The dinosaur textbook.

---

Product Description

Written for non-specialists, this detailed survey of dinosaur origins, diversity, and extinction is designed as a series of successive essays covering important and timely topics in dinosaur paleobiology, such as "warm-bloodedness," birds as living dinosaurs, the new, non-flying feathered dinosaurs, dinosaur functional morphology, and cladistic methods in systematics. Its explicitly phylogenetic approach to the group is that taken by dinosaur specialists. The book is not an edited compilation of the works of many individuals, but a unique, cohesive perspective on Dinosauria. Lavishly illustrated with hundreds of new, specially commissioned illustrations by John Sibbick, world-famous illustrator of dinosaurs, the volume includes multi-page drawings as well as sketches and diagrams. First edition Hb (1996): 0-521-44496-9 David E. Fastovsky is Professor of Geosciences at the University of Rhode Island. Fastovsky, the author of numerous scientific publications dealing with Mesozoic vertebrate faunas and their ancient environments, is also scientific co-Editor of Geology. He has undertaken extensive fieldwork studying dinosaurs and their environments in Montana, North Dakota, Arizona, Mexico, and Mongolia. David B. Weishampel is a professor at the Center for Functional Anatomy and Evolution at Johns Hopkins University, School of Medicine. Weishampel is best known for discovering, researching, and naming several rare European dinosaur species. During the 1980s Weishampel gained fame for his work with American paleontologist Jack Horner and later named the famous plant-eating, egg-laying Orodromeus, Horner. Now, a decade after his pioneering studies with Horner, Weishampel is most widely known for his current work on the Romanian dinosaur fauna. He is the author and co-author of many titles, including The Dinosaur Papers, 1676-1906 (Norton, 2003); The Dinosauria, (University of California, 1990); and Dinosaurs of the East Coast, (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996).

---

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #130379 in Books
• Published on: 2005-02-07
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 500 pages

From Library Journal
This book treads the line between a scholarly presentation and a readable popular account; its intended use as a textbook for a college-level course is reflected in the highlighting of key concepts, the inclusion of a bibliography with each chapter, and a text packed to capacity with information since the authors hope to present a complete overview of the state of dinosaur science. This presentation succeeds well in two ways: first, in giving an idea of the scientific process by which paleontologists learn, share, and build on information and, second, in explaining background concepts in biology. Both authors are authorities in the field (Weishampel edited the standard reference Dinosauria, LJ 3/15/91) and definitely know their stuff. Challenging but very well written and informative.?Amy Brunvand, Univ. of Utah Lib., Salt Lake City
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
Such is the popularity of dinosaurs that an intended college text will probably find even elementary schoolers hot to devour it. Acknowledging this, Fastovsky and Weishampel strive to write as accessibly as possible while also discussing "dinosaurs as professionals understand them." They succeed wonderfully, and the copious illustrations and their presentation of the ancient creatures within the overall history of Earth's biosphere make their effort more than a gallery of great beasts that will please only the kids. Good taxonomic and general subject indexing ensure their text a job in many ready reference collections, too. So consider at least two copies. Ray Olson

Review
"I'm hard pressed to think of another available book as accessible as this for a novice to learn about dinosaurs." American Scientist

"The presentation of the book is superb...for palaeontologists it is the best single book on the subject." Historical Biology

"Amply fulfils its objective of providing an authoritative, stimulating and lively introduction to dinosaurs...recommend[ed] to interested general readers as the best available and thoroughly accessible account of dinosaurs and how they fit in with current scientific thinking." New Scientist

"Written in an easy, accessible style, this text will appeal to the non-specialist with an interest in dinosaurs. A series of enjoyable essays...a comprehensive text that is well suited for an entry level course on dinosaurs. Nicely illustrated, with a short bibliography at the end of each essay in the form of a list of important readings." - Southeastern Naturalist

"...a very interesting and fascinating book... Very well illustrated.... The authors are true specialists.... This book is addressed to a large public: novice and/or keen readers, researchers and teachers.... Concise and clear, the book will give satisfaction to most readers."
-Geobios - Analyses de livres

---

Customer Reviews

a specialised text
The book is meant as a textbook at the undergraduate or graduate level. For readers who are perhaps inclined to major in paleontology. It is not a layman's book, like a typical "Dinosaur" book positioned towards readers who want to ooh and aah. Such books are indeed very important to attract a general readership to this field. But, so to speak, those books derive from this book (and others like it). Yes, maybe much of this book is "dry", as some others have remarked. So too are most advanced texts in most scientific fields.

However, if you don't have much of a technical background in dinosaur reading, the book can still be interesting reading. Provided you are willing to put in some effort. There is substantial jargon, as in any field. But many descriptions of dinosaur behaviour are still compelling reading and quite understandable.

Plus, this second edition [written in 2005] also includes fresh excavation results in places like China. Which until recent years have had relatively little dinosaur digging. There have been significant finds that have enhanced our knowledge of dinosaurs.

An amazing book on the evolutionary history of dinosaurs.
The number one complaint I have heard about this book is that it is too dry; that it does not focus enough on the dinosaurs, and instead focuses on cladograms, evolution, and just in general, things that aren't dinosaurs. I suggest to those complaining to read the title of the book, "The Evolution and Extinction of Dinosaurs". No, it's not "Everything You Want to Know About Dinosaurs," and no, it's not "Information About Dinosaurs Themselves, And Not Their Evolution" either. This book is about what the title suggests it is about: the evolution and extinction of dinosaurs, and I find that it does an amazing job of explaining just that. If you are looking for a book containing everything you need to know about dinosaurs themselves, I believe one of Weishampel's other works, "The Dinosauria", will suit your needs.

The book, as others have mentioned, is divided into 4 parts:

Part I: Setting the Stage goes over everything you'll need to know to appreciate the rest of the book. The introduction chapter reviews the process of collecting fossils, and introduces the reader to paleontology in general. The next chapter describes how we analyze the fossils and discusses techniques to date fossils such as chronostratigraphy, lithostratigraphy etc. Chapter 3 then moves on to discussing cladograms and how we graphically represent evolutionary trees. Chapters 4 and 5 then discuss the very origins of dinosaurs, starting with the very origins of chordates. Overall, this isn't particularly interesting if what you really want to know about is dinosaurs, but it still provides a good background to paleontology. This section also discusses how dinosaurs came to exist, in terms of evolution, which in my opinion is just as important as what evolutionary processes took place during and after the time of the dinosaurs.

Part II: Ornithischia and Part III: Saurischia discuss the dinosaurs themselves and follow a very intuitive and organized format. Each chapter discusses a different set of dinosaurs and follows the same basic organization: a "Lives and Lifestyles" section, containing what we know of feeding habits, mating, etc, a section on evolution, and a section on the history of the group's discovery. The only chapters that deviate from this are 13- The Origin of Birds, which discusses the ancestry of living birds and the the evolution of feathered dinosaurs, and chapter 14- The Early Evolution of Birds, which, as can be guessed, discusses the evolution of actual birds from dinosaurs. This section contains a lot of information about the dinosaurs themselves, as well as information concerning the evolution of the various types of dinosaurs. Although it does not contain a as much information on the dinosaurs themselves as you'd find from other books, as I have mentioned, that is not the main focus. This book excels, however, at providing detailed information on the evolution and history of discovery of each clade, and these sections offer the most specific evolutionary information in the book, while other sections describe evolution in terms of dinosaurs as a whole and patterns in evolution.

Part IV: Endothermy, Environments, And Extinction takes the focus off of the dinosaurs themselves and discusses three key points. Chapter 15 discusses the evidence of warm-bloodedness in dinosaurs, and is one of the most interesting chapters in the book, in my opinion. Chapter 16 tracks the evolutionary patterns of dinosaurs through time, while chapters 17 and 18 discuss the various mass extinctions affecting the dinosaurs, including the most famous one 65 million years ago. Other than chapter 15, I would consider this the driest section of the book. There are some interesting points, but overall it just doesn't seem to hold my attention.

Overall, the book is very informative and very suitable for use in college courses, or even by the amateur paleontologist. This book doesn't offer an amazing breadth of information regarding the actual characteristics of dinosaurs, but it's really not supposed to. What this book DOES offer is a very in-depth look at the evolutionary tree of dinosaurs: the evolution of dinosaurs as a whole from the primitive archosaurs of pre-mesozoic times, the evolution of the hundreds of species of dinosaurs that came about during the mesozoic, and the evolution of the descendants of the dinosaurs: birds. This is the best book I have read on the subject of the hsitory of dinosaurs, including their rise, their downfall, and their legacy.

Like many others, I used this book for a course. The edition I am reviewing is the second edition, published in 2005. I noticed almost no typos or grammatical errors, so I assume reviewers complaining of such were reviewing the first edition, and these issues were fixed in the reprint.

This books really needs an editor...
... way too many mispellings and grammatical errors for a college-level book. I was disappointed.