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The Lost Dinosaurs of Egypt
The date is January 11, 1911 . A young German paleontologist, accompanied only by a guide, a cook, four camels, and a couple of camel drivers, reaches the lip of the vast Bahariya Depression after a long trek across the bleak plateau of the western desert of Egypt. The scientist, Ernst Freiherr Stromer von Reichenbach, hopes to find fossil evidence of early mammals. In this, he will be disappointed, for the rocks here will prove to be much older than he thinks. They are nearly a hundred million years old. Stromer is about to learn that he has walked into the age of the dinosaurs.
At the bottom of the Bahariya Depression, Stromer will find the remains of four immense and entirely new dinosaurs, along with dozens of other unique specimens. But there will be reversals—shipments delayed for years by war, fossils shattered in transit, stunning personal and professional setbacks. Then, in a single cataclysmic night, all of his work will be destroyed and Ernst Stromer will slip into history and be forgotten.
The date is January 11, 2000 —eighty-nine years to the day after Stromer descended into Bahariya. Another young paleontologist, Ameri-can graduate student Josh Smith, has brought a team of fellow scientists to Egypt to find Stromer’s dinosaur graveyard and resurrect the German pioneer’s legacy. After weeks of digging, often under appalling conditions, they fail utterly at rediscovering any of Stromer’s dinosaur species.
Then, just when they are about to declare defeat, Smith’s team discovers a dinosaur of such staggering immensity that it will stun the world of paleontology and make headlines around the globe.
Masterfully weaving together history, science, and human drama, The Lost Dinosaurs of Egypt is the gripping account of not one but two of the twentieth century’s great expeditions of discovery.
At the bottom of the Bahariya Depression, Stromer will find the remains of four immense and entirely new dinosaurs, along with dozens of other unique specimens. But there will be reversals—shipments delayed for years by war, fossils shattered in transit, stunning personal and professional setbacks. Then, in a single cataclysmic night, all of his work will be destroyed and Ernst Stromer will slip into history and be forgotten.
The date is January 11, 2000 —eighty-nine years to the day after Stromer descended into Bahariya. Another young paleontologist, Ameri-can graduate student Josh Smith, has brought a team of fellow scientists to Egypt to find Stromer’s dinosaur graveyard and resurrect the German pioneer’s legacy. After weeks of digging, often under appalling conditions, they fail utterly at rediscovering any of Stromer’s dinosaur species.
Then, just when they are about to declare defeat, Smith’s team discovers a dinosaur of such staggering immensity that it will stun the world of paleontology and make headlines around the globe.
Masterfully weaving together history, science, and human drama, The Lost Dinosaurs of Egypt is the gripping account of not one but two of the twentieth century’s great expeditions of discovery.
242 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2002
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 37 reviews
April 9, 2023
My one-phrase rundown: Trying to make geological, archeological, or paleontological work sound exciting is very difficult.
To be fair, these scientific pursuits can really be very exciting, as I remember from a time in my life when I almost gave up biology for paleontology. The quintessentially American exploits of Marsh and Cope are an instructive example. Imagine, if you can, a combination of old-west dinosaur hunting, academic spy intrigue, and a circus of publicity hounds worthy of any modern reality TV show. Likewise, Jack Horner’s tales about the discovery of Maiasaura’s nesting behavior and the changing face of T. rex are also excellent reading, though without the Barnum and Bailey-style hijinks. And face it folks, without paleontologist Roy Chapman Andrews there would be no Indiana Jones.
We should all recognize that, much like pro baseball and football players, anyone who gets to work with dinosaurs is living the life countless kids dream of. But there is the reality that this work takes place in two spheres: the lab and the field. The Field = months of digging. And brushing. And digging. And scraping with dental implements. The Lab = months of more scraping with really expensive dental implements. It’s hard to glamorize this stuff.
Unfortunately for this book, the same goes for the mental exercises it requires for a group of dyed-in-the-wool academics under the leadership of Smith, including a PhD student with an encyclopedic knowledge of dinosaur systematics and a visionary geologist with insomnia to collectively understand the importance of not only the fossils that the group found, but why they found them.
Overall, I congratulate the crew and celebrate their contributions. The story itself, though, suffers in the telling. The mystery of the missing sand? Geological noncomformity? Flaser bedding? Fossilized mangrove plants which would appear to the uninformed as xeriphiles? These things even bored me, and I kinda like this stuff!
