B1: Paleontological non-fiction for adults

After the Dinosaurs, James Shooter. This marvelously descriptive book highlights Cenozoic life and introduces us to fantastic creatures which rarely get attention: Thylacosmilus, the marsupial sabertooth, Uintotherium and Moropus, amazing ungulates, Diatryma, the thunderbird, and a host of truly amazing creatures. This is a "must have"!

American Museum of Natural History's Book of Dinosaurs & Other Ancient Creatures, Joseph Wallace. You may be tempted to place this handsome, sumptuously-illustrated gem on your coffee table. But, if you begin reading it, you will be hard-pressed to set it down. It reads like a vivid story and takes you from the romantic, early days of AMNH's paleontological work through what we now know & how we know it. A feast for the mind and the eyes!

Try interlibrary loan, calling the Museum itself (New York City), or most science book clubs.

Ancient DNA:, Bornd Herrmann et al. Soon to be reviewed. Examines recovery techniques and discoveries in DNA samples taken from various museum collections, medical, paleontological and archaeological sources.

Big Cats and Their Fossil Relatives, Alan Turner. A fascinating look at family Felidae from the earliest-known species to present day big cats. Turner debunks bad guesses about saber- and scimitar-tooths and even examines those eerie eyes and the prey of these wonderful beasts! It's a marvelously illustrated volume and vividly & authoritatively written.

The Biotic Message, Walter J. Remine. To be reviewed. A science book refuting evolution theory. It focuses on the biological issues. It contains no theology or religious discussion. Lengthy and densely packed, it is not light reading. It is described as a freshman-level college text, and is suitable for public schools. A strong background in science is not necessary, as the book is tutorial in its approach.

The Book of Life, Stephen Jay Gould, ed. Another collection of fine illustrations. It goes into more detail about evolutionary history, climactic & geologic change, speciation and attributes of taxa than any other such reference which can be labeled "easy to read". The writing style is far from dry for such a technically oriented book and anyone can enjoy reading it cover to cover. A must for all collections!

The Cave Bear Story, Björn Kurtén. The extinct bear, commonly called the cave bear, was a major part of Dr. Kurtén’s life’s work - and it shows. Though scientists still debate the issue, Kurtén concluded that Ursus spelaeus was a herbivore. Among the finest paleontologists to draw breath and an outstanding writer, Kurtén draws his readers along irresistibly. The reader loses himself in examinations of evidence and remains of a wide variety of truly fascinating animals and humans this bear was alleged to have eaten.

"The Changing Earth" VHS video series, Narrated by . Teens and adults. The best geological series ever made about world geological history (contains substantial and intriguing paleontological content). Try your library.

The Complete Dinosaur, James O. Farlow and M. K. Brett-Surman, editors. To be reviewed. This new resource received excellent reviews, posted at Amazon. Description: A sumptuously illustrated, complete, and up-to-the-minute guide to dinosaur science for the general reader, this book contains the work of 47 experts who present a thorough survey of dinosaurs from the earliest discoveries through the contemporary controversies over their extinction. Includes 350 illustrations, a 16-page, full-color spread, a special chapter on dinosaurs in the media, a glossary of less familiar terms, and a timeline.

Dinosaur in a Haystack, Stephen Jay Gould. Soon to be reviewed. Award-winning, best-selling author, evolutionary biologist, and paleontologist Stephen Jay Gould takes the art of the essay to an unprecedented height of excellence in this vibrant new collection of writings on science and natural history. From fads to fungus, baseball to beeswax, Gould always circles back to the great themes of time, change, and history, carrying readers home to the centering theme of evolution. Illustrations.

Dinosaurs in the Attic, Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child. Soon to be reviewed. This armchair ramble from Manhattan Square to the ends of the Earth is a chronicle of the expeditions, discoveries, and scientists behind the greatest natural history collection ever assembled--the collection of The American Museum of Natural History. 16 pages of photos.

"Dinosaurs!" VHS video series, Narrated by . An enthralling -- and enduring -- series about numerous Mesozoic life forms. Well organized and, in some places, animated. For the whole family but teens and adults will get the most out of it.

Dinosaurs of the Flaming Cliffs, Michael Novacek. Soon to be reviewed. Western archeologists have for the first time in six decades been allowed to explore the Gobi Desert, in Mongolia. This is the region explored by the famed Roy Chapman Andrews, of the American Museum of Natural History, in the 1930s, and it is the region wonderfully described in this stirring book by Michael Novacek, the current curator of the museum's department of vertebrate paleontology, who led the recent expeditions onto the high desert--and into the heart of the Cretaceous Period in Asia. In 1993 Novacek's expedition found an astonishing trove of fossils in a wasteland called Ukhaa Tolgod, not too far from the Flaming Cliffs where Andrews made his most important finds. But, as with all great travel adventure stories, getting to Ukhaa Tolgod is the real tale.

Dino-Trekking, Kelly Milner-Halls. For families planning vacations, this book is a necessity! Oversized, full of useful detail and very well illustrated, D-T gives you the scoop on paleontological (not just dinos!) attractions around the U.S. and Canada. This fun reference keeps you from wasting money & gas on visits you won't enjoy, and from missing attractions you'd love. Published in paperback only by John Wiley & Sons, Inc..

The Eocene-Oligocene Transition: Paradise Lost, Donald R. Prothero. Soon to be reviewed. Post-dino climate, flora and fauna are examined. Summarizes the latest information in the dating and correlation of the strata of the late middle Eocene through early Oligocene age in North America, including the latest insights from argon/argon dating and magnetic stratigraphy, and reviews most of the important terrestrial reptiles and mammals found near the Eocene-Oligocene boundary in the White River Chronofauna, such as turtles, snakes, carnivores, artiodactyls, and perissodactyls. Includes b&w photos, diagrams, and illustrations, plus tables. Of interest to vertebrate paleontologists, geologists, mammalogists, and evolutionary biologists.

Innocent Assassins, Björn Kurtén. A highly readable and colorful approach to paleontology in general; saber-toothed cats in particular. This narrative examines types of saber-toothed animals you might not expect, like Homotherium and Thylacosmylus. It delves into the odd phenomenon of the many iterations of saber-toothed animal evolutions and extinctions, as well as prehistoric bird species and human evolution.

"The Living Planet" VHS video series, Narrated by . Teens and adults. Among the best geological & paleontological series ever made. Covers life as affected by climate and geologic change from its inception through the Holocene (present). Try your library.

The Macmillan Illustrated Encyclopedia of Dinosaurs and Prehistoric Animals, Dougal Dixon et al. Lavishly illustrated, this plain-English reference is fun enough to read straight through! It covers more than 600 extinct species over the last half billion years of life! It There are a few technical flaws, such as an inaccurate Thylacoleo and a few important species left out. But on the whole, it is an extremely useful and fascinating imagination-sparker and an indispensable reference!

Major Events in the History of Life, William Schoff. This concise reference is a bit technical in some sections but does a superb job of enumerating and explaining exactly what the title says. It is important for the lay-paleo-adventurer to have because you need to understand the context, the event-punctuated temporal framework, within which life has been evolving and coping. It is so comprehensive that it even has a no-nonsense section on the synthesis of extraterrestrial organic molecules and how they may have influenced terrestrial life.

"The Miracle Planet" VHS video series, Narrated by Bill Kurtis. Teens and adults. The best geological series ever made about North American geological history (contains substantial and intriguing paleontological content). Try your library.

An Odyssey in Time: Dinosaurs of North America, Dale Russell. Exhaustive and lavishly illustrated, this wonderful book is, as it says, an odyssey in time. Using his own and others' authoritative investigations as basis, Russell explains in clear yet intriguing detail what the lives of these fantastic beasts must have been like. I felt like I was in the Mesozoic era!

"PaleoWorld" VHS video series, Narrated by Ben Gazarra. Teens and adults. The best dramatic paleontological series ever made. Covers major life forms from its inception through the Pleistocene. An excellent value for a set of videos, by the way!

"Planet of Life" VHS video series, Narrated by . Teens and adults. Among the best paleontological series ever made. Covers life from its inception through the Holocene (present). The animation is realistic and absolutely breathtaking! Not yet available from retail trade.

Practical Paleontologist, Steve Parker. This text reads with the ease of a story. No hobbyist who is serious about learning methods of specimen locating and recording can be without it. It is concise and well-referenced also, even providing resources for further study and growth in amateur paleontology. You'll never show ignorance after reading it!

Quaternary Extinctions, Paul S. Martin & Richard G. Klein. This text is highly technical and detailed. But no other reference can touch it for authority and completeness. It is not intended to read smoothly. However, it is so widely respected and recognized as THE authority on extinct species of the Ice Ages that no paleo-buff should open his/her mouth without it being in hand. Dr. Martin continues to add to his world-renowned references on prehistoric fauna and paleobook will keep you posted. You must own this indispensable reference.

The Quest for Life in Amber, George and Roberta Poinar. A first-person account (and first-rate, by the way) of some of the most fascinating discoveries of scientifically important amber finds ever. It also examines the genetic preservation which takes place inside fossil tree sap. This intriguing and well-written volume has numerous color and b/w photos of fossil insects, snails, plants and even weird scorpions so well preserved that you must ask "How close are we to regenerating these species?" The writing style really involves the reader & keeps eyebrows raised!

The Rise of Fishes: 500 Million Years of Evolution, John A. Long. To be reviewed. Here is the BookNews review: Colorfully and lavishly illustrated with photographs of fossils and drawings of what prehistoric fish and their immediate ancestors and descendants might have looked like. Long (vertebrate paleontology, Western Australian Museum, Perth) describes the early jawless fish, sharks and their kin, extinct spiny fins, armored fish, fish with arms, true bony fish, ray fins, lungfish and other breathers, fish that flirted with land, and the ones that finally crawled up into the air. Includes a glossary without pronunciation.

Seismosaurus (The Earth Shaker), David Gillete. The first half of this wonderful volume conveys the sheer excitement of discovery of the world's largest land creature. The rest reads like a well-written novel in that it tells the dramatic story of how this awesome behemoth lived, died and was partially consumed. It was more than a mouthful! Color illustrations? The pictures pull you through the "window" and back in time to crouch in awe, a participant in vivid action scenes!

T. Rex and the Crater of Doom, Walter Alvarez. To be reviewed. One of the great mysteries is what happened to the dinosaurs, and it has taken great detective work to give us an answer. In T. Rex and the Crater of Doom, some brilliant, not to mention determined, scientists roam the world and seek out the clues. What they conclude is that the earth withstood a colossal impact with a meteor (or perhaps a comet) 65 million years ago. The resulting cataclysm destroyed half the life on the planet.

C. Reviews of Apparently great stuff destined for the deepest discounts at yard sales!

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Revised: September 3 2011.