Mesozoic Vertebrate Life: [Hardcover]

Darren H. Tanke (Editor), Kenneth Carpenter (Editor)

Book Description

Series: Life of the Past | Publication Date: June 1, 2001

This collective volume presents the current knowledge about the Mesozoic reptiles of Patagonia. This is the first book to ever to examine the Mesozoic era in the English language, and the first in any language to treat it in an entire decade. The contributors cover a great amount of material, describing the phylogenetic relationships among the reptiles, their diversity, evolution, and paleobiology. The Patagonian region had a distinctive fauna, which has become much better known over the last 40 years, sometimes due to amazing discoveries. With copious illustrations, this book provides more than a glimpse of a fascinating, ancient past.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Research papers on dinosaurs continue to increase in number, and many bring readers new and thoughtful ideas about the biology of these ancient, dramatic animals. A growing number of books for public and professionals focus on Mesozoic animals, dinosaurs in particular; this one is for professionals. The 33 papers essentially cover dinosaurs of North America, but there are papers on Chinese and Patagonian dinosaurs. Most papers are systematic studies, and some include descriptions of new taxa, but there are also useful studies on dinosaur anatomy, biomechanics, gastroliths, and even sociobiology. A section on ichnology (footprints) examines traces of other animals than dinosaurs; four papers discuss paleopathologies, showing how much about extinct animals can be gleaned from the condition of preserved bones, and another treats dinosaurs in fiction, with many illustrations derived from novels, comics, and other literature sources. About 20 color paintings, restorations of important dinosaurs in lifelike settings, are included along with photographs of the critical feather—like features on some recently discovered Chinese dinosaur fossils. Unfortunately, many of the black—and—white photographs are rather muddy. A useful book for many paleontologists, at a reasonable price. Upper—division undergraduates and up.D. Bardack, emeritus, University of Illinois at Chicago, 2002mar CHOICE

(D. Bardack, emeritus, University of Illinois at Chicago, 2002mar CHOICE 2002)

"A useful book for many paleontologists, at a reasonable price." —Choice, March 2002

(Choice )

About the Author

DARREN TANKE works for the Dinosaur Research Program at the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology in Alberta.

KENNETH CARPENTER is an authority on dinosaurs and Mesozoic marine reptiles and is affiliated with the Denver Museum of Natural History. He is author of Eggs, Nests, and Baby Dinosaurs (Indiana) and has edited important collections of papers dealing with dinosaurs, including Dinosaur Systematics: Approaches and Perspectives (with Philip J. Currie) and The Armored Dinosaurs (forthcoming).

Product Details

• Hardcover: 352 pages
• Publisher: Indiana University Press (June 1, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0253339073
• ISBN-13: 978-0253339072
• Product Dimensions: 10.3 x 7.3 x 1.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,224,402 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #52 in Books > Professional & Technical > Professional Science > Biological Sciences > Paleontology > Vertebrate

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars By "Mesozic Life" you mean "dinosaurs"..., May 2, 2002

By 

Robert Gay "Rob" (Page, Az.) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Mesozoic Vertebrate Life: (Hardcover)

The title is misleading. If you're looking for information on pterosaurs, plesiosaurs, or Mesozoic crocs, this book probably isn't for you. However, if you want to get the skinny on Tyrannosaurus arm movement and what they were used for (yeah, amazing, eh?), new dinosaurs, and generally good information on dinosaurs, this is a good book to consider. Heavy on the second half of the Mesozoic, the book none the less manages to have a good variety of papers about various aspects of dinosaurian paleobiology, phylogeny, and behavior. A great volume.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Mesozoic Vertebrate Life, November 21, 2002

By 

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

This review is from: Mesozoic Vertebrate Life: (Hardcover)

Mesozoic Vertebrate Life Edited By Darren H. Tanke and Kenneth Carpenter with Michael W. Skrepnick as the art editor is a new research inspired by the paleontology of Philip J. Currie is an excellent book... a book for the advanced dinosaur enthusiast. This book goes into detail about Theropods, Sauropods, Ornithischians, Dinosaurian Faunas, Paleopathologies, Ichnology, and Dinosaurs and Human History.

This book has a whole host of contributors(46 to be exact). All of the men and women are tops in their respective fields, so this book is like reading a medical book with all of the resplendent medical terms. Ah, but doen't give up, there are some very excellent drawings that help explain what the author is talking about, so your not left in the dust choking on the dust. I've noticed that the best dinosaur book on detail are written in this style where a collaboration of many authors that are expert and on the cutting edge with break throughs are written this way.

I would say this, the fossil record is telling the finder something... the finder has to study what he has found and make a determination and conclusion as to what he has found. All of this takes education, trial and error, and luck. So, you have the best guesses written here... things may stay as they were presented or they may change with insight, only time will tell.

If you are more than just a casual dinosaur devotee, than this is the book for you. It is light on the early Mesozoic, but it makes up for it in the late Mesozoic. The book is mainly composed of North American Mesozoic, but there is representation in China, and South America included.

There are excellent references included with there abstracts. This s not a book for children, this is an advanced case study of the dinosaura of the Mesozoic time. Those wishing for a book that compares jaws and endocarnial anatomy will relish this book. There is even an abstract on "The Impact of Sedimentology on Vertebrate Track Studies" which I found fascinating. I didn't know they went to that much detail, in models of track formation show clearly that the layer upon which the foot descends retains the most information of the impactor. Stresses are distributed radially away from the impact site and decrease exponentially with distance.

If you want detail this book has it. There are seven sections as I mentioned above, and they are divided into 33 chapters. This took a while to read and digest the information. This would make an interesting additions to a home library.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Advanced articles on dinosaurs, May 30, 2007

By 

Calvin Olson "chess expert and freelance proo... (Vallejo, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Mesozoic Vertebrate Life: (Hardcover)

Despite the deceptively simple title, this book only covers dinosaurs (although there is a mention of mammal tracks in the chapters on ichnology). Further, the 33 individual papers (except for the last one on Dinosaurs in Fiction) are for advanced students and professionals. It would behoove you to have already read A.S. Romer's Osteology of the Reptiles and The Vertebrate Body as well as E.H. Colbert's Evolution of the Vertebrates and Michael Benton's Vertebrate Paleontology and Evolution before embarking on this book.
Still, if you already have the equivalent of a good undergraduate grounding in the field of paleontology, you will find this book a fascinating read. Well worth the money as long as you know what you're getting.