What do you think?
Rate this book
The Evolution and Extinction of the Dinosaurs by Fastovsky, David E., Weishampel, David B.. (Cambridge University Press,2005) [Hardcover] 2ND EDITION
This CD ROM accompanies the new, second edition of The Evolution and Extinction of the Dinosaurs; a unique, comprehensive treatment of this fascinating group of organisms.
Unknown Binding
First published March 29, 1996
8 people are currently reading
133 people want to read
About the author
David E. Fastovsky
6 books10 followersDavid E. Fastovsky is Professor of Geosciences at the University of Rhode Island. He is the author of numerous scientific publications dealing with Mesozoic vertebrate faunas and their ancient environments and is also scientific co-Editor of Geology. He has undertaken extensive fieldwork studying dinosaurs and their environments in Montana, North Dakota, Arizona, Mexico, and Mongolia.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
June 25, 2018
Fatovsky and Weishampel actually created an intelligent textbook that was still down to earth. Actually a joy to read.
I may disagree with major parts of it, but I still applaud.
(Oh, and by the way, I ADORE THIS CLASS UGH I'M COMING BACK OUT HERE EVERY SINGLE YEAR FOR THE REST OF MY LIFE so get used to not seeing me in June. Long live dragons. And Camp Cretaceous. These people are insane, but absolutely golden. ;) )
I may disagree with major parts of it, but I still applaud.
(Oh, and by the way, I ADORE THIS CLASS UGH I'M COMING BACK OUT HERE EVERY SINGLE YEAR FOR THE REST OF MY LIFE so get used to not seeing me in June. Long live dragons. And Camp Cretaceous. These people are insane, but absolutely golden. ;) )
April 30, 2020
Three things I loved about this book:
1. Scientific Debate. The authors never just tell you what they think. For every topic - evolutionary relationships, phylogeny, definitions (what is a bird?), how to deal with sampling errors, extinction, thermoregulation, diversity - they present the history of the idea, the various sides of the debate, and all of the evidence that was observed and theories that were proposed. Only at the end, as a paragraph, do they say where they personally stand. This makes the process of science look a lot more messy and realistic than it sometimes appears in textbooks. It also takes a lot of humility on their part to not merely posit their opinion as the Gospel truth.
2. Diversity and humanization. The authors make a point of highlighting the contributions of global paleontologists. Instead of just name-dropping Owen and Marsh and Cope and calling it a day, they actually name who discovered every single species/genera of dinosaur in the text. They talk about who discovered it, the context of the discovery, what went into it - for exxample, colonialism in southern Africa led to German and British expeditions, the role of of the Tanzanian workers, exactly how fossils were shipped back to Europe. They also shift the focus from the traditional Western Europe and North America to including Eastern Europe, Central, Southern and East Asia, Central and South America, Middle East, Southern Africa, Australia, Antarctica. I appreciate how the authors emphasize the global project of dinosaur paleontology by exploring both dinosaur and human diversity.
3. Cladistics. This book gave me the clearest understanding of how cladistics works, by taking the beautiful straight lines and theoretical "defining characters" and showing just how messy the work is. The authors discuss the role of primitive and derived characters, and consistently bring this up for every clade as they explain exactly what defines each level. In doing so, they show that there clades that have no name, that there are awkward lone basal forms, that each clade is defined by a theoretical, unobtainable common ancestor. In deconstructing the process of creating cladograms, the authors demonstrated the mode of reasoning, the evidence, and the balancing of contradictory evidence needed to create some sort of a coherent scheme.
1. Scientific Debate. The authors never just tell you what they think. For every topic - evolutionary relationships, phylogeny, definitions (what is a bird?), how to deal with sampling errors, extinction, thermoregulation, diversity - they present the history of the idea, the various sides of the debate, and all of the evidence that was observed and theories that were proposed. Only at the end, as a paragraph, do they say where they personally stand. This makes the process of science look a lot more messy and realistic than it sometimes appears in textbooks. It also takes a lot of humility on their part to not merely posit their opinion as the Gospel truth.
2. Diversity and humanization. The authors make a point of highlighting the contributions of global paleontologists. Instead of just name-dropping Owen and Marsh and Cope and calling it a day, they actually name who discovered every single species/genera of dinosaur in the text. They talk about who discovered it, the context of the discovery, what went into it - for exxample, colonialism in southern Africa led to German and British expeditions, the role of of the Tanzanian workers, exactly how fossils were shipped back to Europe. They also shift the focus from the traditional Western Europe and North America to including Eastern Europe, Central, Southern and East Asia, Central and South America, Middle East, Southern Africa, Australia, Antarctica. I appreciate how the authors emphasize the global project of dinosaur paleontology by exploring both dinosaur and human diversity.
3. Cladistics. This book gave me the clearest understanding of how cladistics works, by taking the beautiful straight lines and theoretical "defining characters" and showing just how messy the work is. The authors discuss the role of primitive and derived characters, and consistently bring this up for every clade as they explain exactly what defines each level. In doing so, they show that there clades that have no name, that there are awkward lone basal forms, that each clade is defined by a theoretical, unobtainable common ancestor. In deconstructing the process of creating cladograms, the authors demonstrated the mode of reasoning, the evidence, and the balancing of contradictory evidence needed to create some sort of a coherent scheme.
Want to read
August 28, 2020As seen in The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews