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The Mistaken Extinction & CD-Rom: Dinosaur Evolution and the Origin of Birds
This is a comprehensive account of the life and death of dinosaurs. Modern birds, the authors assert, are the direct descendants of dinosaurs and represent the most ancient linking group of species on our planet.
332 pages, Hardcover
First published September 1, 1997
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
September 22, 2024
Now first and foremost and before I actually start with my review, well, some potential readers might want to consider Mistaken Extinction: Dinosaur Evolution and the Origin of Birds as kind of preaching to the choir so to speak (since today, since in 2023, it has generally speaking rather been rather accepted that birds are not just related to dinosaurs, but that they actually are a type of dinosaur and basically the only group of dinosaurs to survive, to not have been made extinct by the K-T Boundary event of 65 million years ago, by the meteor impact in the Yucatan Peninsula of what is now Mexico).
However, when palaeontologists Lowell Dingus (American Museum of Natural History) and Timothy Rowe (University of Texas at Austin) published Mistaken Extinction: Dinosaur Evolution and the Origin of Birds in 1997, the concept of birds not only being distantly linked to dinosaurs but actually representing a type of (feathered) dinosaur was still not only quite novel, there was also still more than a bit of controversy regarding birds being considered as dinosaurs and vice versa. For while most scientists worth their proverbial salt in the late 1990s certainly did agree that birds evolved from reptiles, and also recognized archaeopteryx's importance as an early bird (living around 150 million years ago) and likely not even being the earliest (although archaeopteryx is unfortunately often described and depicted as the earliest bird, or rather as the earliest known bird and especially in books geared towards younger readers), in particular ornithologists were having much trouble conceiving and accepting how two such distinct groups of animals (birds and dinosaurs) could be directly related (and to have them actually be considered as being of one class, of one distinct group) and thus chose to think that birds originated from certain pre-dinosaur reptiles (like is the case with mammals, in fact), something that is not so much the case today (after more and more bird-like dinosaurs aside from archaeopteryx have been found around the world and in particular in Mongolia) and that Dingus and Rowe's concept in Mistaken Extinction: Dinosaur Evolution and the Origin of Birds of a believed and accepted extinction of ALL of the dinosaurs being erroneous, that one group of dinosaurs obviously was able to survive and has become what we now consider as class aves, as birds, is no longer all that controversial but is actually pretty much now accepted and considered not just possible but actually and in fact probable (and in fact rather unilaterally so amongst palaeontologists, amongst bona fide scientists).
So with Mistaken Extinction: Dinosaur Evolution and the Origin of Birds Lowell Dingus and Timothy Rowe do indeed (and of course in my opinion) both textually as well as illustratively show (and also pretty much prove) that instead of a total and complete dinosaur extinction 65 million years ago, one group of dinosaurs (generally warm blooded and with feathers) obviously survived and became class aves, became birds, with the authors showing in a delightfully informative and also wonderfully readable and not ever overly scientific jargon-filled manner everything one needs to know regarding both the extinction of the dinosaurs and also how/why one group of dinosaurs survived the meteor impact, and that with regard to dinosaurs, saying that ALL dinosaurs became extinct should probably be considered as being wrong, since birds are according to Dingus and Rowe (and indeed not only them) simply what the one group of dinosaurs that survived the K-T Boundary event became and evolved into over millions and millions of years (and that what we know as birds are basically latter-day dinosaurs, that while most dinosaurs of course became extinct 65 million years ago, one specifically avian like group survived and indeed thrived).
And finally, importantly, Lowell Dingus and Timothy Rowe to and for me believably and sensibly contend with Mistaken Extinction: Dinosaur Evolution and the Origin of Birds that the traditional Linnaean system of classifying organisms seems to have in the past trapped scientists into having to consign ALL dinosaurs to the ranks of extinct life. Because with the Linnaean emphasis on classification by defining very specific characteristics, well, according to what Dingus and Rowe claim in Mistaken Extinction: Dinosaur Evolution and the Origin of Birds with Linnaeus, only birds could therefore have feathers, and that birds thus have to belong to a class entirely separate from reptilian dinosaurs, but yes, that a new method of determining evolutionary relationships called cladistics identifies unique anatomical features that both dinosaurs and birds share and that with this system, with cladistics (and as many palaeontologists seem to see it), birds retain many attributes that were inherited from their dinosaur ancestors and are thus to be seen as not just as somewhat and somehow related very distantly to the dinosaurs but are to be approached as the one group of dinosaurs that survived the meteorite cataclysm 65 million years (something that after reading Dingus and Rowe's arguments in Mistaken Extinction: Dinosaur Evolution and the Origin of Birds I majorly and totally believe, and indeed, that my only reason for not granting five stars for Mistaken Extinction: Dinosaur Evolution and the Origin of Birds is that I do tend to find there being just chapter endnotes and no separate bibliography for Mistaken Extinction: Dinosaur Evolution and the Origin of Birds more than a trifle user and supplemental research unfriendly and rather frustrating).
