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Jurassic West: The Dinosaurs of the Morrison Formation and Their World
The famous bone beds of the Morrison Formation, whose rocks are exposed from Wyoming down through the red rock region of the American Southwest, have yielded one of the most complete pictures of any ancient vertebrate ecosystem in the world. After more than a century of exploration, the Morrison continues to yield new discoveries about a time so different from our own that it almost seems imaginary. Aimed at the general reader, Jurassic West tells the story of the life of this ancient world as scientists have so far been able to reconstruct it. The book recounts the discovery of many important Late Jurassic dinosaurs such as Apatosaurus, Allosaurus, and Stegosaurus. But dinosaurs comprise barely a third of the more than 90 types of vertebrates known from the Formation, which include crocodiles and turtles, frogs and salamanders, dinosaurs and mammals, clams and snails, and ginkgoes, ferns, and conifers.
389 pages, Hardcover
First published July 1, 2007
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162 people want to read
About the author
John Foster
2 books1 followerLibrarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
John Russell Foster is an American paleontologist. He earned his Ph. D. from the University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado in 1998.
He was Curator of Paleontology at the Museums of Western Colorado from 2001 to 2014. Since 2014 he has been the Director of the Museum of Moab.
He is adjunct faculty of geology at Colorado Mesa University, Grand Junction, Colorado.
(Source: en.wikipedia.org)
John Russell Foster is an American paleontologist. He earned his Ph. D. from the University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado in 1998.
He was Curator of Paleontology at the Museums of Western Colorado from 2001 to 2014. Since 2014 he has been the Director of the Museum of Moab.
He is adjunct faculty of geology at Colorado Mesa University, Grand Junction, Colorado.
(Source: en.wikipedia.org)
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
February 19, 2021
Accessibly written and beautifully produced, Jurassic West really brings to life the fossils of the Morrison Formation. See my full review at https://inquisitivebiologist.com/2021...
September 18, 2015
_Jurassic West_ by John Foster is a comprehensive overview of the geology and biota of the Morrison Formation of Jurassic western North America (roughly 150 million years ago). In this well-illustrated book with many pages of references, the author recounted what the formation is, the types of rocks it is found preserved in, what the environment was like, the history of the study of the Morrison (one of the most intensively studied of all Mesozoic ecologies, it has been explored for over 125 years), and what to me is the heart of the book, a complete list and description of all vertebrate animals found there and the ecology of that region back in the Mesozoic.
So what was the Morrison? It was an immense flat basin between about 30 degrees and 40 degrees north latitude, a floodplain located between highlands to the west and far to the east. Thanks to the western mountains, it existed in something of a rain-shadow and was semi-arid and mostly savanna, though did receive a fair amount of water from surface rivers from the mountains, some regions of rather high groundwater levels, and seasonal storms. Foster wrote that geologist Ralph Moberly proposed that the Gran Chaco Plain of northern Argentina is a very good analog for the Morrison, as it is a vast alluvial plain, well-vegetated with patches of forest scattered through savannas and between lakes and freshwater swamps (some of these bodies of water are seasonal). Most of the rain occurs in the spring and summer during the rainy season, while during the winter dry season some bodies of water become sun-baked mud flats. Of course, the Morrison's savannas didn't have grass, as like other flowering plants they had yet to evolve; instead there were open plains of ferns (more than 80 types are known) and cycadophytes and the scattered lone trees and patches of woodland (mostly around bodies of water) were _Sequoia_ (related to modern redwoods), araucarian conifers (similar to Norfolk Island pines), _Podozamites_ (similar to the kauri tree of New Zealand), ginkgoes, tree ferns, seed ferns, cycads, and horsetails.
Foster recounted the 90 known vertebrate species from the Morrison, including fish, frogs, salamanders, turtles (which were quite abundant), sphenodontians (related to the modern tuatara), lizards, a possible snake, champsosaurs (a crocodile-like group of reptiles - distantly related - that existed as late as the Paleocene), crocodiles (the most interesting was "Fruitachampsa," a long-legged, terrestrial housecat-sized predator), pterosaurs, and mammals, but the main focus is on the dinosaurs, ranging from the predatory _Allosaurus_ (most abundant theropod of the formation, nearly 75% of the theropod specimens) to the huge _Saurophaganax_ (a nearly tyrannosaur-sized allosaurid, only two individuals have been found and it appears to have been quite rare) to smaller theropods such as _Ornitholestes_ (possibly feathered) to the huge sauropods (ranging form _Camarasaurus_, the most abundant dinosaur of the formation to the apparently rare _Brachiosaurus_) to stegosaurs, the rare ankylosaurs (not uncovered until the 1990s), and smaller fleet-footed ornithopods like _Dryosaurus_ and _Camptosaurus_.
Foster wrote that the diversity of mammals was so rich that there were nearly as many mammal genera as there were all groups of dinosaurs combined, showing a real diversity in lifestyles, prey, and habitats. Some forms (_Docodon_) appear to have been semiaquatic like muskrats while others (_Fruitafossor_) were burrowers, showing many similarities to the much later evolved aardvarks and armadillos, with peg-like teeth, spade-like claws, and a robust humerus.
There was an unusually high diversity of large carnivores, both when compared with today and with other past ecosystems. Though the famed Cleveland-Lloyd Quarry in Utah is dominated by _Allosaurus_, five other genera of theropods were found there, which lived in the same place at the same time. Foster compared the theropods of the tyrannosaur-dominated Late Cretaceous Hell Creek Formation and found that the Morrison Formation showed "greater species diversity, less body mass range from smallest to largest, and lesser disparity from one species to next smaller" than at Hell Creek. While Morrison had six species greater than 100 kg (220 lbs) in weight, only three were at Hell Creek (and two of them - an ornithomimid and oviraptorosaur - lacked teeth, so the next "pure carnivore" after _Tyrannosaurus_ was a 35 kg or 77 lb. troodontid). _Tyrannosaurus_ weighs more than 10 times as much as the next theropod, while no such extreme disparity exists at Morrison, where the difference as shown on a chart is "strikingly gradual and steplike." Foster did speculate that perhaps different age groups of _Tyrannosaurus_ functioned in a similar ecological role as the many genera of Morrison.
Foster wondered why this "freak of the Late Cretaceous," an "anomalous Mesozoic carnivore on steroids," was so big; did it really need to be that huge to prey upon hadrosaurs and ceratopsians? Why wouldn't the gargantuan sauropods of Morrison produce "behemoth carnivores?" Foster speculated that adult sauropods and even older juveniles were practically immune from predation so theropods focused on stegosaurs, ornithopods, and smaller sauropods.
How did the theropods of Morrison survive together? Analyzing body size, tooth size, forelimb build, and relative abundance of specimens, Foster proposed that _Allosaurus_ was something of a generalist predator (perhaps even feeding at times on aquatic life such as large lungfish according to Bob Bakker), feeding on a wide variety of prey items, while the larger and more robust _Torvosaurus_ feed on larger dinosaurs and the smaller, more gracile but large-toothed _Ceratosaurus_ fed on midsized dinosaurs.
In contrast to the gradual progression in size ranges in theropods, the herbivores were generally either all very large or rather small, showing a marked "bimodality." Richard Stucky proposed that given the already open terrain of the Morrison and the probable habitat modification thanks to the feeding habits of the sauropods, herbivores were under evolutionary pressure to either evolve into extremely large sizes to be immune to predation or be small to hide in what little understory there was.
The book also has an excellent section on sauropod metabolism where he reviewed concepts like inertial homeothermy and fermentative endothermy.
So what was the Morrison? It was an immense flat basin between about 30 degrees and 40 degrees north latitude, a floodplain located between highlands to the west and far to the east. Thanks to the western mountains, it existed in something of a rain-shadow and was semi-arid and mostly savanna, though did receive a fair amount of water from surface rivers from the mountains, some regions of rather high groundwater levels, and seasonal storms. Foster wrote that geologist Ralph Moberly proposed that the Gran Chaco Plain of northern Argentina is a very good analog for the Morrison, as it is a vast alluvial plain, well-vegetated with patches of forest scattered through savannas and between lakes and freshwater swamps (some of these bodies of water are seasonal). Most of the rain occurs in the spring and summer during the rainy season, while during the winter dry season some bodies of water become sun-baked mud flats. Of course, the Morrison's savannas didn't have grass, as like other flowering plants they had yet to evolve; instead there were open plains of ferns (more than 80 types are known) and cycadophytes and the scattered lone trees and patches of woodland (mostly around bodies of water) were _Sequoia_ (related to modern redwoods), araucarian conifers (similar to Norfolk Island pines), _Podozamites_ (similar to the kauri tree of New Zealand), ginkgoes, tree ferns, seed ferns, cycads, and horsetails.
