How to Build a Dinosaur: Extinction Doesn't Have to Be Forever [Hardcover]

Jack Horner (Author), James Gorman (Author)

Book Description

Release date: March 19, 2009 | ISBN-10: 0525951040 | ISBN-13: 978-0525951049 | Edition: 1ST

A world-renowned paleontologist reveals groundbreaking science that trumps science fiction: how to grow a living dinosaur

Over a decade after Jurassic Park, Jack Horner and his colleagues in molecular biology labs are in the process of building the technology to create a real dinosaur.

Based on new research in evolutionary developmental biology on how a few select cells grow to create arms, legs, eyes, and brains that function together, Jack Horner takes the science a step further in a plan to "reverse evolution" and reveals the awesome, even frightening, power being acquired to recreate the prehistoric past. The key is the dinosaur's genetic code that lives on in modern birds- even chickens. From cutting-edge biology labs to field digs underneath the Montana sun, How to Build a Dinosaur explains and enlightens an awesome new science.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

Review

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

About the Author

Jack Horner is regents professor of paleontology at Montana State University, and probably the best-known paleontologist in the world. He is the recipient of a MacArthur "genius" award and the author of several books on dinosaurs.

James Gorman is deputy science editor of The New York Times. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Dutton Adult; 1ST edition (March 19, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0525951040
• ISBN-13: 978-0525951049
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.7 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (24 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #759,189 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #13 in Books > Professional & Technical > Professional Science > Biological Sciences > Paleontology > Paleobiology

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

28 of 30 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Paleontology unlike anything you've seen before March 26, 2009

By Enjolras TOP 1000 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

This is a new and refreshing look at paleontology. While the book is nominally about turning a bird into a dinosaur, it is really about exciting new developments in paleontology. Horner shows how paleontology is expanding beyond digging for dinosaurs and moving into molecular biology and evolutionary development (evo-devo). Horner weaves several different fields of biology and shows how inter-disciplinary studies have revolutionized the field. He chronicles the work of Mary Schweitzer, who discovered red blood cells and (perhaps) cartilage in a 68-million year old T-rex, and Hans Larson, who is investigating ancestral genes in chicken embryos. I had followed news from paleontology relatively closely for a lay observer, but even I was shocked at some of the evo-devo research currently being done.

Hopefully, this book will inspire more students to go into biology. Turning a chicken into a dinosaur might be just the right hook to stimulate interest in these exciting new developments in evo-devo.

My one suggestion for the book is that because it covers so many fields, Horner ends up summarizing or quoting the works of others. He tells their stories effectively. But at some point, I wonder if perhaps it would have been better to produce a joint book, with articles from several of the contributors in the field. However, it is also useful to have one voice to guide the reader through the science. Since Horner is not a native to molecular sciences (his expertise is traditional paleontology), he is perhaps better suited to explaining the complexities of genetics to lay readers.

P.S. - Be sure to check out the Discovery Channel's documentary (Dinosaurs: Return To Life?) on this topic. It is a nice complement to the book.

16 of 18 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars A great idea stretched to fill 246 pages May 17, 2009

By Franco Folini

Format:Hardcover

There is a recurring problem with American authors: apparently a writer must produce a minimum number of pages in order to publish a book, even when the core ideas can only fill half of them. In this case the mix is: 30% description of the great idea on how to test evolution by "recreating" a dinosaur starting from a chicken; 50% repetitions of the same idea over and over; 20% irrelevant and boring descriptions of marginal details.
IMHO reducing everything down to a 100 pages would make this a perfect book.
It's like mixing half a glass of Bordeaux with half a glass of water. You can't avoid thinking how much better would be enjoying the pure wine, without the water!

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars How To Jumpstart Your Interest In Building A Dinosaur April 20, 2009

By Shelby Lee

Format:Hardcover

Let me preface this review by clarifying that this is not the first time I've been exposed to this body of research. Watching the Discovery Channel special in early 2008, I became so fascinated with the material that I dug up as much information as I could and wrote a paper about the possibility of bringing back dinosaurs, mammoths, sabre-tooth cats, etc. Since then, I've followed the research closely -- particularly that of Dr. Larsson -- and when I began editing the paper again this year "for fun" and stumbled upon this book for preorder by chance, I was ecstatic.

I am also a long, longtime fan and admirer of Dr. Horner, who I remember fondly on my tv set as a child, talking to me about dinosaurs while I listened raptly.

The book itself tends to meander every which way, although all in the scope of the fossil paleontology and microbiology community, charting efforts all across the board (and globe) until now. I suppose if you're looking for a very specialized sort of thing, it'll seem scatterbrained, and the real "meat" of what you're dying for is in the last 1/3 of the book. But pay close attention, and be patient; you'll be glad you did. Dr. Horner and Mr. Gorman are great writers, and storytellers. This is a treat to read.

It also makes quite a stirring case in the end regarding ethical, financial, and philosophical issues; I believe this is no mistake on the author's part, someone who is clearly reaching out to the public for both their interest, their awe, their faith in the value of the work, and their $$$ investment. No doubt, Horner is beginning to understand the gravity of the work being done here: if he doesn't push for it, no one will. And for a guy who consulted all three JP films (read: one of the many, but probably most fervent, who want nothing more than to see and touch and smell the hot breathe of a dinosaur in their own lifetime -- myself included!), a guy who is embedded in the public worldview of paleontology itself (along with Robert T. Bakker): he'll get it done. Surely. To say nothing of Dr. Larsson's work, itself a major focus of the book, although it's not being done explicitly for this purpose (at least, publicly). This kind of research is what drove me to change my major to evolutionary biology/genetics. This is the kind of research *I* want to do, someday. If there's anyone who's got Dr. Horner's back, it's me.

In short, since this has been so long: GOOD DAMN BOOK. (Neanderthal-ized for efficiency). Dinonerds everywhere, buy it. Read it. Love it. It's nothing truly revolutionary, but it's a good story. And a good pitch. And worth your money.