The inclusion of Stromer’s detailed Egyptian itineraries are of debatable value. However, describing Stromer’s (honorably) aristocratic resistance against Nazi Germany, the RAF’s trial-and-error development of low-level bombing techniques, and the rivalry between British officers involved in the bombing of Munich in 1994 (?) left the impression that the main storyline simply wasn’t enough to fill a book.
In conclusion, these people succeeded despite adversity and made some valuable contributions to science. While it would have been cool to participate, I didn’t overly enjoy reading about this particular dig. I’ll have to check out the documentary and see if that flows better.
To be fair, these scientific pursuits can really be very exciting, as I remember from a time in my life when I almost gave up biology for paleontology. The quintessentially American exploits of Marsh and Cope are an instructive example. Imagine, if you can, a combination of old-west dinosaur hunting, academic spy intrigue, and a circus of publicity hounds worthy of any modern reality TV show. Likewise, Jack Horner’s tales about the discovery of Maiasaura’s nesting behavior and the changing face of T. rex are also excellent reading, though without the Barnum and Bailey-style hijinks. And face it folks, without paleontologist Roy Chapman Andrews there would be no Indiana Jones.
We should all recognize that, much like pro baseball and football players, anyone who gets to work with dinosaurs is living the life countless kids dream of. But there is the reality that this work takes place in two spheres: the lab and the field. The Field = months of digging. And brushing. And digging. And scraping with dental implements. The Lab = months of more scraping with really expensive dental implements. It’s hard to glamorize this stuff.
Unfortunately for this book, the same goes for the mental exercises it requires for a group of dyed-in-the-wool academics under the leadership of Smith, including a PhD student with an encyclopedic knowledge of dinosaur systematics and a visionary geologist with insomnia to collectively understand the importance of not only the fossils that the group found, but why they found them.
Overall, I congratulate the crew and celebrate their contributions. The story itself, though, suffers in the telling. The mystery of the missing sand? Geological noncomformity? Flaser bedding? Fossilized mangrove plants which would appear to the uninformed as xeriphiles? These things even bored me, and I kinda like this stuff!
The inclusion of Stromer’s detailed Egyptian itineraries are of debatable value. However, describing Stromer’s (honorably) aristocratic resistance against Nazi Germany, the RAF’s trial-and-error development of low-level bombing techniques, and the rivalry between British officers involved in the bombing of Munich in 1994 (?) left the impression that the main storyline simply wasn’t enough to fill a book.
In conclusion, these people succeeded despite adversity and made some valuable contributions to science. While it would have been cool to participate, I didn’t overly enjoy reading about this particular dig. I’ll have to check out the documentary and see if that flows better.
May 12, 2019
Quite an interesting read as dinosaurs are super cool and paleontology is fun! They did use the title an awful lot in the book though.
October 10, 2018
This was not my book. In general, I found it to remain tangental to paleontology throughout. It was constantly more interested with the various researchers and their challenges in the field than with the dinosaurs themselves. This is not necessarily a negative, but it was not what I wanted form the book. Additionally, if the book did choose to focus more on the researchers, I would have wanted it to delve deeper into the history of paleontology than it actually does. Also perhaps expand upon the blatantly rude or racist statements it quotes when discussing the past. Personally I also found it hard to get past the fact that one of the main paleontologists, Josh Smith, recently left his position at U of Washington after allegations of sexual misconduct. Finally, as an archaeologist, I found it really annoying how the book uses archaeologist and paleontologist correctly but never explains the difference. I only find this important to do as many people are confused about what each person studies, as is abundantly clear in the reviews of this book. I would suggest this only if you have a passing interest in the subject and want a very boiled down and publicized reading of this discovery.
May 28, 2018
Wow, I'm really kind of amazed that so many people rated this so poorly. The beginning of the book was a little rough, true--there's a lot of back-story, and there are a lot of people introduced, as well as the basic idea of what they're trying to do. The way the story is told reminded me a lot of David Grann's The Lost City of Z, where the narration goes back and forth in time between covering the original expedition and the modern one.
I will admit that I did sometimes have a hard time engrossing myself in the Ernst Stromer parts; his story is told in a much dryer way than is the story of the modern expedition, mainly, I think, because members of the modern expedition actually helped write this and the book includes quotes and first-person accounts of how things occurred and what their various thought processes were.
Another reviewer said that they like this stuff and still found the book really boring, but I did not. The same parts he describes as dull--the mystery of the missing sand, the descriptions of the environment at the time of the dinosaurs discovered and the way the team members were able to figure it all out I found really fascinating. But maybe I just like boring stuff? I'm kind of nerdy like that sometimes.
In any case, I thought this was a super interesting read, and I'm definitely planning on trying to track down a copy of the documentary and to do some more research on the subject.
I will admit that I did sometimes have a hard time engrossing myself in the Ernst Stromer parts; his story is told in a much dryer way than is the story of the modern expedition, mainly, I think, because members of the modern expedition actually helped write this and the book includes quotes and first-person accounts of how things occurred and what their various thought processes were.
Another reviewer said that they like this stuff and still found the book really boring, but I did not. The same parts he describes as dull--the mystery of the missing sand, the descriptions of the environment at the time of the dinosaurs discovered and the way the team members were able to figure it all out I found really fascinating. But maybe I just like boring stuff? I'm kind of nerdy like that sometimes.
In any case, I thought this was a super interesting read, and I'm definitely planning on trying to track down a copy of the documentary and to do some more research on the subject.
January 30, 2011
One would not think it that surprising to discover that dinosaur fossils had been discovered within the Sahara Desert of Egypt, considering the immense history this country already has, but apparently from an archaeological perspective, this is pretty rare. What is even more amazing is that these dinosaur fossils were actually the largest ever found. Yet they remain relatively unknown due to the stupid efforts of archaeologists and patrons during the early twentieth century when they were discovered. Sadly, this book lacks in that it could be a third shorter and pertain more to the actual subject at hand than going on fictional tangents. It creates a question of what is real and what is not, most important in the study of fossils many millions of years old.
Originally published on November 25th, 2002.
For over 500 book reviews, and over 40 exclusive author interviews (both audio and written), visit BookBanter.
Originally published on November 25th, 2002.
For over 500 book reviews, and over 40 exclusive author interviews (both audio and written), visit BookBanter.
March 6, 2016
This was a riveting book, outlining the pioneering (and depressingly forgotten) work of German paleontologist Ernst Stromer, and the attempts of a group of modern paleontologists to rediscover his finds in Egypt. The science is interesting: these are some seriously cool dinosaurs. The history is fascinating: the loss of Stromer's fossil discoveries in the War helps remind us of the periphery costs of this terrible era in human history. The look into the fieldwork of the modern teams is great: it really gives you a sense of what it must have been like. In short, this is an exceptional look into some seriously worthwhile stuff in the realms of human history, scientific exploration, and dinosaur biology. If any of those topics, let alone all of them, interest you, this is worth your time.
September 21, 2012
Sadly there isn't a lot of information about dinosaurs from Egypt in this book. The book is more of a semi-historical account of an expedition to search for dinosaurs in the early 1900s and a later one in 2000. Much of the time the book annoyingly reads like a documentary script and I kept hearing Barbara Felden and Kenneth Branagh alternating in the narration. Also the author never really lets us get close to the living people, we learn far more about Ernst Stromer than about the modern paleontologists and geolgists that make up the cast.
Not a bad read, just don't expect to really learn anything from it.
Not a bad read, just don't expect to really learn anything from it.
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November 19, 2010The sed/strat and the bio about Stromer was more interesting than the "OMG 3 HUGE MEAT EATERS!" narrative. Over all, this book did well with the geology and human history, but the paleobiology is a bit flat
June 28, 2016
3.5
This was an interesting short read, but it could have been better. I enjoyed the parts about Stromer's expedition more. I would have liked more information about the dinosaurs--surprisingly, that was a bit sparse. Lots of evolution too.
This was an interesting short read, but it could have been better. I enjoyed the parts about Stromer's expedition more. I would have liked more information about the dinosaurs--surprisingly, that was a bit sparse. Lots of evolution too.
September 27, 2020
This is a story of paleontology searches in the western desert of Egypt: one series by Ernst Strom in 1910-14 and another series by collaborators from the US and Egypt in 2000-03. Strom’s work was stopped by WWI and then his priceless work was destroyed by RAF bombing of Munich in 1944. (Strom strongly spoke out against Nazism and as a result, he and his family lost fortune and lives because of it.) He isn’t known outside of a very small circle of researchers, even though his life efforts laid the groundwork for dinosaur study today.
The 21st century paleontologists were looking for his digging area and did, indeed, find dinosaur bones. But they were from a whole new, yet-to-be-named genus that was bigger than any dinosaur yet found worldwide. The author winds the two stories together quite well and gives the reader a lot of information on discovery and extraction methods of the two teams. It was fascinating reading.
Coincidentally, the latest National Geographic (October 2020) features dinosaurs and mentions Strom’s work, but not by name. More excavation has been completed since this book’s publication and the dinosaur that Strom first found and named, Spinosaurus aegyptiacus, has been found in Morocco. With a more complete skeleton.
As a footnote: the 2000 expedition members named the new species of dinosaur Paralititan stromeri, meaning “Stromer’s tidal giant.”
The 21st century paleontologists were looking for his digging area and did, indeed, find dinosaur bones. But they were from a whole new, yet-to-be-named genus that was bigger than any dinosaur yet found worldwide. The author winds the two stories together quite well and gives the reader a lot of information on discovery and extraction methods of the two teams. It was fascinating reading.
Coincidentally, the latest National Geographic (October 2020) features dinosaurs and mentions Strom’s work, but not by name. More excavation has been completed since this book’s publication and the dinosaur that Strom first found and named, Spinosaurus aegyptiacus, has been found in Morocco. With a more complete skeleton.
As a footnote: the 2000 expedition members named the new species of dinosaur Paralititan stromeri, meaning “Stromer’s tidal giant.”
December 12, 2025
A excellent narrative of two expeditions in search of dinosaur bones; one that took place by Ernst Stromer, German paleontologist, right before the start of WWI; and then an attempt by a more recent group of academic paleontologists (and a few geologists as well) at the turn of the 20th and 21st centuries. It was nice reading the parallel stories, how the current team was cognizant of the efforts of the historic, older team. As far as techniques involved, they are really detailed, and not much has changed in terms of the hard painstaking work necessary to identify, protect, and eventually extract fossils.
There's a sense of adventure that the writer conveys when describing both journeys; he makes some fairly complicated science seem quite readable, both paleontology and geology; and he gets to know many of the main characters for the contemporary expedition, including Josh Smith, an Army vet who is listed as a "with" co-author of the book.
Even though the book is 25+ years old, it's still nice to read!
There's a sense of adventure that the writer conveys when describing both journeys; he makes some fairly complicated science seem quite readable, both paleontology and geology; and he gets to know many of the main characters for the contemporary expedition, including Josh Smith, an Army vet who is listed as a "with" co-author of the book.
Even though the book is 25+ years old, it's still nice to read!
September 19, 2020
I still haven't watched the accompanying documentary, but this read was pretty great for a nerd like me. I'm curious about paleontology and its history and The Lost Dinosaurs of Egypt was a great dive into it. It starts with the pre-WW2 collection of fossils from the Bahairiya Oasis, their importance, and their destruction, before blending seamlessly into modern efforts to rediscover these lost species. Northdurft gives an honest accounting of how difficult the planning and permits were, the trails and tribulations in the Oasis, and the importance of their findings to paleontology today.
If you're looking for unconventional dinosaurs and scientific non-fiction this is a great book. My one complaint is that it only covers the first expedition to rediscover the site, when there have been subsequent expeditions and discoveries. So essentially my one complaint is that there isn't enough of this book. I'm definitely going to watch the documentary of the same name.
If you're looking for unconventional dinosaurs and scientific non-fiction this is a great book. My one complaint is that it only covers the first expedition to rediscover the site, when there have been subsequent expeditions and discoveries. So essentially my one complaint is that there isn't enough of this book. I'm definitely going to watch the documentary of the same name.
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August 18, 2025Found this dusty and age-browned on a bookshelf obstructed by herbal soaps in a new age shop and had to have it. I wonder if the proprietors thought it had a more sensational topic. This is a swell, turn-of-the-millennium documentary story about the loss and (re)discovery of a titanic herbivore in the Egyptian desert, which jumps between World War II, the (then) present day, and prehistory. Very much of its 2002 era, which made me honestly a bit nostalgic. A couple of the technical digressions are a little dry, and the story peters out at the announcement and naming of the new discovery, but I enjoyed the ground level sense of how palaeontology was done in two eras more than half a century apart. A documentary of the same name about the modern expedition is deposited on Archive.org.