Foster recounted the 90 known vertebrate species from the Morrison, including fish, frogs, salamanders, turtles (which were quite abundant), sphenodontians (related to the modern tuatara), lizards, a possible snake, champsosaurs (a crocodile-like group of reptiles - distantly related - that existed as late as the Paleocene), crocodiles (the most interesting was "Fruitachampsa," a long-legged, terrestrial housecat-sized predator), pterosaurs, and mammals, but the main focus is on the dinosaurs, ranging from the predatory _Allosaurus_ (most abundant theropod of the formation, nearly 75% of the theropod specimens) to the huge _Saurophaganax_ (a nearly tyrannosaur-sized allosaurid, only two individuals have been found and it appears to have been quite rare) to smaller theropods such as _Ornitholestes_ (possibly feathered) to the huge sauropods (ranging form _Camarasaurus_, the most abundant dinosaur of the formation to the apparently rare _Brachiosaurus_) to stegosaurs, the rare ankylosaurs (not uncovered until the 1990s), and smaller fleet-footed ornithopods like _Dryosaurus_ and _Camptosaurus_.
Foster wrote that the diversity of mammals was so rich that there were nearly as many mammal genera as there were all groups of dinosaurs combined, showing a real diversity in lifestyles, prey, and habitats. Some forms (_Docodon_) appear to have been semiaquatic like muskrats while others (_Fruitafossor_) were burrowers, showing many similarities to the much later evolved aardvarks and armadillos, with peg-like teeth, spade-like claws, and a robust humerus.
There was an unusually high diversity of large carnivores, both when compared with today and with other past ecosystems. Though the famed Cleveland-Lloyd Quarry in Utah is dominated by _Allosaurus_, five other genera of theropods were found there, which lived in the same place at the same time. Foster compared the theropods of the tyrannosaur-dominated Late Cretaceous Hell Creek Formation and found that the Morrison Formation showed "greater species diversity, less body mass range from smallest to largest, and lesser disparity from one species to next smaller" than at Hell Creek. While Morrison had six species greater than 100 kg (220 lbs) in weight, only three were at Hell Creek (and two of them - an ornithomimid and oviraptorosaur - lacked teeth, so the next "pure carnivore" after _Tyrannosaurus_ was a 35 kg or 77 lb. troodontid). _Tyrannosaurus_ weighs more than 10 times as much as the next theropod, while no such extreme disparity exists at Morrison, where the difference as shown on a chart is "strikingly gradual and steplike." Foster did speculate that perhaps different age groups of _Tyrannosaurus_ functioned in a similar ecological role as the many genera of Morrison.
Foster wondered why this "freak of the Late Cretaceous," an "anomalous Mesozoic carnivore on steroids," was so big; did it really need to be that huge to prey upon hadrosaurs and ceratopsians? Why wouldn't the gargantuan sauropods of Morrison produce "behemoth carnivores?" Foster speculated that adult sauropods and even older juveniles were practically immune from predation so theropods focused on stegosaurs, ornithopods, and smaller sauropods.
How did the theropods of Morrison survive together? Analyzing body size, tooth size, forelimb build, and relative abundance of specimens, Foster proposed that _Allosaurus_ was something of a generalist predator (perhaps even feeding at times on aquatic life such as large lungfish according to Bob Bakker), feeding on a wide variety of prey items, while the larger and more robust _Torvosaurus_ feed on larger dinosaurs and the smaller, more gracile but large-toothed _Ceratosaurus_ fed on midsized dinosaurs.
In contrast to the gradual progression in size ranges in theropods, the herbivores were generally either all very large or rather small, showing a marked "bimodality." Richard Stucky proposed that given the already open terrain of the Morrison and the probable habitat modification thanks to the feeding habits of the sauropods, herbivores were under evolutionary pressure to either evolve into extremely large sizes to be immune to predation or be small to hide in what little understory there was.
The book also has an excellent section on sauropod metabolism where he reviewed concepts like inertial homeothermy and fermentative endothermy.
