"My Beloved Brontosaurus: On the Road with Old Bones, New Science, and our favourite dinosaurs" by Brian Switek

 

Publisher: Scientific American/Farrar, Straus and Giroux

Copyright: 2013

ISBN: 9780374135065

An interesting book that traces the history of the dinosaur formerly known as the Brontosaurus, that was renamed Apatosaurus, and then renamed Brontosaurus in 2015, and now has I believe three species. This happened two years after this book was published, which I'm rather sure Mr. Switek is happy about.

This book does an extremely good job of both the history of palaeontology, and that of the Brontosaurus itself. It goes into the details of discovery, the people involved, and the naming controversy. The naming of species of dinosaur is a complicated process that was unfortunately not too well regulated in the past, as it was common for different names to be given by different discoverers to what turned out to be the same species. This was due in part to lack of communications, pride, and many other things. Now-a-days things are much more established and many of the previous errors have been corrected.

As I work in the field of palaeontology myself I found it to be an interesting read, and quite enlightening as I haven't looked into the history as much as I likely should. I am grateful however that our lab is primarily concerned with cretaceous dinosaurs, as it is nowhere near big enough to have to deal with something the size of brontosaurus (but then again we didn't have these guys around here anyway).

A well written and researched book. However, I differ with Mr. Switek's opinion as I believe Styracosaurus is definitely the better dinosaur.

"Dinosaurs: A Field Guide" by Gregory S. Paul

 

Publisher: A. & C. Black

Copyright: 2010

ISBN: 9781408130742

This was a very well written book that gives a lot of valuable information to the reader, unfortunately it is also extremely difficult to find and I had to obtain it through interlibrary loan.

Mr. Paul takes you on a very informative journey through pretty much all aspects of the science of palaeontology, and provides the reader with lots of information. This area of science however is constantly changing, so I sincerely hope that he will consider doing an update to this book as many of the books on palaeontology are either too technical for the layperson, or are primarily geared towards younger enthusiasts. These younger enthusiasts are our future palaeontologists  and this book spans the gap in material.

Highly recommended, but be prepared to have to hunt for it.

"The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs: A New History of a Lost World" by Steve Brusatte

 

Publisher: William Morrow

Copyright: 2018

ISBN: 9780062490421

It has taken me a little while to get around to reading this book due to a bit of a backlog I’ve had to work through, that and working for a living tends to chew up a few hours in the day - mind you the latter isn’t much of an excuse as I work in Palaeontology all day long. But in any case the wait was well worth it as this book was a fascinating read.

Dr. Brusatte takes the reader on a journey from the Permian Period some 252 million years ago right up to the time of the Late Cretaceous and the extinction of the dinosaurs due to a rather pesky comet/meteor that hit the earth in the Yucatan Peninsula 66 million years ago. Even though this extinction event was hotly debated by many for a number of years it is now accepted that this is what brought the Cretaceous and the reign of the dinosaurs to an end - with exception of the birds that is, yes birds are descended from dinosaurs. For a good read on this check out “T-Rex and the Crater of Doom” by Walter Alvarez which I reviewed back on November 23, 2020.

The book starts by introducing the reader the world of Permian Period and explains the dawn of the dinosaurs, how they became more dominant, the effects of continent drift on their distribution. It then moves on through the next couple of chapters to discuss the tyrant dinosaurs, and of course many peoples' favourite bad boy T. rex.

There is an excellent discussion on how dinosaurs likely took flight, and in each section there is a good discussion of the dominant species, and how they lived. The final chapter deals with the end of the dinosaurs, and how they died out.

This book was extremely informative, and would make a wonderful introduction to anybody who is interested in dinosaurs, it is an easy read that would be suitable for readers from the higher elementary school grades (after all everybody knows an elementary student who knows all the dinosaurs, right?) right though to seniors. I believe it would also make a great introductory text for first year university as this is the type of book that most students would actually read, as opposed to some of the textbooks typically assigned.

Highly recommended.