September 13, 2021
This book is absolutely a brilliant read or listen! It reads like a really great ethnography that succeeds at zooming in and out to connect the dots in a fascinating story not only about dinosaurs, but paleontologists, geologists, geopolitics, war and takes the reader on a journey from 90 million years ago until 2001. I highly recommend this for anyone with the slightest interest in dinosaurs, Egypt and good story-telling! 🌿
December 15, 2018
Is this the best science book I have ever read? No. Was this a good book to read while floating down the Nile? Oh, yes. While this book focuses more on the people versus the place, there is enough context about the locations that made reading this book in Egypt very enjoyable for a person with a background in geology.
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November 22, 2019A group of University of Pennsylvania paleontologists seek and find the dig site of legendary German paleontologist Ernst Stromer in Egypt. Stromer found the fossils of several new species of very large dinosaurs between 1911 and 1914. The priceless specimens were later lost when Munich's natural history museum was destroyed by bombing in 1944.
August 1, 2022
I'm vey much into both science and dinosaurs, so this book should have really grabbed me. Instead, I found it a dry, dusty account of what should have been an exciting discovery, marred by a tendency to time-shift between centuries. It needed more focus, and less digression into Ernst Stromer's career.
December 19, 2025
Bringing to life two palaeontological expeditions and excelling at explaining scientific concepts, The Lost Dinosaurs of Egypt goes deeper into the tragic history behind Spinosaurus and resurrects the forgotten Ernst Stromer. Read my full review at https://inquisitivebiologist.com/2025...
May 29, 2021
I was surprised at how interesting this audiobook was, because I was expecting this one to be mainly background noise for a few days. But I really got pulled into the story of both Strommer and Smith who were facing the same challenges in order to advance their field.
Would recommend this one.
Would recommend this one.
May 28, 2019
Pretty interesting, if a trifle dry. Stromer seems like he was an interesting guy with a real tough string of bad luck.
September 10, 2021
A quick, interesting read. I'm a sucker for pretty much anything dinosaurs tho and this presented a good idea of what it's like to discover them
December 5, 2021
Interesting but not necessarily memorable
June 27, 2022
Preread for 9th grade geography/geology.
September 18, 2016
A fascinating book about dinosaurs and the hard work to rediscover lost fossils.
December 11, 2018
An interesting and detailed combination of history and research – in two time periods. A very enjoyable read about an important (lost) discovery and its considerable scientific value.
January 10, 2015
I did not expect to love this book quite as much as I did. I was somewhat familiar with the story of Ernst Stromer, I was definitely familiar with the story of how Spinosaurus was discovered, lost when the museum the bones were kept at was bombed in WWII, and now we've only just relaly solved that puzzle, but there turns out to have been much more to all of this than I could've imagined. It's a crazy, complex story with a lot of smaller mysteries involved, and the best quality of this book is that Nothdurft explores every facet of all of them in so, much, detail. I learned more about WWII, British bombing campaigns, and the German economy after the first World War than I did in some of my history classes in school. He also fleshes out the expedition with moments talking about the paleontologists' love of Star Wars, or how a couple of them are drummers who would go into the village they were staying in at night to play music with the kids. I see some people complaining about how this book's really not about the dinosaurs, and they've completely missed the point. This is about the people and the process, and it's one of the best books I've read in that category in a long while.
August 12, 2008
Interesting book on "search and rescue" of dinosaur fossils in western Egypt. The book covers the work of paleontologists in the modern day and also the discoveries of a German paleontologists whose discoveries were destroyed in the Munich museum during WWII.
June 24, 2024
although I'm well aware of the paleontological rebirth that has been happening all over the world, I found that th information presented regarding Stromer to be interesting. These people were standing on his shoulders and were influenced by his lost discoveries
October 5, 2008
Been a long time since I read this, but I remember liking it. The thrill of the archeologist remains with me and connected to this book to this day.
May 28, 2010
that dinosaurs still walk the surface of earth. erinque, my brother from the same mother, ate a dinosaur three days ago. i asked him 'how was it?' and he replied -it tastes just like chicken!.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 37 reviews