Media Reviews: Dinosaur Digs

Dinosaur Digs
by Blake Edgar (editor)
published by Discovery Communications, Maspeth, NY, 1999.
Soft-cover, color, 6-3û4" x 9-1û2, 224 pages, $19.95.

Reviewed by June Culp Zeitner.

This book—one of the Insight Guides of Discovery Travel Adventures — is written by science reporters, editors, and paleontologists. Enthralling each of these groups are the huge, diverse, and mysterious animals of the past:, dinosaurs. The book documents some of the most famous and interesting digs for bones and trackways in North America. The pictures alone are an adventure.

In the past dozen years or so, we have learned more about dinosaurs than in all of our previous history. Our entire image of these great beasts has changed from slow, ponderous, and vicious cold-blooded loners into warm-blooded families, agile and swift. Dinosaur eggs with embryos and hatchlings have been found. Scientists have examined dinosaur skin and even dinosaur “feathers.”

North America leads in the number of species discovered to date. Many of the leading dinosaur specialists are from North America.

The book gives the history of early discoveries, the dinosaur wars between paleontologists Marsh and Cope, and the controversy about the possible link between dinosaurs and birds. It tells about important discoveries, great collections and collectors and, as the title proclaims, dino digs. Some of these exotic digs, mostly in the western United States, are open for viewing. Even better, some, like Wyoming’s Tate Museum, allow active participation.

The story of the T. rex Sue is told. The Black Hills Institute of Geological Research, Sue’s discoverers, are starting a museum. This book contains a section of museum reviews in which there is coverage of this new endeavor.
Many of the scientists discussed in this book are often seen on the Discovery Channel, as well as on other similar channels and programs. Dinosaur related findings here and in other parts of the world are in the news constantly. Several new species are discovered every year.

This is a fascinating book for anyone interested in geology, paleontology, discovery, adventure, or our rich heritage from so many years ago. The book not only discusses the possible causes of dinosaur extinction, but it also makes mention of theories postulating that maybe they aren’t extinct at all! Few science books are the kind you can’t put down until the end. This is such a book.