Dinosaurs Rediscovered: The Scientific Revolution in Paleontology
Michael J. Benton
Thames & Hudson
Nonfiction, Dinosaurs/Science
Themes: Dinosaurs and Prehistoric Animals
****+
Description
Since their discovery, dinosaur fossils have puzzled and fascinated people, spawning all manner of speculation. What kind of animals were they? How did they live? What did they look like? When did they first arise, and what made them die out? In recent decades, new discoveries and technologies have led to a veritable revolution in our understanding of the "terrible lizards", answering all manner of questions and leading to countless fascinating new ones.
Review
I've had an armchair interest in dinosaurs since childhood (nothing remotely scientific or intelligent, naturally,
more of a generalized awe and fascination). Lately, it seems like every other day I see a new article about an amazing
find or reinterpretation, brought about by new methods of examining fossils and breakthroughs in other fields. Since
most of my meager dinosaur library is rather dusty by now, I thought it high time to pick up something newer to see
what's changed, and this looked like just the thing.
The author, a working paleontologist, has seen firsthand how the field has been radically transformed since the 1980's,
and offers both personal and professional observations of the shifts and breakthroughs and debates. Using terminology
friendly to the average reader, he explains such things as how the dinosaur family tree has been reinterpreted, how it
was determined that dinosaurs were most likely warm-blooded, how new technology and tools borrowed from architecture
programs helped answer questions about locomotion and bite strength and probable feeding strategies, even how
similarities with bird feathers led to the first-ever determination of dinosaur colorations and patterns. All of this
has transformed the field from something more speculative to somewhat harder science, though of course there remain
innumerable questions to be answered, and some that will likely never be answered (barring time travel, of course).
Several illustration plates and photographs are included, as well as graphs, though the latter are sometimes a bit
over the head of the lay reader (at least, this lay reader). It culminates, of course, with a chapter on the
dinosaurs' extinction and the wider acceptance of the massive meteor impact theory, though there is some indication
the dinosaurs were already in some decline globally before then.
While the terminology and science and names could get a little thick now and again, on the whole Dinosaurs
Rediscovered is a fascinating look at how far paleontology and dinosaur studies have come in a few decades, a
revolution that is still ongoing. I might be stretching a slight bit with the extra half-star, but the subject is
just so awesome (in both the technical "awe-inspiring" and colloquial "totally cool" senses of the word) I consider
it earned.