November 25, 2022
Not exactly a read for the general public. It tries to pass itself off as such, but it's quite technical and never gets around to explaining all its technical terms, which would be a decent chunk of a vertebrate physiology course.
I have never encountered a book that tried to focus on a single formation's paleontology, and it would be interesting to read another attempt. The experimental sections where we take a metaphoric car ride through geologic time or a fictional hiking trip across the Morrison's depositional area worked ok for me and might work better for you. Unfortunately, a large chunk of the book is taken up with boring review paper stuff, the sort of perfunctory reports on exhaustive categories of fossil animals where we lose sight of the interesting details.
I have never encountered a book that tried to focus on a single formation's paleontology, and it would be interesting to read another attempt. The experimental sections where we take a metaphoric car ride through geologic time or a fictional hiking trip across the Morrison's depositional area worked ok for me and might work better for you. Unfortunately, a large chunk of the book is taken up with boring review paper stuff, the sort of perfunctory reports on exhaustive categories of fossil animals where we lose sight of the interesting details.
June 15, 2022
This book is worth it’s weight in gold as a foundational resource to any person who wants to do research in the Morrison. Jurassic West contains a huge amount of comprehensive, consolidated, and contextualized information directly from the knowledge and experience of one of the top Morrison researchers of all time. It is a truly invaluable work.
The writing style, however, leaves a bit to be desired. It is accessibly written for the most part, and sustains one’s attention far better than any scientific paper would, but that is not saying much. The paragraphs turn into a quite a slog during the sections on the various Morrison taxa, and these chapters frequently contain entire paragraphs listing morphological characters and locality data. These sections are, to be frank, bone dry, although I do believe that is just an inherent part of anatomy.
What’s less inherent is the frequent rambling turns that the writing takes. At times, it is not clear how a passage contributes to whatever point the author is trying to make. Paragraphs frequently change subjects and lack connective tissue tying one paragraph to the next or each paragraph to a central idea. A couple times, this lead to statements that seemingly contradicted each other. Whether this was an error or just something that needed further explanation, I could not tell. I believe the book would have benefitted greatly from another round of editing.
The penultimate chapter of the book was a narrative about a hypothetical backpacking expedition into the Morrison basin. This chapter was an absolute treat to read. However, Dr. Foster’s scientifically focused prose failed to give the trip the sense of wonder and spectacle it deserves. Although perhaps that was intentional.
My review may sound fairly critical, but that is only because the book is so close to great. It was all in all a very enjoyable read. I learned an incredible amount, even if it was sometimes hard to get from one paragraph to the next.
The writing style, however, leaves a bit to be desired. It is accessibly written for the most part, and sustains one’s attention far better than any scientific paper would, but that is not saying much. The paragraphs turn into a quite a slog during the sections on the various Morrison taxa, and these chapters frequently contain entire paragraphs listing morphological characters and locality data. These sections are, to be frank, bone dry, although I do believe that is just an inherent part of anatomy.
What’s less inherent is the frequent rambling turns that the writing takes. At times, it is not clear how a passage contributes to whatever point the author is trying to make. Paragraphs frequently change subjects and lack connective tissue tying one paragraph to the next or each paragraph to a central idea. A couple times, this lead to statements that seemingly contradicted each other. Whether this was an error or just something that needed further explanation, I could not tell. I believe the book would have benefitted greatly from another round of editing.
The penultimate chapter of the book was a narrative about a hypothetical backpacking expedition into the Morrison basin. This chapter was an absolute treat to read. However, Dr. Foster’s scientifically focused prose failed to give the trip the sense of wonder and spectacle it deserves. Although perhaps that was intentional.
My review may sound fairly critical, but that is only because the book is so close to great. It was all in all a very enjoyable read. I learned an incredible amount, even if it was sometimes hard to get from one paragraph to the next.
June 4, 2022
Good. However, the information on fossils is conveyed in a rather dry & encyclopedic manner and the author comes across as indifferent to the wonderous subject matter. Occasional illustrations of the animals help relieve some of this stuffiness. I only point this out because the back of the book states it is aimed at the general reader. If you want a deep dive into the Late Jurassic, without many bones thrown (pardon the expression) for the general reader - or kids with dinomania for that matter, then this is for you! Second edition reviewed here.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews