Grave Secrets of Dinosaurs: Soft Tissues and Hard Science (Hardcover)

by Phillip Manning (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
In 1999, Tyler Lyson, a high school student with a passion for fossils, stumbled upon an extremely rare find, a nearly-complete dinosaur mummy; once excavated, its remarkably preserved tissue-"skin, bone, ligaments and tendons"-would give scientists their first opportunity to observe the structure and orientation of dinosaur muscles. Lyson called in University of Manchester paleontologist Manning to help extract Dakota the hadrosaur, and here Manning tells the story of the North Dakota discovery, making a detailed account of a paleontologist's day-by-day work with interesting jaunts into the history of fossil-hunting (a little-known pastime in the Wild West) from the Sternberg family in the 19th century up through the 2000 discovery of Leonardo the hadrosaur in Montana. The core of the book describes the extensive preparations and the excruciating care by which the team liberated their quarry; wrinkles along the way include the fossil of a crocodilian creature lodged in the hadrosaur's abdomen, an enormous NASA CT scanner employed to examine the mummy's interior, and intact pollen found in the dino's stomach. While work on Dakota will continue for years, Manning's description of the job so far gives readers a satisfying look at paleontology in (laborious, exacting) action.
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Review

About the Author

Dr. Phillip Manning teaches vertebrate paleontology and evolution at the University of Manchester in the United Kingdom. He has built an international reputation for his work on dinosaur trackways and biomechanics, with extensive field experience at Jurassic and Cretaceous sites in North and South America and the British Isles. He is recognized for his leading role in engaging the public-s interest in the wonders of science. --This text refers to the Kindle Edition edition.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: National Geographic (January 8, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1426202199
• ISBN-13: 978-1426202193
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #412,409 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

34 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Premature Paleontological Publication, February 16, 2008

By	John Burris (Milford, Ohio USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Dakota, the most perfectly preserved dinosaur mummy, made headlines in 2007. The spectacular fossil promises to yield information on dinosaurs, both biological and environmental, previously undreamed of. "Using state-of-the-art technology to scan and analyse this remarkable discovery, National Geographic and Dr. Manning create an incredibly lifelike portrait of Dakota." So promises the book description.

Unfortunately there is little such information here. To get to what Manning and his team had discovered at the time of writing you have to read 260 pages into the 320 page book. Fossils do not quickly reveal their secrets. The more exquisite the preservation the slower the work must proceed. When you are talking about an intact skin envelope and perhaps other preserved "soft" tissues the work will proceed slowly indeed. Therefore, time after time Manning must break the news to the reader that the results of the research aren't in yet. So precious little about this particular hadrosaur is actually revealed other than his (her?) surprisingly robust posterior. I can't help but think that this book was written at least a year too early. Clearly the publishers wanted to rush the book into publication while the news was still hot. In doing so, however, they have set the reader up for an ultimately frustrating experience.

This is not to say the book is without merit. Certainly not. Manning provides us with a nice, if somewhat superficial, tour of mummies of all sorts, from dinosaurs to mammoths to humans. The circumstances necessary to preserve bodies in such condition are rare indeed and the book is perhaps at its most fascinating in the passages detailing these quite special circumstances. The middle portion of the book, though, where Manning details his early paleontological training in England and the circumstances that brought him into contact with Tyler Lyson (the discoverer of Dakota), are rather dry. There is the unmistakable sound of spinning wheels as the reader presumably moves toward the revelations promised in the jacket copy. Unfortunately, such revelations will have to await a future publication.

Visually, the book is a major disappointment. There are no photographs of the fossil itself (other than one indistinct picture of the CT scan of the tail, a much higher quality image of which can be found online at nationalgeographic.com) and no diagrams, drawings, reconstructions, etc.. to speak of. We have several of the obligatory photos of the excavation of the fossil which are mostly indistinguishable from thousands of other such on-site photos. We get a wonderful, full color restoration of Dakota on the cover (by the talented paleoartist Julius Csotonyi) and that's it.

To sum up, I would recommend this book but with the above caveats in mind. It is reasonably well written, mostly engaging and at times rich in technical details about the techniques modern paleontologists use to tease knowledge from the fossil remains of the spectacular animals that populated our world in the distant past. Just don't expect many such secrets to be revealed in the pages of "Grave Secrets Of Dinosaurs."

(The thing had been in the ground for 65 million years. You'd think they could have waited one more year to publish. I guess that qualifies as irony.)

19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars No Secrets Revealed in this Book, February 29, 2008

By	G. Woo (LA, CA, USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I assumed the star of this book would be the hadrosaur fossil, Dakota, with its preserved soft tissues and all the paleobiology that goes along with such a magnificent find. Instead it is narrative about how hard it is to excavate, prepare and analyze fossils.

The first two thirds of the book describe the trials and lifestyle of the modern day paleontologist. Then various analytical techniques are mentioned, but not described and ultimately, the take home message is that the analysis is incomplete. Very dissappointing.

As another reviewer said, this book was clearly rushed to print and the fossil is probably several years away from revealing any meaningful additions to our understanding of dinosaurs.

The latter third of the book reads like a review article of known mummified fossils, which is interesting, but then ends up with a rather long description of the techniques used to determine dinosaur gait.

The book was not particularly well written. For example, Manning used a page and a half to explain that because the skin was preserved uncollapsed around the skeleton, the volume of muscle and soft tissue can be calculated. At times, I found myself having to reread sentences and ultimately not understanding the message.

Hopefully Dakota will one day reveal its secrets to the public and subsequent books will include data, pictures, graphs, and new hypotheses on how this animal once existed.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Disappointing and Premature, April 25, 2008

By	Rat de Bibliothèque (Houston, TX USA) - See all my reviews

I bought this book with great interest, and quickly discovered there was little "left on the bone," if you will. Plodding through intricate details of what the scientists ate for dinner the night before digging was uninteresting and I felt was blocking me from getting to the results and scientific information I desired to find. Once past the details of the day-to-day experiences, you get to the end of the book, where it is stated the research is just beginning! I understand the urgency of publishing when the story is fresh, but readers would benefit more from getting the whole story.

Much of the background information provided on paleontology and digging strategy was interesting when read in the context of anticipating the results. Sadly, the results were not available.

Wait for the sequel!!!