This is the book that got a lot of people started, me included. Some of the science in it is, shall we say, debatable; but its enthusiasm is infectious, and the love of all things dinosaurian seems to leap off the page. It jumps around cheerfully from subject to subject, taking in dinosaur anatomy, physiology, extinction and much more. The prose is easy to read and very absorbing, and perfectly complemented by Bakker's own beautiful black-and-white illustrations, which capture his vision of fast, powerful, active dinososaurs. I've owned two copies of this book, lent them both the ``friends'' and never seen them again. A classic.
Once you've read Heresies, you're ready for this superb compilation are articles by a wide selection of the top dinosaur workers. (Don't be put off by the cartoonish cover). It contains 43 separate essays arranged in six sections (The Discovery of Dinosaurs, The Study of Dinosaurs, The Groups of Dinosaurs, Biology of the Dinosaurs, Dinosaur Evolution in the Changing World of the Mesozoic Era and Dinosaurs and the Media), which can be read in any order. Each individual essay covers its ground in real detail, but explains its complex concepts with a minimum of technical jargon. A single volume that can take you from mere enthusiast all the way up to knowledgeable amateur!
(Along the same lines, you may wish to get Gregory S. Paul (Ed.), The Scientific American Book of Dinosaurs. St. Martins Press, November 2000. ISBN 0312262264. It's another compilation, similar in spirit to The Complete Dinosaur and more up to date, but much shorter, less comprehensive and less useful as a reference due to the absence of an index. Personally I have and like both, but if I had to choose one, then TCD would be the clear winner.)
This short and approachable book is a wonderful introduction to dinosaur biomechanics. It covers a multitude of issues, including mass estimation, athleticism, force calculation for necks and tails, estimating running speed from trackways, possible uses of crests, horns, etc. and much more - all in a way that makes its sometimes complex subject seem very straightforward. (If you like this book, you should go on to Christopher McGowan, Dinosaurs, Spitfires and Sea Dragons. Harvard Univ Press, September 1992. ISBN 067420770X. It covers many of the same areas but in more detail, and has much, much more to say about physiology, the mechanics of flight and swimming and - for some reason - ichthyosaurs. Outstanding.)
This is the big one. If you're ready for raw information, this is the best place to find it, and the closest thing to reading pre-digested primary literature. It's not cheap ($145 at Amazon.com) but it is as near definitive as any dinosaur reference work can be. It has all the key information on every genus valid at the time of publication, with lots of discussion, summaries of recent work, and some more discursive articles on the usual issues - metabolism, extinction, etc. Since the publication of the core volume, there have been three supplements issued so far, with a new one every year or two. These contain the core information on new genera and updates on important research concerning genera already covered in earlier volumes. I go back to these books more often than all my others combined.
So there you have it. My four-book introductory course on dinosaurs (or seven books if you include the Glut supplements, or nine if you also include the optional pair.)
Here are URLs for anyone wanting to buy these books online at either the American or UK Amazon stores:
Since this page is loaded with links to the various Amazon stores, I figured I may as well register for the affiliates program and get a slice of any money that people spend from following these links. So - this site is brought to you in associate with Amazon!
``History of the Bone Rush in the American West.''
- James E. Hower, Jr. <jimaytch@onemain.com>
``Great book about the Cope-Marsh Feud''
- James E. Hower, Jr. <jimaytch@onemain.com>
``Out of print, but is available online (free!) at
www.nhm.ukans.edu/cc.html,
until the new edition is printed, which is expected shortly.''
- James E. Hower, Jr. <jimaytch@onemain.com>
``Very easy to read and understand for beginners, but accurate and
scientific as well.''
- Oliver Wings <oliver.wings@web.de>
``For T-Rex fans! Includes history of the T-Rex and discusses new
findings on this popular dinosaur. Informative for the layman.''
- James E. Hower, Jr. <jimaytch@onemain.com>
``Highly recommended.
Not specific to dinosaurs, but provides good background.''
- Ken Kinman <kinman@hotmail.com>
``I am tempted too take this one home from work.''
- Brent Jones <bjones@mail.cosi.org>
``If one wants a small encyclopedia (like a field guide) for both
children and adults, this is highly recommended. Needs to be
updated. Still useful.''
- James E. Hower, Jr. <jimaytch@onemain.com>
``Almost identical to Benton's
Dinosaur and Other Prehistoric Animal Factfinder''
- Brent Jones <bjones@mail.cosi.org>
``An another explanation regarding the K/T Boundary.''
- James E. Hower, Jr. <jimaytch@onemain.com>
``To understand the change in the study of dinosaurs in the last few
decades, this is the book to read. A pioneering work.''
