text based entirely upon his or her status as a student reflects at best an attitude more exclusionary than inclusive, and does not meaningfully respond to the student's criticisms of this text. While this book remains the benchmark of texts upon the subject, there is little question that it could be written with greater verve and expression of the interest that the subject should inherently generate. After all, an introductory text should reach out to stimulate interest in its subject to a wide audience, and the study of dinosaurs certainly possesses no dearth of potential interest. I feel that this can be accomplished with the commensurate amount of technical detail without becoming the artifact of Pop culture Mr. Brackett seems so afraid of.