A fascinating look at the latest scientific analysis that peels away the popular myths about dinosaurs. Though there is a lot of science involved the author (Professor of Vertebrate Palaeontolgy and head of Palaeobiology Research at the Uni of Bristol) writes in an easy conversational style that is a pleasure to read, apart from all those rather unpronounceable Latin names for these creatures.
The discovery, in 1996, of a Sinosauropteryx fossil radically changed the perception of dinosaurs, there was evidence of feathers on a body instead of scales. Page thirty-nine has a photo of a perfect skeleton that reveals a fringe of feathers over the top of the animal's head. The first half of the book explores the physical appearance of small flesh-eating animals closely related to birds because they had feathers and some could fly. An oddity is Micropractor, a bird with four wings, which is also classed as a dinosaur
The book gets to the conventional dinosaur world with Edmontosaurus, ten meters in length and had what we expect of such creatures: a scaly skin. A mummy was found in 1884 and years later confirmed that it was a vegetation eater and had hundreds and hundreds of teeth to get through tough plant matter. The Saltasaurus at around thirteen meters in length weighed seven tonnes but larger ones could weigh up to fifty tonnes and be so big making it safe from any potential attacker. In the age of the dinosaurs, there was plenty of water which allowed for marine reptiles like the Stenopterygius to thrive. The photo on page 181 shows this ichthyosaur had a very long jaw filled with dozens of sharp teeth.
The reader might ask how do we know so much about life millions of years ago. The author draws on a huge amount of contemporary scientific knowledge in molecular biology, DNA, the use of electron microscopes, analysis of pigments and other sciences to generate a credible scenario of past life on earth. The book has plenty of images (150) to back up the text and especially the excellent illustrations by Bob Nicholls which open each chapter.
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