- James E. Hower, Jr. <jimaytch@onemain.com>
``(something positive, but I can't remember exactly what: I've lost the
email. Oliver, contact me!)''
- Oliver Wings <oliver.wings@web.de>
``Recommened heartily (especially with a grain of salt!)''
- Brent Jones <bjones@mail.cosi.org>
``I find this book very helpful. However, it lists and explains
the dinosaur groups in the text, when a graphic illustration could
have been included for better understanding. Still the best
encyclopedia for individual dinosaurs. I wish it could be updated.''
- James E. Hower, Jr. <jimaytch@onemain.com>
````even with its caveats'', whatever they may be!''
- Brent Jones <bjones@mail.cosi.org>
``Almost identical to Benton's
Dinosaur Encyclopedia''
- Brent Jones <bjones@mail.cosi.org>
``Excellent book for any layman. Good introduction to dinosaurs.''
- James E. Hower, Jr. <jimaytch@onemain.com>
``A good tie-in with the four-part miniseries from a few years
ago.''
- Brent Jones <bjones@mail.cosi.org>
``This is a ``must-have'' for advanced laymen. The book is very
technical, but very informative. A companion volume to the
Encyclopedia of Dinosaurs.''
- James E. Hower, Jr. <jimaytch@onemain.com>
``A bit outdated and some chapters could be quite complicated for
starters, but nevertheless an important reference book! And a new
edition is in process''
- Oliver Wings <oliver.wings@web.de>
``Dinosaurs Alive! The Dinosaur-Bird Connection is the first kids' book I've seen that makes an honest attempt to explain cladistics: that's a tall order in a book of only forty-eight pages, including front and back matter, especially when about half of the pages are taken up by pictures, and large print is used throughout.
You have to admire Dennis Shealy for making the attempt. In seven short chapters he skims over subjects like evolution, extinction, natural selection, Linnaean and cladistic classification and the dinosaurian ancestry of birds. Unfortunately, in covering so much material so cursorily, something has to give: and what gives is the definition of cladistics, which is described as grouping animals ``based just on traits they have in common'', without emphasising the importance of shared derived characters. It's not exactly a fatal flaw in a book aimed at seven-year-olds, but it should have been easy enough to catch.
There are other minor oversights too: page 26 tells us that the bones of Deinonychus and of modern birds share 22 common traits; then on page 30, that there are twenty-three shared traits.
Still, let's not be picky: this is fine attempt at teaching some complex stuff to kids, and it doesn't do a bad job. It's enhanced by Michael Skrepnick's characteristically fine illustrations: not just beautiful restorations, but helpful skeletal diagrams too, including a complete Velociraptor, a modern bird, and detail of their arms.
It's a good attempt at a very difficult book. The Jurassic Park
institute is to commended for its ambition.''
- Mike Taylor <mike@miketaylor.org.uk>
``This book picks up where Colbert's The Great Dinosaur Hunters
left off. A narrative of recent events in paleontology. Also
profiles current paleontologists. Helpful. Original title: Kings
of Creation''
- James E. Hower, Jr. <jimaytch@onemain.com>
``For those of us who live on the east coast of the USA and think
it was a dinosaur free zone.''
- James E. Hower, Jr. <jimaytch@onemain.com>
``This book not only provided me with good reading, but introduced me to
a whole new realm of dinosaurs!''
- Brent Jones <bjones@mail.cosi.org>
``I loved that book! It covered so many questions that I was curious
about that I went out and FOUND a copy (not an easy proposition -
Central Ohio, USA, is not the hotbed of paleontology, and the book was
slightly out-of-date when I finally found it) to purchase, and make it
a permanent part of my paleo book collection.''
- Brent Jones <bjones@mail.cosi.org>
``You are there at Morrison and Como Bluff.''
- James E. Hower, Jr. <jimaytch@onemain.com>
``If anyone wants to read a short introduction of the early days of paleontology in Great Britain, this is the book to read. Mary Anning, William Buckland, Gideon Mantell, Charles Lyell, Richard Owen and others come to life in this well-written book by noted paleontologist Christopher McGowan. The author starts his narrative with the story of Mary Anning who finds fossils and eventually what is a marine reptile, an Ichthyosaur, at her sea side home of Lyme Regis along the English Channel in 1820.
Other discoveries follow: Megalosaurus by Buckland at Stonesfield, Iguanodon teeth by Mantell in Sussex, and plesiosaurs from Lyme Regis. What is interesting is the interaction between the ``fossilists'' of Great Britain. They all had different theories about the fossils they were finding in the earth, yet at the same time, somehow, they acted as a team of ``scientists'' to begin a new ``science'' and a new word, dinosaur, coined by Richard Owen in 1842. Paleontology owes everything to these ``dragon seekers''.
