Staff Picks
Dinosaur Books for Grown Ups
- Sara M.
- Thursday, April 18
Collection
Kids love dinosaurs, and there are lots of great books for kids about them. But what about the rest of us? Check out some of these fantastic books about thunder lizards for adults - there are memoirs, histories of paleontology, art books, and up to date science on what dinosaurs looked like, how they behaved, and how we know. If you haven't been keeping up with modern discoveries in paleontology, pick up a book from this list and you may be surprised at how much things have changed!
The Complete Dinosaur
Published in 2012
Dinosaur Art II
The Cutting Edge of Paleoart
Published in 2017
A paleoartist is an illustrator who specialises in the science and art of reconstructing ancient animals and their world. In Dinosaur Art, ten of the top contemporary paleoartists reveal a selection of their work and exclusively discuss their working methods and distinct styles. Filled with breathtaking artwork - some never before seen - and cutting edge paleontology, this is a treasure trove for dinosaur enthusiasts, art lovers and budding illustrators.
Prehistoric Life
[The Definitive Visual History of Life on Earth]
Published in 2012
With an extensive catalog at its heart, "Prehistoric Life" profiles hundreds of fascinating species in incredible detail; features breathtaking, state-of-the-art images; explores the concept of geological time; and explains the classification of species and how the evidence for their evolution is preserved and can be deciphered.
The Dinosaurs Rediscovered
How a Scientific Revolution is Rewriting History
Published in 2019
Over the past twenty years, the study of dinosaurs has changed from natural history to a true scientific discipline. New technologies have revealed secrets locked in the prehistoric bones in ways that nobody predicted - we can now work out the colour of dinosaurs, their bite forces, top speeds, and even how they cared for their young. Remarkable new fossil finds, such as giant sauropod dinosaur skeletons from Patagonia, dinosaurs with feathers from China, and even a tiny dinosaur tail in Burmese amber - complete down to every detail of its filament-like feathers, skin, bones, and mummified tail muscles - have caused media sensations. New fossils are the lifeblood of modern palaeobiology of course, but it is the advances in technologies and methods that have allowed the revolution in the scope and confidence of the field. Dinosaurs Rediscovered gathers together all the latest palaeontological evidence and takes us behind the scenes on the expeditions and in museum laboratories, tracing the transformation of dinosaur study from its roots in antiquated natural history to a highly technical, computational, and indisputably scientific field today. Benton explores what we know of the world of the dinosaurs, how dinosaur remains are found and excavated, and especially how palaeontologists read the details of the life of the dinosaurs from the fossils - their colours, their growth, feeding and locomotion, how they grew from egg to adult, how they sensed the world, and even whether we will ever be able to bring them back to life. Dinosaurs are still very much a part of our world.
The Last Days of the Dinosaurs
An Asteroid, Extinction, and the Beginning of Our World
Published in 2022
"The Last Days of the Dinosaurs by Riley Black tells the story of the extinction of these prehistoric creatures and the beginning of our world ..."-- Provided by publisher.
The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs
A New History of a Lost World
Published in 2018
A sweeping narrative scientific history that tells the epic story of the dinosaurs, examining their origins, their habitats, their extinction, and their living legacy. Print run 75,000.
The Fossil Hunter
Dinosaurs, Evolution, and the Woman Whose Discoveries Changed the World
Published in 2011
Chronicles the life of Mary Anning who became a world-renowned paleontologist. Mary's peculiar finds helped lay the groundwork for Charles Darwin's theory of evolution.
The Sauropod Dinosaurs
Life in the Age of Giants
Published in 2016
The most massive land animals ever to have lived, sauropods roamed widely across the continents through most of the "Age of Dinosaurs" from about 220 to 65 million years ago. They reached incredible sizes, giving rise to the question: Why were they so big? Early guesses suggested that they gained protection from predators by virtue of their size, which also allowed them to reach the tops of trees in order to eat leaves and conifer needles. More recent hypotheses hold that they needed a long and complicated digestive tract due to their consumption of low-nutrient food sources. Whatever the explanation, there is little doubt that natural selection produced something extraordinary when the Sauropoda diversified into a wide variety of species. The Sauropod Dinosaurs shows how these amazing creatures raised and defended their young, traveled in groups, and interacted with the rich diversity of Mesozoic plants and animals. The book serves as the best reference available on these bygone giants.
Paleoart
Visions of the Prehistoric Past
Published in 2017
"It was 1830 when English scientist Henry De la Beche painted the first piece of paleoart, a dazzling, deliciously macabre vision of prehistoric reptiles battling underwater dinosaurs, woolly mammoths, cavemen, and other creatures, shaping our understanding of the primeval past through their exhilirating images. In this unprededented new book, writer Zoë Lescaze and artist Walton Ford present the astonishing history of peleoart from 1830-1990. These are not cave paintings produced thousands of years ago, but modern visions of prehistory: stunning paintings, prints, drawings, sculptures, mosaics, and murals that mingle scientific fact with unbridled fantasy. The collection provides an in-depth look at this neglected niche of art history and shows how the artists charged with imagining extinct creatures often projected their own asthetic whims onto prehistory, rendering the primordial past with dashes of Romanticism, Impressionism, Fauvism, and Art Nouveau, among other influences."-- Book jacket.
Dinosaurs Without Bones
Dinosaur Lives Revealed by Their Trace Fossils
Published in 2014
Martin introduces readers to the world of ichnology, the study of traces and trace fossils -- such as tracks, trails, burrows, nests, toothmarks, and other vestiges of behavior -- and how through these remarkable clues, help scientists explore and intuit the rich and complicated lives of dinosaurs during the Mesozoic era.
Dinosaurs
The Grand Tour
Published in 2019
"Now completely revised and updated: a compendium of more than 300 dinosaurs, their key anatomy, geology, and history at a glance"-- Provided by publisher.
The Monster's Bones
The Discovery of T. Rex and How It Shook Our World
Published in 2022
From prehistory to present day, from remote Patagonia to the unforgiving badlands of the American West to the penthouses of Manhattan, this riveting narrative follows a fearless paleontologist who, after unearthing the first T-Rex fossils, saved NY's struggling American Museum of Natural History.
The Dinosaur Artist
Obsession, Betrayal and the Quest for Earth's Ultimate Trophy
Published in 2018
"In 2012, a New York auction catalogue made an unusual offering: "a superb Tyrannosaurus skeleton." In fact, Lot 49135 consisted of a nearly complete T. bataar, a close cousin to T. rex, the most famous animal that ever lived. The fossils now on display in Manhattan had been unearthed in Mongolia, some 6,000 miles away. At 8 feet high and 24 feet long, the specimen was spectacular, and the final gavel signaled a winning bid of well over $1 million. Eric Prokopi, a thirty-eight-year-old Floridian, was the man who had brought this extraordinary skeleton to market. A onetime swimmer who spent his teenage years searching for shark teeth, Prokopi's singular obsession with fossils generated a thriving business hunting, preparing, and selling specimens, to clients ranging from natural history museums to avid private collectors like actor Leonardo DiCaprio. But there was a problem. This time, facing financial strain, had Prokopi gone too far? As the T. bataar went to auction, a network of paleontologists alerted the government of Mongolia to the eye-catching lot. As an international custody battle ensued, fueled by geopolitics, Prokopi watched as his own world unraveled. In the tradition of The Orchid Thief, The Dinosaur Artist is a stunning work of narrative journalism about humans' relationship with natural history and a seemingly intractable conflict between science and commerce. A story that stretches from Florida's Land O' Lakes to the Gobi Desert, The Dinosaur Artist illuminates the history of fossil collecting--a wildly popular, yet sometimes murky, risky business, populated by eccentrics and obsessives, where the lines between poacher and hunter, collector and smuggler, enthusiast and opportunist, can easily blur. In her first book ... writer Paige Williams has given readers an irresistible story that spans continents, cultures, and millennia as she examines the question of who, ultimately, owns the past"--Jacket.
Pterosaurs
Natural History, Evolution, Anatomy
Published in 2013
"For 150 million years, the skies didn't belong to birds--they belonged to the pterosaurs. These flying reptiles, which include the pterodactyls, shared the world with the nonavian dinosaurs until their extinction 65 million years ago. Some pterosaurs, such as the giant azhdarchids, were the largest flying animals of all time, with wingspans exceeding thirty feet and standing heights comparable to modern giraffes. This richly illustrated book takes an unprecedented look at these astonishing creatures, presenting the latest findings on their anatomy, ecology, and extinction. Pterosaurs features some 200 stunning illustrations, including original paintings by Mark Witton and photos of rarely seen fossils. After decades of mystery, paleontologists have finally begun to understand how pterosaurs are related to other reptiles, how they functioned as living animals, and, despite dwarfing all other flying animals, how they managed to become airborne. Here you can explore the fossil evidence of pterosaur behavior and ecology, learn about the skeletal and soft-tissue anatomy of pterosaurs, and consider the newest theories about their cryptic origins. This one-of-a-kind book covers the discovery history, paleobiogeography, anatomy, and behaviors of more than 130 species of pterosaur, and also discusses their demise at the end of the Mesozoic; The most comprehensive book on pterosaurs ever published; features some 200 illustrations, including original paintings by the author; covers every known species and major group of pterosaurs; describes pterosaur anatomy, ecology, behaviors, diversity, and more; encourages further study with 500 references to primary pterosaur literature"-- Provided by publisher.