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Dinozaury odkryte na nowo. Jak rewolucja naukowa rewiduje historię
"Dinozaury odkryte na nowo" to książka o tym, jak w badaniach nad dinozaurami pewność zastąpiła spekulacje. Jeszcze niedawno mogliśmy się tylko domyślać, jak szybko ten czy tamten dinozaur biegał, co potrafił pogryźć, a czego nie, jak opiekował się młodymi albo jak był ubarwiony. Dziś - dzięki nowym znaleziskom i technikom badawczym - potrafimy odpowiedzieć na te wszystkie pytania (i na wiele innych). W ciągu ostatnich dwudziestu lat nasza wiedza o dinozaurach przeszła oszałamiającą rewolucję, w której znaczący udział miały także odkrycia z terenów Polski, takie jak szczątki silezaurów.
Słynny brytyjski paleontolog Michael Benton relacjonuje w swojej książce najnowsze badania nad dinozaurami i ich zaskakujące wyniki. Z pasją opowiada o rewolucji, w której sam uczestniczył.
Słynny brytyjski paleontolog Michael Benton relacjonuje w swojej książce najnowsze badania nad dinozaurami i ich zaskakujące wyniki. Z pasją opowiada o rewolucji, w której sam uczestniczył.
384 pages, Hardcover
First published May 7, 2019
478 people are currently reading
8362 people want to read
About the author
Michael J. Benton
101 books120 followersMichael J. Benton FRS is Professor of Vertebrate Palaeontology at the University of Bristol. He is particularly interested in early reptiles, Triassic dinosaurs, and macroevolution, and has published over 50 books and 300 scientific articles. He leads one of the most successful palaeontology research groups at the University of Bristol, and has supervised over 60 PhD students.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 331 reviews
March 7, 2022
Fantastyczne.
April 12, 2019
Great. Having just read "The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs" I found this a good way of taking the subject further. It focuses on explaining what we know and especially HOW we know. The writing flows and the author really knows what he is talking about: being one of the pre-eminent scientists in this field that is not suprising. It is printed on good quality paper and the pencil drawings add to the feeling that this is a book of substance. I highly reccomend this book if you are interested in dinosaur biology.
March 3, 2020
When I was a kid, dinosaurs were great lumbering beasts who dragged their tails through the mud of a completely foreign landscape with belching volcanoes and giant dragonflies. They came in two basic colors - dull gray or dull green - and they were really slow, both body and mind. But the Jurassic Park movie changed all that.
Over the last twenty years or so (really since the mid-80s), that antiquated view has... well, 'gone the way of the dinosaur!' They're no longer slow (neither body nor mind) and some of them even have feathers! But how does anyone really know these things? After all, they've been dead for 65 million years!
Michael J. Benton goes through the discoveries that have been made and explains the evidence for the current understanding. There's not a lot that's new if you've read recent books like Stephen Brusatte's The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs or even the original trouble-maker, The Dinosaur Heresies by Robert T. Bakker. But this book pulls much of the new information together and does so in a clear and understandable manner, from the earliest beginnings and the 'tree of life' to possible colors and feathers to the asteroid that ended their reign.
I thought they were cool even when they dragged their tails in the mud, but they're so much more fascinating now!
Over the last twenty years or so (really since the mid-80s), that antiquated view has... well, 'gone the way of the dinosaur!' They're no longer slow (neither body nor mind) and some of them even have feathers! But how does anyone really know these things? After all, they've been dead for 65 million years!
Michael J. Benton goes through the discoveries that have been made and explains the evidence for the current understanding. There's not a lot that's new if you've read recent books like Stephen Brusatte's The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs or even the original trouble-maker, The Dinosaur Heresies by Robert T. Bakker. But this book pulls much of the new information together and does so in a clear and understandable manner, from the earliest beginnings and the 'tree of life' to possible colors and feathers to the asteroid that ended their reign.