This is a ``must have'' book for anyone interested in dinosaurs and
paleontology. It is recommended for the non-specialist and specialist
alike.''
- James E. Hower, Jr. <jimaytch@onemain.com>
``I find this encyclopedia originally published in Great Britain very
useful. It contains great graphics that go with the text. It
explains the dinosaurs by families, not individually. With each
family is a timeline where a layman can see when they lived during the
Mesozoic. Also encapsulates the ``greats'' of dinosaur paleontology.
Recommended.''
- James E. Hower, Jr. <jimaytch@onemain.com>
``A companion volume to The Dinosauria. Should be on every
laymen's bookshelf.''
- James E. Hower, Jr. <jimaytch@onemain.com>
``Expensive, but well worth the money!''
- Oliver Wings <oliver.wings@web.de>
``In my opinion, for any layman this is the book to start with to
get the paleontologist's point of view.
It is a good introduction to dinosaurs from the paleontologist's
viewpoint. The authors use technical words for the reader to learn,
but the text is written in a non-technical way (the reader will know
the definition of the words ``scapula'' or ``maxilla'' after reading
the text). I am reading the book right now and I find it fascinating.
Your friend will learn the basics of cladistics, and other information
he needs to know regarding the different families of dinosaurs. The
book also discusses (and I am using the author's words) ``avian
dinosaurs'' (birds), the extinction theories, and the endothermy of
the dinosaurs. The distribution of the dinosaurs is also covered.
The book was published in 1996, so some of the more current
discoveries are not covered and some information might be out of date.
The book is a complete survey, however.''
- James E. Hower, Jr. <jimaytch@onemain.com>
``I have found this to be a good introductory text. It's set up very
much like a textbook and the terms and concepts are usually well
explained, plus there are plenty of pictures and diagrams.''
- Christopher Robert Noto <crnoto@midway.uchicago.edu>
``This is a textbook written for low-level students and is absolutely
wonderful. Written with real humor (``The Creataceous Extinctions -
The Frill is Gone''), balance, and readability, this gives a group by
group introduction to major dino groups. Cladistics is explained and
extensively used to frame an evolutionary understanding of the
relationships between the dinosaurs. It is quite good, and is an
excellent introduction to cladistics and dinosaurs both. I highly
recommend it.''
- Michael A. Turton <turton@ev1.net>
``The most recent book (2000) about the Cope-Marsh Fossil Feud. Written
in an easy narrative style (the author writes for the Philadelphia
Inquirer in Philadelphia, PA, USA). Recommended for anyone who is
interested in the history of paleontology.''
- James E. Hower, Jr. <jimaytch@onemain.com>
``Outdated, but good historical background. I recommend this book
to get to know the past history.''
- James E. Hower, Jr. <jimaytch@onemain.com>
``It sounds a bit naff but the content is quite good scientifically
wise, I think the section on pterosaurs is especially good.''
- Jenya Lipatov <jenyalipatov@hotmail.com>
``Another treasure! This encyclopedia is a must for any layman. In this one we have an added bonus: pterosaurs (making the title of the book a misnomer, but who cares? If the authors/publishers had titled the book The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Ornithodira the public would have looked at the title, shrugged their shoulders, and walked away!)
Again, as in Lambert's Encyclopedia of Dinosaurs, the dinosaurs are described by families (formal and informal). Each section includes a cladogram, and what I like best, skeletal artwork for each family. The section on pterosaurs, written by Wellnhofer, is illuminating as well. The author describes his subject in general and then sections on the pterosaurs of the Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous.
Birds and the extinction theories are treated in the section ``Controversies''. Rounding out the book are sections on reptiles, lizards, mammals, and mammal-like reptiles.
Illustrated throughout. Highly recommended.
The year-2000 edition of this book appears to be the combination of the 1985 edition with Wellnhofer's 1991 Illustrated Encyclopedia of Pterosaurs. This means that some information is more out of date than the year-2000 publication would suggest.
Why is it that the best encyclopedias on dinosaurs (excluding
Currie & Padian's Encyclopedia of Dinosaurs)
come from Great Britain? I am referring to the above encyclopedia,
Lambert's Encyclopedia of Dinosaurs
and
Benton's Dinosaur Encyclopedia.
Every layman should have all three!''
- James E. Hower, Jr. <jimaytch@onemain.com>
``Very easy to read and understand for beginners, but accurate and
scientific as well.''
- Oliver Wings <oliver.wings@web.de>
``In spite of its being very out of date (1985!) I have yet to see any
other beginners book on the subject to compare with it in terms of its
comprehensive wealth of information, fossil and skeletal documentation
(vivid color photos), and full color restorations. The cool thing
about this book is that it has recently been reissued bound together
with Wellnhofer's The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Pterosaurs,
which has the same rich format as Norman's book. Put together like
this, it's quite an immersion into the Mesozoic, even though its
dinosaurs aren't quite as much fun, as manic, as feathery, or as
cladistically correct as the more recent interpretations.''
- Ralph W. Miller III <ralph.miller@alumni.usc.edu>
``An introductory book on cladistics (phylogenetic systematics), which is changing comparative biology and biology (dinosaur paleontology in particular). Using examples from the world of nature, the author explains how cladistics is making the Linnaean system obsolete.
The system, devised in the 1960s by Willi Hennig, an East German scientist, is now used to determine the relationships between organisms (dinosaurs, birds, fish, bacteria, hominoids, etc.). Through shared characteristics ``cousins'' can be established. The most famous example is the lungfish, salmon, and the cow. Through cladistics, scientists have determined that the lungfish shares more characteristics with the cow than it does with the salmon. Hence the cow and lungfish are ``cousins'' and share a common ancestor. The author includes a chapter on how cladistics is changing our perception of the relationship between birds and dinosaurs.
It is indeed a revolutionary concept and I rate the book four out of five for the layman. It is must reading for anyone who has not kept up with the world of biology.
The book could have used illustrations of the organisms the author was discussing. The author does include cladograms (diagrams of relationships) to illustrate his points.
One personal aside: after being away from the world of hominoid
paleontology for quite awhile and remembering the articles on the
Leakeys in National Geographic (and their TV specials) from my
youth, I find most of the names of the hominoids have been changed.
Most unsettling!''
- James E. Hower, Jr. <jimaytch@onemain.com>
``Biography of the Father of American Paleontology.''
- James E. Hower, Jr. <jimaytch@onemain.com>
``This book is for the ``kid'' in all of us. The book, published in conjunction with the release of Jurassic Park III is intended for children ages 8 and up. The book, however, can be used by anyone interested in dinosaurs.
The book is fascinating because it does not talk down to kids. The authors describe the earth's time scale, especially the Mesozoic Era. There is a section on how dinosaurs are classified, using cladistic principles with note in the test advising the readers that new discoveries may alter the diagram (cladogram). Also included in the book is a section on finding dinosaurs, and how they are prepared in a museum. There is also a section by the book's illustrator, Robert Walters on how he illustrates dinosaurs. At the end of the book are sections on where to see dinosaurs in museums and in the field, a bibliography for kids and adults, a listing of dinosaur web sites and a glossary for anyone to look up those big words.
The main body of the text is a surprise also. There are 100 entries not just of dinosaurs (Mesozoic birds are included with the dinosaurs), but the authors have included sections on marine reptiles, archosaurs and related kin, and pterosaurs. Each entry is listed alphabetically within their own section, illustrated superbly by Robert Walters. An entry receives one to two pages of text depending on the entry. The authors state some basic information on the entry: where it was found, what the entry ate, who its enemies were, fun facts and trivia, and some explanation of the facts. Also included is the correct pronunciation and the year the entry was named. There are two diagrams for each entry: a diagram showing where the entry lived during the Mesozoic Era and a diagram showing the size of the entry and comparing it to a 4-foot child.
The authors also use a device called ``Take Two'' where paleontologists have taken exception to the dinosaurs or scenes portrayed in the Jurassic Park movies. They also just use ``Take Two'' just to elaborate on a scene in the JP movies. Two examples are the frill of the Dilophosaurus and the meeting of Tyrannosaurus rex and Spinosaurus in JP III. In a short paragraph, the authors relate to the reader why the ``Take Two'' examples can be misleading. Not every entry gets a ``Take Two''.
This book comes highly recommended for anyone: kids or adults,
specialist or non-specialist. It is a great book to have in one's
library.''
- James E. Hower, Jr. <jimaytch@onemain.com>
``Very good.
Not specific to dinosaurs, but provides good background.''
- Ken Kinman <kinman@hotmail.com>
``Great book if one wants to see reproductions of the drawings of
the first bones excavated from Colorado and Como Bluff. A ``Must
Have'' for interested laymen.''
- James E. Hower, Jr. <jimaytch@onemain.com>
``The Academic Version includes an instructional CD-ROM called The
Age of Dinosaurs that even allows the user to quiz oneself on the
topic. The book is available more cheaply without the CD-ROM, but
trust me, you'll want the full package. Although the book proper
focuses more on the cladistics relevant to bird origins, the CD-ROM
covers all dinosaur groups, and it is copyrighted 1998, so it is more
up to date than most published sources. And lots of graphics, for the
visually demanding readers (like moi). But don't take my word for it
- Dr. Tom gives this package a thumbs up, too.''
- Ralph W. Miller III <ralph.miller@alumni.usc.edu>
``History of K/T Boundary and the theories put forward by Luis and
Walter Alvarez.''
- James E. Hower, Jr. <jimaytch@onemain.com>
``Fascinating volume that deals only with the theropod dinosaur. Great
illustrations. Recommended.''
- James E. Hower, Jr. <jimaytch@onemain.com>
``Shows how many bits of ``pseudosicence'' have become accepted.''
- Brent Jones <bjones@mail.cosi.org>
``Raptor Pack is a kids' book, aimed at grades 2-4. It aims very high: the goal is to demonstrate how the science of palaeontology actually works. And it achieves that goal admirably.
The approach is a very strong one: after a brief introduction in which Bob Bakker tells us who he is and what he does, chapter one is a ``day in the life'' story of a pack of Deinonychus (the eponymous raptors). They track, kill and eat a Tenontosaurus, climb a tree to avoid an Acrocanthosaurus and drive it away by vomiting bone fragments over it. All good stuff for kids! The remaining four chapters explain the science behind the story, showing how scientists form hypotheses from evidence. (It doesn't say much about argument and proof, but hey, what do you expect in 48 pages?)
Chapter two briefly discusses the exhumation and reconstruction of Deinonychus. Chapter three looks at its weaponry: the ``killer claw'', hind-leg muscle attachment sites, agility from the stiffened tail and suchlike. Chapter four looks at lifestyle inferences: raptors' ability to climb trees and evidence for pack-hunting. Chapter five identifies the raptors' victims by considering what else lived at the time and looking for ``smoking gun'' tooth crowns found with various corpses. It also considers how raptors likely expelled unwanted matter (by analogy with birds), and discusses parental care.
The effect of the whole is compelling; it's a real window into the way science can work for kids who are more often just presented with conclusions. If I were being picky, I'd say that the boundary between chapters 4 and 5 doesn't make much sense, but that hardly spoiled the book to the five-year-old I read it to - he loved it. And so do I.
Finally, as well as being written by Bakker, this book had input from
Tom Holtz and Phil Currie, so those are big guns firing. Highly
recommended.''
- Mike Taylor <mike@miketaylor.org.uk>
``Good introduction to the history and science of dinosaur paleontology.
Discusses the recent (1985) debates in the science. Written for the
layman.''
- James E. Hower, Jr. <jimaytch@onemain.com>
``How the history of paleontology has inspired scientists to this
day.''
- Brent Jones <bjones@mail.cosi.org>
``Because it's a collection of SA articles, it's easy to read bit by bit
and one can skip around. The illustrations are excellent also.''
- Dan Varner <Danvarner@aol.com>
``I personally like Gillette's detailed description of the use of
new methods in field work very much!''
- Oliver Wings <oliver.wings@web.de>
``Informative book about the sad, but true story of Sue, the T-Rex now
in the Field Museum in Chicago. Recommended.''
- James E. Hower, Jr. <jimaytch@onemain.com>
``Covering basic ground but getting into more detail about the
genera.''
- Brent Jones <bjones@mail.cosi.org>
``If a layman wants to see how dinosaurs fit in the bigger framework of
the vertebrates, I recommend this book. Also discusses birds and
their relationship to the dinosaurs. Very Helpful.''
- James E. Hower, Jr. <jimaytch@onemain.com>
``This book is for anyone who think the American West gets all the
glory. The author takes the reader on a tour of the Mesozoic in New
Jersey, USA. He describes the dinosaurs that have been discovered in
that state, especially Hadrosaurus foulkii, the first dinosaur
skeleton found in North America. Recommended.''
- James E. Hower, Jr. <jimaytch@onemain.com>
In addition to these books, list member Thom Holmes <tholmes@thedailydeal.com> has told me about a series of six books he's just finished writing for Enslow Publishers on various groups of dinosaurs. Peter Dodson was the scientific consultant and Mike Skrepnick the illustrator. The books are aimed at middle- and high-school age, but go into a great deal more detail than the typical high-school book, judging from the short except that I've seen. The titles are Theropods; Sauropods and Prosauropods; Ornithopods; Horned Dinosaurs; Armored, Plated, and Bone-Headed Dinosaurs; and Feathered Dinosaurs - The Dinosaur Bird Link. I expect to recommend these once I've seen them!
This question awaits more answers from people in the know, but if you're at all interested in my own opinions on some of the books listed above, you might care to view my personal Dinosaur Books page.
Fortunately for web-potatoes such as myself, there are several out-of-print book-search services on the internet, including:
If you live in the US, then your local amazon branch, www.amazon.com provides a used-book searching service for many (though not all) out of print titles; unfortunately, www.amazon.co.uk doesn't offer this service. I also don't know of any UK-specific used-book search services analagous to those mentioned above.
Does a reference such as:
Salgado, L. & Azpilicueta, C., 2000. "Un nuevo saltasaurino (Sauropoda, Titanosauridae) de la provincia de Río Negro (Formacion Allen, Cretácico superior), Patagonia, Argentina," Ameghiniana 37(3): 259-264.
contain enough information for me to track down a copy?
Some technical papers, though probably not a very large proportion, are available on the web. Unfortunately, the standard problem of the web bites hard here: it's a big web, and it's hard to find your way around it.
There are at least three good places to start:
Papers that don't make it onto the web are available in paper or microfiche at many University libraries. One correspondent drives into Memphis and uses the Library at the University of Memphis. Another works on-campus, so uses his university's library for what material it has, but also points out that there are many more available through interlibrary loan. Many non-academic libraries will also be able to help here.
Additionally, many authors will provide xeroxes on request, but of course that just introduces the problem of finding out contact details for authors. One correspondent said ``just track them down, and call or e-mail them with the request'', which makes it sound easy. When I commented that ``I just don't know how this stuff works'', he replied, ``Neither does anyone else really. There's no standard procedure. Hang in there.'' :-)
The good news is, although the way things work is far too loose and haphazard to dignify with the name ``system'', it does work. I know this because I tested it, and am now the proud owner of a nice, new paper that (of course) I can't understand. Here's how it worked.
Wedel, MJ, Cifelli, RL & Sanders, RK. 2000. Osteology, paleobiology, and relationships of the sauropod dinosaur Sauroposeidon. ACTA PALAEONTOLOGICA POLONICA. 45 (4) : 343- 388
Stop Press. Since I obtained the Sauroposeidon paper by the method described above, it's been made available online, along with a lot of other material, on the web site of the Oklahoma Museum of Natural History at www.snomnh.ou.edu/publications/Articles/index.shtml
There's a lot of interest in establishing an automated web-based system for retrieving, if not actual soft-copy papers, then at least definitive references and/or instructions for obtaining hard-copy.
No promises on this yet - it's at a very early stage.
This is a wonderful reference site, maintained entirely by one hard-working bloke in his spare time. Take a bow, Michael Keesey! It has information on every genus that has ever been referred to the Ornithodira (i.e. every dinosaur and every pterosaur), lots of cladograms and discussion of the classification issues, and raw information such as what elements are known, when and by whom the genera were first described, etc.
Maybe best of all, lots of wonderful art-work - some by the site's author, but most of it contributed by lots of different artists. At the current writing, there are a total of 809 images by 61 different artists; quality is variable, but the best of these images are nothing short of stunning - for example, this Herrerasaurus, these Allosaurus and these Brachiosaurus. There are even a few animations.
It's hard to overstate how good this site is. One testimony can be found in the fact that I've configured my web browser so that it's my home page.
dinosauricon.com
A second reference site; this one is a bit ``over-designed'' for my liking - gratuitous bitmaps all over the place - but that's a matter of taste. There's certainly no shortage of content. Its ``omnipedia'' section includes a few very helpful resources not in the Dinosauricon, such as a dictionary of technical terms (www.dinosauria.com/dml/diction.htm), a pronunciation and etymology guide for dinosaur genus names (www.dinosauria.com/dml/names/dinosi.htm) and maps of the ancient earth (www.dinosauria.com/dml/maps.htm). Impressive coverage!
www.dinosauria.com
The third of the triumverate of first-rate reference sites. Personally, I find it difficult to find my way around this one, but all the information is there - more than either of the other two provide. Since the Dinosauricon has fallen out of date, this is the first place I go for information. If you can cope with the navigation, there's a lot of good stuff here, including an online magazine, Paleozoica (containing several articles written by Steve ``Dino Land'' Brusatte), an elementary but very useful database of literature references and an archive of Mickey Mortimer's ``Details on ...'' segments (33 non-avian dinosaurs, eight mezozoic birds and counting!)
www.dinodata.net
Although, strictly speaking, this web page does not concern dinosaurs, it is an excellent study of those other ornithodirans, the pterosaurs. it includes a list of all described pterosaur genera (except, perhaps, very newly described genera), skeletal reconstructions for most genera (marvel at Quetzalcoatlus's truly ludicrous proportions), essays about behavior, physiology, and evolution, and a study of pterosaur ancestry (with a very interesting look at the Prolacertiformes). A thoroughly excellent site.
www.pterosaurs.net
[Update. That site has gone away for the moment. There is reason to hope that it may be back, perhaps at a different URL. In the mean time, pterosaur lovers can try
www.pterosaur.org]
Another excellent reference site. The goal here is actually to cover all life - not just animals and plants but bacteria, viruses, you name it. You certainly can't fault it for ambition!