However, when palaeontologists Lowell Dingus (American Museum of Natural History) and Timothy Rowe (University of Texas at Austin) published Mistaken Extinction: Dinosaur Evolution and the Origin of Birds in 1997, the concept of birds not only being distantly linked to dinosaurs but actually representing a type of (feathered) dinosaur was still not only quite novel, there was also still more than a bit of controversy regarding birds being considered as dinosaurs and vice versa. For while most scientists worth their proverbial salt in the late 1990s certainly did agree that birds evolved from reptiles, and also recognized archaeopteryx's importance as an early bird (living around 150 million years ago) and likely not even being the earliest (although archaeopteryx is unfortunately often described and depicted as the earliest bird, or rather as the earliest known bird and especially in books geared towards younger readers), in particular ornithologists were having much trouble conceiving and accepting how two such distinct groups of animals (birds and dinosaurs) could be directly related (and to have them actually be considered as being of one class, of one distinct group) and thus chose to think that birds originated from certain pre-dinosaur reptiles (like is the case with mammals, in fact), something that is not so much the case today (after more and more bird-like dinosaurs aside from archaeopteryx have been found around the world and in particular in Mongolia) and that Dingus and Rowe's concept in Mistaken Extinction: Dinosaur Evolution and the Origin of Birds of a believed and accepted extinction of ALL of the dinosaurs being erroneous, that one group of dinosaurs obviously was able to survive and has become what we now consider as class aves, as birds, is no longer all that controversial but is actually pretty much now accepted and considered not just possible but actually and in fact probable (and in fact rather unilaterally so amongst palaeontologists, amongst bona fide scientists).
So with Mistaken Extinction: Dinosaur Evolution and the Origin of Birds Lowell Dingus and Timothy Rowe do indeed (and of course in my opinion) both textually as well as illustratively show (and also pretty much prove) that instead of a total and complete dinosaur extinction 65 million years ago, one group of dinosaurs (generally warm blooded and with feathers) obviously survived and became class aves, became birds, with the authors showing in a delightfully informative and also wonderfully readable and not ever overly scientific jargon-filled manner everything one needs to know regarding both the extinction of the dinosaurs and also how/why one group of dinosaurs survived the meteor impact, and that with regard to dinosaurs, saying that ALL dinosaurs became extinct should probably be considered as being wrong, since birds are according to Dingus and Rowe (and indeed not only them) simply what the one group of dinosaurs that survived the K-T Boundary event became and evolved into over millions and millions of years (and that what we know as birds are basically latter-day dinosaurs, that while most dinosaurs of course became extinct 65 million years ago, one specifically avian like group survived and indeed thrived).
And finally, importantly, Lowell Dingus and Timothy Rowe to and for me believably and sensibly contend with Mistaken Extinction: Dinosaur Evolution and the Origin of Birds that the traditional Linnaean system of classifying organisms seems to have in the past trapped scientists into having to consign ALL dinosaurs to the ranks of extinct life. Because with the Linnaean emphasis on classification by defining very specific characteristics, well, according to what Dingus and Rowe claim in Mistaken Extinction: Dinosaur Evolution and the Origin of Birds with Linnaeus, only birds could therefore have feathers, and that birds thus have to belong to a class entirely separate from reptilian dinosaurs, but yes, that a new method of determining evolutionary relationships called cladistics identifies unique anatomical features that both dinosaurs and birds share and that with this system, with cladistics (and as many palaeontologists seem to see it), birds retain many attributes that were inherited from their dinosaur ancestors and are thus to be seen as not just as somewhat and somehow related very distantly to the dinosaurs but are to be approached as the one group of dinosaurs that survived the meteorite cataclysm 65 million years (something that after reading Dingus and Rowe's arguments in Mistaken Extinction: Dinosaur Evolution and the Origin of Birds I majorly and totally believe, and indeed, that my only reason for not granting five stars for Mistaken Extinction: Dinosaur Evolution and the Origin of Birds is that I do tend to find there being just chapter endnotes and no separate bibliography for Mistaken Extinction: Dinosaur Evolution and the Origin of Birds more than a trifle user and supplemental research unfriendly and rather frustrating).
April 3, 2009
This book was an amazing read. It discussed highly complicated biology, geology, paleontology, physics etc in such an easy-to-understand manner that anyone could read and understand it. Extremely informative and highlighted information with appropriate sketches, graphs, charts and photos. Would recommend this to anyone.
March 11, 2009
Superb! Clear, informative, funny and great cladistic diagrams of dino-phylogenetic taxonomy. Survey style textbook fashion.
"Two eminent paleontologists make a case for the continued existence of dinosaurs, at least in the form of some relatively diminutive descendants: birds."
"Two eminent paleontologists make a case for the continued existence of dinosaurs, at least in the form of some relatively diminutive descendants: birds."
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews