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What do we know about dinosaurs, and how do we know it? How did dinosaurs grow, move, eat, and reproduce? Were they warm-blooded or cold-blooded? How intelligent were they? How are the various groups of dinosaurs related to each other, and to other kinds of living and extinct vertebrates? What can the study of dinosaurs tell us about the process of evolution? And why did typical dinosaurs become extinct? All of these questions, and more, are addressed in the new, expanded, second edition of The Complete Dinosaur.
Written by many of the world's leading experts on the "fearfully great" reptiles, The Complete Dinosaur's 45 chapters cover what we have learned about dinosaurs, from the earliest discoveries of dinosaurs to the most recent controversies. Where scientific contention exists, the editors have let the experts agree to disagree. Copiously illustrated and accessible to all readers from the enthusiastic amateur to the most learned professional paleontologist, The Complete Dinosaur is a feast for serious dinosaur lovers everywhere.
List of Contributors
Part One: The Discovery of Dinosaurs
1. Dinosaurs: The Earliest Discoveries
2. Politics and Paleontology: Richard Owen and the Invention of Dinosaurs
3. European Dinosaur Hunters of the 19th and 20th Centuries
4. North American Dinosaur Hunters
5. The Search for Dinosaurs in Asia
6. Dinosaur Hunters of the Southern Continents
Part Two: The Study of Dinosaurs
7. Hunting for Dinosaur Bones
8. The Osteology of the Dinosaurs
9. Reconstructing the Musculature of Dinosaurs
10. Dinosaur Paleoneurology
11. Taxonomy of the Dinosauria
12. Dinosaurs and Geologic Time
13. Technology and the Study of Dinosaurs
14. Claws, Scales, Beaks, and Feathers: Molecular Traces in the Fossil Record
15. Dinosaurs as Museum Exhibits
16. Restoring Dinosaurs as Living Animals
Part Three: The Clades of Dinosaurs
17. Evolution of the Archosaurs
18. Origin and Early Evolution of Dinosaurs
19. Theropods
20. Birds
21. Basal Sauropodomorpha: The "Prosauropods"
22. Sauropoda
23. Stegosaurs
24. Ankylosaurs
25. Marginocephalia
26. Ornithopods
Part Four: Paleobiology of the Dinosaurs
27. Land Plants as a Source of Food and Environment in the Age of Dinosaurs
28. What Did Dinosaurs Eat: Coprolites and Other Direct Evidence of Dinosaur Diets
29. Reproductive Biology of Dinosaurs
30. Dinosaur Eggs
31. How Dinosaurs Grew
32. Engineering a Dinosaur
33. Disease in Dinosaurs
34. The Scientific Study of Dinosaur Footprints
35. The Role of Heterochrony in Dinosaur Evolution
36. Metabolic Physiology of Dinosaurs and Early Birds
37. Evidence for Avian-Mammalian Aerobic Capacity and Thermoregulation in Mesozoic Dinosaurs
38. "Intermediate" Dinosaurs: The Case Updated
Part Five: Dinosaur Evolution in the Mesozoic
39. Principles of Biogeography
40. Non-Dinosaurian Vertebrates
41. Early Mesozoic Continental Tetrapods and Faunal Changes
42. Dinosaurian Faunas of the Later Mesozoic
43. Dinosaur Extinction: Past and Present Perspectives
44. Life after Death: Dinosaur Fossils in Human Hands
45. Dinosaurs and Evolutionary Theory
Appendix: Dinosaur-Related WWW Sites
Glossary
Index
M. K. Brett-Surman is Museum Specialist at the National Museum of Natural History of the Smithsonian Institution. Thomas R. Holtz, Jr., is Senior Lecturer and Director, Earth, Life and Time Program, Department of Geology, University of Maryland. James O. Farlow is Professor of Geology at Indiana University-Purdue University at Ft. Wayne.
"[...] [A] highly valuable resource for anyone with a serious interest in dinosaurs. Even as dinosaur family trees change, and discoveries alter what we thought we knew, the new volume is a fertile starting place for students and experts interested in paleontological problems they have not considered before. At the very least, The Complete Dinosaur demonstrates how exceptionally rich the study of dinosaurs has become."
– National Geographic Laelaps
"Copiously illustrated and accessible to all readers from the enthusiastic amateur to the most learned professional paleontologist, The Complete Dinosaur is a feast for serious dinosaur lovers everywhere."
– The Guardian-Birdbooker Report
"Even ruthlessly pruned, a shelf of must-have dinosaur volumes will be overstuffed [...] One of the best items on that overcrowded shelf would necessarily have been 1997's The Complete Dinosaur from Indiana University Press – until now, when Indiana has produced the title's second edition [...] This new edition itself represents a considerable evolution: it's twice as big as the original, twice as heavy, twice as detailed, representing the enormous strides in research and extrapolation that have taken place just in the last fifteen years."
– Open Letters Monthly
"This substantial, and now revised, multi-author book is a good introduction to dinosaur (and early bird) science, without demanding much if any technical knowledge, in 45 chapters variously taxonomic and thematic, on subjects including aspects of dinobiology, methodology and theory, and even dinoart."
– Archives of Natural History
"The second edition of The Complete Dinosaur is a special book, which will no doubt continue the legacy of the first edition in bringing cutting-edge dinosaur science to the public."
– Priscum
"The text, for the most part, is accessible and the book should be commended for reviewing aspects of dinosaur paleontology that are often restricted to more technical volumes. As such, this is an ideal stepping stone from general interest books on dinosaurs to the primary literature on the subject."
– Quarterly Review of Biology
"The Complete Dinosaur is a breathtaking and must-have book that will be devoured by everyone, from the youngest readers who have just discovered the wonders of dinosaurs to palaeontologists who have made the study of dinosaurs their life's work."
– History in Review
Praise for the first edition:
"The amount of information in [these] pages is amazing. This book should be on the shelves of dinosaur freaks as well as those who need to know more about the paleobiology of extinct animals. It will be an invaluable library reference."
– American Reference Books Annual
"An excellent encyclopedia that serves as a nice bridge between popular and scholarly dinosaur literature."
– Library Journal (starred review)
"Copiously illustrated and scrupulously up-to-date [...] the book reveals dinos through the fractious fields that make a study of them."
– Publishers Weekly
"Stimulating armchair company for cold winter evenings [...] Best of all, the book treats dinosaurs as intellectual fun."
– New Scientist
"A gift to serious dinosaur enthusiasts [...] a highly successful volume."
– Science
"The book is useful both as a reference and as a browse-and-enjoy compendium."
– Natural History
