The Evolution and Extinction of the Dinosaurs
The Evolution and Extinction of the Dinosaurs
David B. Weishampel , The Johns Hopkins University
John Sibbick
$106.00
USDThis 2005 edition of The Evolution and Extinction of the Dinosaurs is a unique, comprehensive treatment of this fascinating group of organisms. It is a detailed survey of dinosaur origins, their diversity, and their eventual extinction. The book can easily be used as a teaching textbook for a class, but it is also written as a series of readable, entertaining essays covering important and timely topics appealing to non-specialists and all dinosaur enthusiasts: birds as 'living dinosaurs', the new feathered dinosaurs from China, 'warm-bloodedness'. Along the way, the reader learns about dinosaur functional morphology, physiology, and systematics using cladistic methodology - in short, how professional paleontologists and dinosaur experts go about their work, and why they find it so rewarding. The book is spectacularly illustrated by John Sibbick, a world-famous illustrator of dinosaurs, commissioned exclusively for this book.
- Covers all of the latest discoveries in dinosaur paleobiology written by two world experts
- Comprehensive and detailed, yet utterly readable and entertaining
- Beautifully illustrated by world-famous dinosaur artist, John Sibbick
Reviews & endorsements
"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
"...well-written, highly visual, engaging, and informative book...with much up-to-date information on virtually all aspects of dinosaur biology. ... The volume's strength is its clear explanation of anatomy within the context of natural history ... highly recommended." - CHOICE
Product details
February 2005Hardback
9780521811729
500 pages
260 × 217 × 31 mm
1.376kg
250 b/w illus.
Available
Table of Contents
- Preface to the second edition
- Part I. Setting the Stage:
- 1. Introduction
- 2. Back to the past: the Mesozoic era
- 3. Discovering order in the natural world
- 4. Interrelationships of vertebrates
- 5. The origin of Dinosauria
- Part II. Ornithischia: Armored, Horned, and Duck-Billed Dinosaurs:
- 6. Stegosauria: hot plates
- 7. Ankylosauria: mas and gas
- 8. Pachycephalosauria: ramroads of the Cretaceous
- 9. Ceratopsia: horns and all the frills
- 10. Ornithopoda: the tuskers, antelopes, and 'mighty ducks' of the Mesozoic
- Part III. Saurischia: Predators and Giants:
- 11. Sauropodomorpha: the big, the bizarre, and the majestic
- 12. Theropoda I: nature red in tooth and claw
- 13. Theropoda II: the origin of birds
- 14. Theropoda III: the early evolution of birds
- Part IV. Endothermy, Environments, and Extinction:
- 15. Dinosaur thermoregulation: some like it hot
- 16. Patterns in dinosaur evolution
- 17. Reconstructing extinctions: the art of science
- 18. The Cretaceous–Tertiary extinction: the frill is gone
- Glossary
- Subject index
- Generic index
- Author index.