I thought they were cool even when they dragged their tails in the mud, but they're so much more fascinating now!
March 28, 2024
ta książka miała wszystko czego potrzebowałam więc skomentuje ją tylko w ten sposób: rawr 🦖🦖 🦕🦕
October 11, 2024
Michael J. Benton's "Dinosaurs Rediscovered" covers the advances in our knowledge of dinosaurs over the last 40 years or so. Huge advances in other fields (e.g. engineering, computer science, materials testing, math, DNA studies, geology, etc) have aided paleontology's advance. It was, for instance, geologists that first provided hard evidence of the meteorite theory of the dinosaurs' mass extinction.
Likewise, advances in engineering and computer software enabled paleontologists ability to demonstrate how dinosaurs walk or run. Materials testing software enabled paleontologists to produce reliable estimates of bite forces. Stronger microscopes to to paleontologists discovering structures in fossils that told the color(s) of dinosaurs' feathers and skin. Paleontologists have also revealed that some dinosaurs were warm blooded while others seem to combine both warm and cold blooded attributes. The list goes on and on.
Benton's writing is crisp and energetic. "Dinosaurs Rediscovered" was a real page turner for me. The book is chock full of diagrams and physical descriptions of various well known dinosaurs. There are also may charts to help readers understand the results of various types of mathematical analysis. Plus, charts and graphs to visually demonstrate various other subjects from bone structure to geologic formations. Benton also includes the people involved in many of these advances. The reader will meet people from all over the world who contributed to our present knowledge about dinosaurs.
Highly recommended for all adult dino fans. Benton's writing is geared toward adults, not youngsters. It's mostly a matter of vocabulary and complex structure, not any "adult content" in the book itself.
Likewise, advances in engineering and computer software enabled paleontologists ability to demonstrate how dinosaurs walk or run. Materials testing software enabled paleontologists to produce reliable estimates of bite forces. Stronger microscopes to to paleontologists discovering structures in fossils that told the color(s) of dinosaurs' feathers and skin. Paleontologists have also revealed that some dinosaurs were warm blooded while others seem to combine both warm and cold blooded attributes. The list goes on and on.
Benton's writing is crisp and energetic. "Dinosaurs Rediscovered" was a real page turner for me. The book is chock full of diagrams and physical descriptions of various well known dinosaurs. There are also may charts to help readers understand the results of various types of mathematical analysis. Plus, charts and graphs to visually demonstrate various other subjects from bone structure to geologic formations. Benton also includes the people involved in many of these advances. The reader will meet people from all over the world who contributed to our present knowledge about dinosaurs.
Highly recommended for all adult dino fans. Benton's writing is geared toward adults, not youngsters. It's mostly a matter of vocabulary and complex structure, not any "adult content" in the book itself.
May 28, 2022
Brak mi słów, żeby opisać mój zachwyt! Towarzysząca mi od dziecka ciekawość dotycząca dinozaurów została w końcu zaspokojona.
PS Życzę każdemu tak trafionych prezentów.
PS Życzę każdemu tak trafionych prezentów.
December 2, 2022
Reading Michael J. Benton’s 2019 book Dinosaurs Rediscovered: The Scientific Revolution in Paleontology is as exciting as making a new discovery. In only nine chapters, Benton takes his readers behind the scenes of paleontological research, telling not only the story of the rise and fall of the dinosaurs, but also of the discoveries and methods that have opened new horizons in paleontology since the time Benton was taking his first steps in the field. The book, like paleontology, begins with assumptions and speculations on the origin of the dinosaurs to then take the reader on a journey through the scientific advancements that brought us to our current understanding of paleontology. Chapter by chapter, Benton explains how advances in technology such as CT scans, 3D modelling, magnetostratigraphy, and computational research methods in macroevolution have helped paleontology gain significant ground towards being a “highly technical, computational, and thoroughly scientific field today.”
