"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 First Fossil Hunters: Dinosaurs, Mammoths, and Myth in Greek and Roman Times" by Adrienne Mayor

 

Publisher: Princeton University Press

Copyright: 2010 (Revised Edition)

ISBN: 9780691150130

This was without a doubt one of the better books on the history of palaeontology I have read recently. I came across this pretty much by accident as I was looking for some reference material that would give me insight into where the origins of the mythology of dragons might have come from as at the time I was writing an article on the subject. I'm not exactly sure as I write this exactly what got me interested in the topic to begin with, but then again that was a few years ago, but it likely could have been something one of the school children asked me while I was touring them through the our lab. Prior to finding this book, I was getting rather frustrated as there didn't seem to be much material on the subject - which was rather annoying to say the least. 

After finding this resource things began to click into place, as there really isn't a whole lot of information on the topic. As I learned from this book there is a great deal of fossil evidence in the Mediterranean basin with regard to palaeomammalogy, but very little prior to this as the area was quite geologically active. It also didn't help that many palaeontologists weren't overly interested in the topic, which was a shame.

This book has given me sufficient that I believe the mythological Griffin could easily have been influenced by the discovery of either Protoceratops, or Psittacosaurus, both of whom are from the Cretaceous period. But this still didn't satisfy my curiosity about dragons, after all they supposedly looked quite a bit different. As I moven through the text I feel it is rather likely that "dragons" were possibly influenced by prehistoric mammals such as Samotherium a giant Miocene giraffe found as the name suggests in Samos Greece - at least the skull sure looks like the head of a classical dragon, and with a long neck I feel it's a pretty good candidate.

Dr. Mayor has done a fantastic amount of valuable research on this topic, and this book is well worth reading and would make a great addition to any library. I would also recommend it as reference material to any Classics, Archaeology, or Palaeontology professors as a great resource. I look forward to reading her other work.