The dinosaur portion of the tree does not have anywhere near such good coverage as the Dinosauricon, but the parts of the dinosaurian tree that are covered at all - basically the Ankylosauria, Tyrannosauroidea and some Neornithes if you count them - are covered in real, serious detail.
ag.arizona.edu/tree/eukaryotes/animals/chordata/dinosauria/dinosauria.html
Skeletal drawings of dinosaurs by Gregory S. Paul - what more need be said? Thirty genera are represented, and each drawing is available both as small and large GIFs and a PDF, which is suitable for printing. Immensely useful. Login as a ``guest'' to get access.
legacy.eos.ncsu.edu/eos/info/mea/mea120_info/www/virtual/skeletal/skeletal.html
The Open Directory Project (dmoz.org) maintains a list of links to sites featuring dinosaur art by (currently) 83 different artists. There's no point in my replicating that effort, so here's a link to their constantly-updated list:
http://dmoz.org/Science/Earth_Sciences/Paleontology/Art/Artists
Matthew Carrano's wonderful site offers a database of English translations of non-English paleontological literature. The database can be browsed by author's surname, title or journal, and the full text of the papers downloaded. Registration is requested (rather than required - how polite!) and there is a facility for requesting translations of papers that are not yet on the site.
The utility of the site is somewhat marred by the fact that most of the papers are available only in Microsoft's awful proprietary ``Word'' format, but that doesn't seem to bother most people.
www.uhmc.sunysb.edu/anatomicalsci/paleo
This site simply provides lots of maps of the world, showing the configuration of the continents through time as currently understood. There are also animations, teaching materials, descriptions of the methods used to arrive at the maps, and references. Very comprehensive coverage of the subject.
www.scotese.com
A single incredibly useful page containing in the most terse and complete way a set of diagnostic features for all the major dinosaurian groups, and data matrices for lower-level taxa scored against those characters. Eminently suitable for mangling into a more computer-friendly format (which I might do, and post the results on my site. Watch this space.)
www.sciencemag.org/feature/data/1041760.shl
The home-page of arguably the most prestigious professional organsation for vertebrate paleontology. Also hosts information about The Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology (JVP), described as ``the leading journal of professional vertebrate paleontology and the flagship publication of the Society''
www.vertpaleo.org
This site doesn't have much on it, but it does contain a valiant attempt at building two databases: one of palaeontologists, and one of fossil collections. From my noodlings with the palaeontologist database, its coverage is very patchy - for example, it includes Thomas Holtz, but not Chris Brochu or Greg Paul - but that will improve with time, and there are facilities for people to add their own records.
ipa.geo.ukans.edu
An on-line palaeontological journal - the only one, so far as I know.
www.palaeo-electronica.org/toc.htm
An on-line magazine with very few articles, but they're very good ones - for example, the interview with Matt Wedel, principal author of the paper describing Sauroposeidon.
www.prehistoricplanet.com
Jerry Harris maintains an excellent page of links to the home pages of various journals. It's a great place to start when you're trying to find a copy of a paper.
cactus.dixie.edu/jharris/Journal_Links.html
A wonderful new site containing an impressively wide range of freely available recent technical papers, either to read on-line (in HTML) or to download and print (in PDF). Still in the experimental phase, and the searching is painfully slow, but it's staggeringly useful.
www.bioone.org
This is a very beautiful web site, created by the Linda Hall Library, Kansas City, to accompany the ``Paper Dinosaurs'' exhibition that ran from October 1996 to April 1997. Although the exhibition itself is long gone, the web site lives on. Not only that, but it includes supplementary exhibits which weren't in the physical version.
The site consists of 49 main exhibits, plus another 35 supplementary ones. Each represent a significant publication in dinosaur history, from Buckland's original Megalosaurus notice, through Hawkins' Crystal Palace sculptures, Cope's ``Laelaps'' reconstruction, Oliver Hay's ludicrous sprawling Diplodocus and the work of Charles Knight and Rudolf Zallinger, finishing with Ostrom's 1969 Deinonychus paper, featuring Bakker's illustration, that was so instrumental in ushering in the modern era. The exhibits contain a few paragraphs of discussion and/or quotes from the various publications together with reproductions of the key illustrations.
It's absolutely fascinating to see how the perception of dinosaurs has changed in 177 years.
www.lindahall.org/pubserv/hos/dino/welcome.htm
This site is a sort of exhibition, created by Daniel Benson and devoted to about 120 Mesozoic animals - mostly but not exclusively dinosaurs. Each of the species described has its own page with a picture, some descriptive text, and (most importantly) links to other websites containing pertinent information to the particular species of that page. Species are organized first by age, and then by continent of origin, giving an idea of the ecosystems these animals inhabited.
www.bowdoin.edu/~dbensen/Welcome.html
This is the home page for the Dinosaur mailing list of which this document is the FAQ. It contains instructions for joining and leaving the list, guidance on what's acceptable behaviour, and a pointer to the list's archives (which I may as well go right ahead and tell you are at www.cmnh.org/dinoarch.) What it doesn't contain (yet) is a pointer back to this FAQ, but that's bound to change in time ... Right?
www.dinosaurmailinglist.org
Ok, if we're being picky, this is not technically a dinosaur-related web site, but it is a very, very, very funny cartoon, and it's totally free, and it deserves to have a lot more visitors than it does. Oh, and the Drugs Drugs Drugs cartoon does have a dinosaur in it.
angryflower.com
Steve Brusatte's site put me off initially, because it's (excuse my candour) ugly. I shouldn't have been so shallow. Once you make your way into the meat of it, there's a lot of great stuff here, including interviews, paleo-event of the millennium and Steve's own articles. The punchline is that Steve's only fifteen; but you wouldn't know it if his site didn't tell you. A bright future awaits!
www.geocities.com/stegob
Lots of people out there have built their own personal dinosaur-related web-sites. Some are excellent, others of varying quality. I can't comment on all of them, but here is a partial list:
Jordan Mallon's Paleo Portfolio: www.geocities.com/paleoportfolio
Dinogeorge's Dinosaur Home Page: hometown.aol.com/Dinogeorge/index.html
Dino Russ's Lair: www.dinoruss.org
If for some reason you're reading a printed-on-dead-trees version of this FAQ, you'll want to go and check out the up-to-date version.
www.miketaylor.org.uk/dino/faq
However, I don't want this page to degenerate into just a list of links. I want to editorialise intelligently on each featured site, which means keeping the sites down to a reasonable number. So please by all means let me know if you find yourself thinking, ``Incredible! He missed my all-time favourite dinosaur site!''; but think about leaving it if you just think, ``Oh, what about this other one that I've heard of?''
It will help enormously if you can include a brief review in your email: something of the order of 50-100 words describing the site and saying why it's special: what's here that's not to be found anywhere else?
[This question appeared, exactly as shown, on the DML recently. There's one like it every week.]
For all your genus-specific dinosaur art needs, your first stop should be the Art Gallery section of H.P. Mike Keesey's excellent Dinosauricon web-site at
dinosauricon.com/artists/index.html
For Giganotosaurus in particular, you want dinosauricon.com/genera/giganotosaurus.html and for a photo (not a line-drawing) of the skull, there's dinosauricon.com/images/giganotosaurus-bs.html (And, BTW., I also recommend Brett Booth's beautiful G. scene at dinosauricon.com/images/giganotosaurus-bb.html)
When the Dinosauricon doesn't give you what you want, the next step is the Google search engine at
www.google.com
Start with its image-search facility: a search for "giganotosaurus skull" (note the quote marks) quickly comes up with a page of nice thumbnail images (including one of H.P. Tom Holtz at www.geol.umd.edu/~tholtz/tholtz.htm
If that doesn't help, then the next thing is to use Google's whole-web search. This will generally give you a lot more hits, but exploring them is more laborious since there are no thumbnail images. Still, the same "giganotosaurus skull" search led me quickly to http://www.cmnh.org/dinoarch/1997Jun/msg00597.html and the subsequent articles in the Dinosaur Mailing List's archives, in which Giganotosaurus skull restorations were discussed back in 1997 (without much in the way of of results, unfortunately.)
But it's easy to get from the Google results to pages like www.paleoclones.com/images/fossils/large/053.jpg - a resin cast of a reconstruction. There's much more. Go find it.
No, this isn't really a dinosaur question: it's a mini-HOWTO for finding pictures on the internet. But it is perhaps the single most Frequently Answered Question on the DML, so it certainly belongs here in the FAQ.
Is it likely that most of these new genera will subsequently be shown to be the same as already-known genera?
