Customer Reviews

Unearthing the Dragon

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I'm a friend of the author, so the stars may be biased. I'll try to justify those stars, though. The first positive is that the book is beautifully presented, with excellent design, photographs, and drawings. As a previous reviewer mentioned, this would make a superb gift.

The second is that it presents its topic - developments over the past decade in paleontology - as a totally human endeavor, including all the errors and frustrations as well as breakthroughs and triumphs. The author makes the point that in his last book he wrote that he hoped that new discoveries would prove all he wrote to be incorrect (which indeed happened), and he hopes that this will again occur with this book. He's comfortable both arguing his position with passion while at the same time accepting that change is inevitable, and new discoveries will render his position invalid and lead to new conclusions. Anyone whose had a great science teacher knows that this attitude is science at it's best, and is especially valuable in an area like paleontology where we know a whole lot less than we don't know.

Thirdly, it is especially interesting that all this takes place as a collaboration between East (China) and West, both with long and prestigious, but very different, traditions in paleontology. For those interested in how natural science is REALLY done, this part of the book will be as intruiging as the actual scientific discoveries and conclusions. Most books on China deal with business, cultural, and/or political practices. One would imagine that science is pretty cut and dry, and that scientific "culture shock" between East and West is fairly minimal. This book will convince you otherwise!

Dr. Norell has created an incredible work of non-fiction in this book. His thesis is that birds are in fact the evolutionary descendants of `Feathered Dinosaurs.' This concept was controversial although generally accepted for the past 50 years; yet there was no good paleontological evidence to support the theory. However, Dr. Norell and his colleagues both in America and in China and in several other places around the world have now shown that there is paleontological evidence for feathered dinosaurs.

Dr. Norell, "Curator, Division of Paleontology, American Museum of Natural History" has found with his colleagues a paleontological site in NorthEast China known as the "Liaoning" region, specifically the "Jehol Biota." This particular area has incredible fossil records of the Jurassic Period (between about 110 million and 145 million years old). These fossil records clearly show, in beautifully reproduced photographs by Mick Ellison, that clearly both feathered and hairy dinosaurs existed in that period. And additionally, his research indicates that it is almost incontrovertible that feathers and hair were an evolutionary advantage which helped the organism contain body heat. This starts to lead into the topic of actual transition from cold to warm blooded animals.

In addition to the science, the book is a wonderful and close up cultural study of China. While China is the next pre-eminent modern society to emerge in our days, their ways and patterns of thought in many ways differ widely from Western thought. In addition, even within China itself, there are differences in behavior and world perspective that are hot issues all over China. The book beautifully describes these cultural aspects in both words and pictures and starts to introduce a very interesting potential humanitarian benefit.

As China develops, competition and friction will inevitably evolve between the political components of the United States and China. However, the collegiality of the scientific community, may be one of the most important connections that the United States can maintain with China for mutual benefit. In this manner, perhaps there will be some level of harmony and understanding transmitted on both sides of the ocean.

This book is highly recommended for anyone interested in the development of dinosaurs, specifically as it relates to them being the ancestors of birds. The author's style is highly inviting, and it reads like a very personal story, rather than as a scientific tome. It is a truly excellent piece of work.

___________________________________________
This is an odd sort of book, that can't seem to decide quite what to be. It's an uneasy amalgam of travelogue, pop-science, and junior coffee-table picture-book.

Unlike the previous reviewers, I didn't think it worked very well. The dinosaur pictures are excellent, and dino fans will want to pick up a library copy to eyeball these. The travel photos range from interesting to very odd, but are worth at least a glance. The text that's actually about dinosaurs is pretty interesting, especially the chapter about the National Geographic falling for the faked feathered-dino specimen. The travelogue bits range from pretty good to excruciating. A very scattershot book!

Norell in person is an energetic, enthusiastic guy and a fine speaker. As a pop-science writer... well, I'm glad I just checked this book out from the library. Caveat lector.

Happy reading--
Peter D. Tillman
Consulting Geologist, Tucson & Santa Fe (USA)

Unearthing the Dragon by Mark Norell is a delightfully fascinating and compelling read about Norell's experiences with Chinese culture as he travelled about the country studying its vertebrate fossils. There is especially good information and photos of his experiences including China's amazing feathered dinosaurs. This book is highly recommended for dinosaur affecionados both young and old who also would like to visit China through an admiring visitor's eyes.
Long term dino fans will remember Norell as one of the principals who discovered oviraptors sitting on their nests of eggs.

This is a gorgeously illustrated but haphazardly written book about the feathered dinosaur fossils that have been discovered in China over the past decade. Its subjects are the relationship of dinosaurs to modern birds, the evolution of flight and feathers, new fossil discoveries, recent advances in paleontology and the authors' experiences in China. The book follows neither a chronological pattern recounting the authors' discoveries and research, nor does it develop an idea by progressing from basic concepts to more complex ones. This is unfortunate, because that is the usual approach and works well. Instead ideas and events are presented in no discernable sequence and this detracts from what could have been an excellent book.

The title is a pun on both the discovery of dinosaur fossils as well as of China itself. The authors recount anecdotes from their travels in China and their interactions with various Chinese, in the course of their fossil studies. The book does succeed in painting an intriguing picture of the contrasts that make up modern China. It is less successful in its discussion of dinosaur fossils. Much of the discussion hinges on dinosaur family trees relating to issues such as the origin of feathers and flight. This is a complicated subject and charts or diagrams showing genealogies and family trees are essential, but none are provided. The essential message is that just as all humans are mammals, but not all mammals are humans, birds are descended from dinosaurs, but not all dinosaurs were birds. There is a deus-ex-machina quality to how amazing fossils are pulled out of the cabinets of various Chinese researchers, as if there is an unending supply still in storage. The numerous full color photographs of fossils are very interesting but difficult for a non-specialist to interpret. The picture of a feathered dinosaur on page 184 is a fascinating illustration of how much our concept of dinosaur appearance has changed from the lizard-like creatures of years past.

The weakness of this book is the disorganized presentation of key concepts without the aid of charts and diagrams. Readers may want to try the more conventional and slightly dated, but simple and readable `Walking with Dinosaurs' by Tim Hanes based on the Discovery Channel, show for some background. The important positive contributions of `Unearthing the Dragon' are: 1) the exciting pictures of new fossils showing evidence of dinosaur feathers, 2) the concept that flight, feathers and birds are all separate and distinct concepts, 3) the idea that very many dinosaurs had feathers of some type and finally, 4) the picture of dynamic paleontologic research being carried out in China. Confounding our pre-conceived notion of China as a source of cheap out-sourced goods, we are shown Chinese scientists as worthy, peer collaborators in a fascinating academic field. This, no doubt, is the better way to think of relations with the future superpower.

The photography and art are incomparable, as are the stories. "Unearthing the Dragon" is an instant classic and an easy and enjoyable read. The authors show their humanity, share their adventures and make science exciting and accessible for everyone. It's this year's gift!

This is a short but entertaining book about the Jehol dinosaur finds in Linangong China. Norell was one of the main researchers involved in the effort and has clearly developed a passion for his work and for China. The book moves between funny anecdotes about China, skeptics who refuse to believe birds evolved from dinosaurs (known as BAND - Birds Are Not DInosaurs), to karaoke with other paleontologists (I'll never view Chiappe the same way). The book doesn't get too bogged down in anecdotes though, and provides compelling insights on the fossils found at the site.

An added advantage of this book is that it is littered with beautiful photos of the fossils. This is very useful as Norell often refers to the feathers on a particular fossil, and seeing them right on the same page enhances the reading experience immeasurably.

My one frustration with the book is that sometimes it seemed to meander too quickly in between talking about China and dinosaurs. For Norell, the two are obviously intermingled. However, for the reader, the switch might seem abrupt. Nonetheless, what he does mention does tend to be interesting, and the book is short enough that readers won't ever feel too bogged down.

Overall, a good addition to anyone interested in later Cretaceous dinosaurs.

I ordered this book with great anticipation, after having just read "Dragon Hunter," about Roy Chapman Andrews, and "Dinosaurs of the Flaming Cliffs," by Michael Novacek. "Unearthing the Dragon" is a beautiful book, with gorgeous design and dozens of color photographs. And it does contain a fair amount of information. However, on the whole I found it to be more anecdotal than informative, and Norell's anecdotes kept falling flat. Time after time he would describe an event which he obviously found humerous, outrageous, or whatever, and all I could think was, "I guess you had to be there." I will be keeping my copy, mostly for the photographs and illustrations, but I doubt it will ever get another full read.

The Pictures are lovely and the book is written to give you a feeling for the country of China and it's people. You can appreciate the materials that are found in China more intimately. I feel the author wants to show his enthusiasm for the country of China. since he is so involved there.

Nice easy read - Norell interweaves an array of stories as well as plenty of excitement about the fabulous fossil discoveries. Made me wish that I'd been on the digs with him! Some of the full page non-paleo photography is a bit 'arty'- I would have preferred more shots of the finds.

Good book - reommended.