The first chapter narrates the story of dinosaurs’ origins, both in the Early Triassic and since the 1800s, when people started uncovering fossils and natural historians and scientists pieced together hypotheses on dinosaur evolution. For years, the consensus was that dinosaurs arose about 230 million years ago. Fossils found in Tanzania in 2010 pushed the date of dinosaur origins back 15 million years, situating them in the Early Triassic. This discovery fundamentally changed the assumptions around evolution. If dinosaurs were around in the Early Triassic, it means they did not develop as fierce competitors from the beginning. Rather, they had been around before they rose to dominance, prompting a new understanding of evolutionary forces. Instead of the competitive model for dinosaur success, widely accepted until the early 2000s, a new ecological model based on opportunism could be considered.
Just like hypotheses on the origins of dinosaurs were proven wrong by fossils found in 2010, chapter two focuses on the drastic changes brought by new fossils and methods in phylogenetic classifications of dinosaurs. From 1984 to 2017, when a new paper by Matt Baron, Dave Norman, and Paul Barrett put the old hypothesis into doubt, Dinosauria were thought to be comprised of Saurischia – further divided into theropods and sauropodomorphs – and Ornithischia. The 2017 paper, however, argued for a different subdivision, with Theropoda and Ornithischia forming one clade, and Sauropoda another. What the 2017 paper led to, finally, is the consensus that more work still needs to be done in understanding dinosaur phylogeny. Despite the substitution of a clear hypothesis for an unclear one, the lesson of the 2017 paper is, for Benton, the importance of reevaluating old assumptions.
To freshen up the cycle of change and uncertainty of the previous two chapters, chapter three illustrates the long-established methods for “digging up dinosaurs” (85), which have remained substantially unchanged because of the fundamental irreplaceability of human hand-eye coordination in fossil excavation and clean-up.
Chapter four continues the themes of chapter three by showcasing how important fossil excavation is. Fossils found in China in the 1990s, in fact, completely changed the view of dinosaurs’ life functions, shedding light on dinosaurs’ similarity with extant bird groups. Feathered dinosaur specimens opened up the dialogue around functions and behaviors of dinosaurs to new questions and therefore new discoveries. Thanks to modern technologies applied to new and old fossils, “we have learned more in the past decade about thermoregulation, colour, and behaviour than in the previous century.”
While chapter five speculates on the (im)possibilities of cloning dinosaurs using DNA like in Jurassic Park, chapter six wonders about dinosaur sizes, establishing the large size of dinosaurs as “one of the key conundrums in palaeontology” (184). Chapters seven and eight then delve deeper into dinosaurs’ foraging behavior and locomotion, highlighting how engineering tools can be applied to paleontology to learn about the possibilities of morphology in foraging and movement.
Finally, chapter nine explains various hypotheses regarding the extinction of dinosaurs, commenting on their plausibility and the history of their acceptance and rejection. The key take-away of chapter nine, I believe, is that scientific understandings have a lot to do with beliefs. In the 1970s, in fact, despite the fact that the fossil record proved that a mass extinction had happened at the end of the Cretaceous, scientists were skeptical of the theory for “fear of catastrophe, fear of numbers, and fear of ridicule” (257). The understanding of the fall of the dinosaurs is a long history, and a useful appendix, where extinction hypotheses are listed together with their year of conception, concludes the book.
Overall, Benton’s book was much easier to read than I had anticipated. Since dinosaurs are not my primary interest, I was not too excited to read a book heavily focused on their evolutionary history. I have to say, however, that I learned a lot from Dinosaurs Rediscovered, and I believe anybody with an interest in science or natural history will find this book highly entertaining and insightful. For dinosaur-enthusiasts, this book will be that and more, but I think the strength of Benton’s writing is its ability to captivate the attention of readers who are not already truly interested in paleontology. Every chapter includes anecdotal narrations, which make the book more pleasurable to read. The human aspect of paleontological research is key in Benton’s book, with accounts of how he and his colleagues have thought through hypotheses and evidence to lead us to today’s understanding of the past.
I do believe that throughout the book, however, Benton could have done a better job at highlighting the exclusionary aspects of paleontology. Although mentions of paleontological work done by women appears at times, nowhere in his book does he acknowledge the white- and male-dominated nature of the field.
I encourage anybody interested (or not) in the history of scientific and paleontological research to read Benton’s book. It was honestly an exciting read which made me feel like I can take on any read in scientific fields I do not have much knowledge in and find an interest in it. I would rate Dinosaurs Rediscovered 4.5/5 stars.
The first chapter narrates the story of dinosaurs’ origins, both in the Early Triassic and since the 1800s, when people started uncovering fossils and natural historians and scientists pieced together hypotheses on dinosaur evolution. For years, the consensus was that dinosaurs arose about 230 million years ago. Fossils found in Tanzania in 2010 pushed the date of dinosaur origins back 15 million years, situating them in the Early Triassic. This discovery fundamentally changed the assumptions around evolution. If dinosaurs were around in the Early Triassic, it means they did not develop as fierce competitors from the beginning. Rather, they had been around before they rose to dominance, prompting a new understanding of evolutionary forces. Instead of the competitive model for dinosaur success, widely accepted until the early 2000s, a new ecological model based on opportunism could be considered.
Just like hypotheses on the origins of dinosaurs were proven wrong by fossils found in 2010, chapter two focuses on the drastic changes brought by new fossils and methods in phylogenetic classifications of dinosaurs. From 1984 to 2017, when a new paper by Matt Baron, Dave Norman, and Paul Barrett put the old hypothesis into doubt, Dinosauria were thought to be comprised of Saurischia – further divided into theropods and sauropodomorphs – and Ornithischia. The 2017 paper, however, argued for a different subdivision, with Theropoda and Ornithischia forming one clade, and Sauropoda another. What the 2017 paper led to, finally, is the consensus that more work still needs to be done in understanding dinosaur phylogeny. Despite the substitution of a clear hypothesis for an unclear one, the lesson of the 2017 paper is, for Benton, the importance of reevaluating old assumptions.
To freshen up the cycle of change and uncertainty of the previous two chapters, chapter three illustrates the long-established methods for “digging up dinosaurs” (85), which have remained substantially unchanged because of the fundamental irreplaceability of human hand-eye coordination in fossil excavation and clean-up.
Chapter four continues the themes of chapter three by showcasing how important fossil excavation is. Fossils found in China in the 1990s, in fact, completely changed the view of dinosaurs’ life functions, shedding light on dinosaurs’ similarity with extant bird groups. Feathered dinosaur specimens opened up the dialogue around functions and behaviors of dinosaurs to new questions and therefore new discoveries. Thanks to modern technologies applied to new and old fossils, “we have learned more in the past decade about thermoregulation, colour, and behaviour than in the previous century.”
While chapter five speculates on the (im)possibilities of cloning dinosaurs using DNA like in Jurassic Park, chapter six wonders about dinosaur sizes, establishing the large size of dinosaurs as “one of the key conundrums in palaeontology” (184). Chapters seven and eight then delve deeper into dinosaurs’ foraging behavior and locomotion, highlighting how engineering tools can be applied to paleontology to learn about the possibilities of morphology in foraging and movement.
Finally, chapter nine explains various hypotheses regarding the extinction of dinosaurs, commenting on their plausibility and the history of their acceptance and rejection. The key take-away of chapter nine, I believe, is that scientific understandings have a lot to do with beliefs. In the 1970s, in fact, despite the fact that the fossil record proved that a mass extinction had happened at the end of the Cretaceous, scientists were skeptical of the theory for “fear of catastrophe, fear of numbers, and fear of ridicule” (257). The understanding of the fall of the dinosaurs is a long history, and a useful appendix, where extinction hypotheses are listed together with their year of conception, concludes the book.
Overall, Benton’s book was much easier to read than I had anticipated. Since dinosaurs are not my primary interest, I was not too excited to read a book heavily focused on their evolutionary history. I have to say, however, that I learned a lot from Dinosaurs Rediscovered, and I believe anybody with an interest in science or natural history will find this book highly entertaining and insightful. For dinosaur-enthusiasts, this book will be that and more, but I think the strength of Benton’s writing is its ability to captivate the attention of readers who are not already truly interested in paleontology. Every chapter includes anecdotal narrations, which make the book more pleasurable to read. The human aspect of paleontological research is key in Benton’s book, with accounts of how he and his colleagues have thought through hypotheses and evidence to lead us to today’s understanding of the past.
I do believe that throughout the book, however, Benton could have done a better job at highlighting the exclusionary aspects of paleontology. Although mentions of paleontological work done by women appears at times, nowhere in his book does he acknowledge the white- and male-dominated nature of the field.
I encourage anybody interested (or not) in the history of scientific and paleontological research to read Benton’s book. It was honestly an exciting read which made me feel like I can take on any read in scientific fields I do not have much knowledge in and find an interest in it. I would rate Dinosaurs Rediscovered 4.5/5 stars.
May 2, 2019
When I give talks about science in junior schools, there is one magic word that I only have to mention to get children's attention: dinosaurs. They have a fascination that may dim a little with age, but still stays with us, whether it's their dramatic side (as brought out in the Jurassic Park films) or the fascination of finding out more about a set of animals that once dominated the Earth.
Mention of Jurassic Park tends to produce grinding of teeth amongst professionals in the field - leaving aside the impossibility of the premise (thanks to the half-life of DNA, amongst other things), our understanding of what dinosaurs looked like, how they moved and lived - and far more - has transformed immensely in last 30 or so years - and yet the representations we see on the screen often hark back to an earlier vision.
Michael Benton eases us in with a chatty introduction about how science works and how we now think we know far more about the dinosaurs than was possible even ten years ago, revealing aspects such as skin pigmentation, feathers, what their biting capability was like and far more through fascinating new techniques and discoveries.
This is literally a weighty tome - at nearly 1kg I found it quite hard to hold to read for any sustained period. For me, the mix of content sometimes lacked a sense of structure and flow - we go from sort of dinosaur top trumps inserts with illustrations, specifications and a 'little-known fact' about each species, to background on their period, stories of discoveries and answers to perky little questions such as 'Were the dinosaurs warm blooded?' (short answer 'Yes and no') and 'Are birds really dinosaurs?' (short answer 'Yes'). Then we'll plunge into something quite detailed, such as bone histology, the study of the internal microscopic structure of bones.
Overall the book is often charming, verging occasionally on the whimsical (particularly in photograph captions: of a portrait of Thomas Henry Huxley, for example, we read 'did he perhaps know how smart he was'). I found it difficult to read through from end to end, finding it worked better as something to dip into on train journeys... but well worth it for a journey that was both informative and personal.
Mention of Jurassic Park tends to produce grinding of teeth amongst professionals in the field - leaving aside the impossibility of the premise (thanks to the half-life of DNA, amongst other things), our understanding of what dinosaurs looked like, how they moved and lived - and far more - has transformed immensely in last 30 or so years - and yet the representations we see on the screen often hark back to an earlier vision.
Michael Benton eases us in with a chatty introduction about how science works and how we now think we know far more about the dinosaurs than was possible even ten years ago, revealing aspects such as skin pigmentation, feathers, what their biting capability was like and far more through fascinating new techniques and discoveries.
This is literally a weighty tome - at nearly 1kg I found it quite hard to hold to read for any sustained period. For me, the mix of content sometimes lacked a sense of structure and flow - we go from sort of dinosaur top trumps inserts with illustrations, specifications and a 'little-known fact' about each species, to background on their period, stories of discoveries and answers to perky little questions such as 'Were the dinosaurs warm blooded?' (short answer 'Yes and no') and 'Are birds really dinosaurs?' (short answer 'Yes'). Then we'll plunge into something quite detailed, such as bone histology, the study of the internal microscopic structure of bones.
Overall the book is often charming, verging occasionally on the whimsical (particularly in photograph captions: of a portrait of Thomas Henry Huxley, for example, we read 'did he perhaps know how smart he was'). I found it difficult to read through from end to end, finding it worked better as something to dip into on train journeys... but well worth it for a journey that was both informative and personal.
February 5, 2023
O dinozaurach na poważnie.
Jak większość dzieciaków oglądałam z wypiekami na twarzy "Wędrówki z Dinozaurami", marzyłam jak Spielberg o parku Jurajskim i mówiłam każdemu, kto chciał mnie słuchać, że kura jest blisko spokrewniona z Tyranozaurem Rexem. Choć młode lata przeminęły, moja miłość do dinozaurów trwa i ma się dobrze.
Niestety w zalewie dinozaurowej tandety trudno znaleźć dobre merytorycznie pozycje podchodzące poważnie do tematu. Albo autorzy nie mają wiedzy albo nie potrafią tej wiedzy klarownie przekazać (Stevie Brusatte o Tobie piszę!). Książka prof.Bentona jest tu chlubnym wyjątkiem. "Dinozaury odkryte na nowo" to majstersztyk. Autorowi udało się stworzyć usystematyzowane kompendium wiedzy o dinozaurach - jak się pojawiły na ziemi, jak osiągnęły tak niebywały sukces ewolucyjny, jak stały się tak wielkie, czy były stałocieplne, co jadły, jak się poruszały, jak rosły, czy opiekowały się potomstwem, jakiego były koloru, jak wyewoluowały z nich ptaki, jak wyginęły, jak się ich szuka, jak bada się ich szczątki.
Źródłem tych informacji nie jest wiktoriańskie, "bo tak mi się wydaje". Benton ukazuje jak paleontologia stała się faktycznie nauką i zasłużyła na człon "logos" w swojej nazwie. Stało się tak dzięki zaangażowaniu do badań innych nauk takich jak informatyka, geologia, mechanika, statystyka, a nawet architektura oraz coraz lepszym metodom badawczym. W rezultacie wiedza o dinozaurach na przestrzeni ostatnich 30 lat rosła w postępie geometrycznym, pozwalając odpowiedzieć na pytania, na które nigdy nie spodziewano się znaleźć wyjaśnienia.
Polecam! Cud, miód i orzeszki dla dinofilów.
Jak większość dzieciaków oglądałam z wypiekami na twarzy "Wędrówki z Dinozaurami", marzyłam jak Spielberg o parku Jurajskim i mówiłam każdemu, kto chciał mnie słuchać, że kura jest blisko spokrewniona z Tyranozaurem Rexem. Choć młode lata przeminęły, moja miłość do dinozaurów trwa i ma się dobrze.
Niestety w zalewie dinozaurowej tandety trudno znaleźć dobre merytorycznie pozycje podchodzące poważnie do tematu. Albo autorzy nie mają wiedzy albo nie potrafią tej wiedzy klarownie przekazać (Stevie Brusatte o Tobie piszę!). Książka prof.Bentona jest tu chlubnym wyjątkiem. "Dinozaury odkryte na nowo" to majstersztyk. Autorowi udało się stworzyć usystematyzowane kompendium wiedzy o dinozaurach - jak się pojawiły na ziemi, jak osiągnęły tak niebywały sukces ewolucyjny, jak stały się tak wielkie, czy były stałocieplne, co jadły, jak się poruszały, jak rosły, czy opiekowały się potomstwem, jakiego były koloru, jak wyewoluowały z nich ptaki, jak wyginęły, jak się ich szuka, jak bada się ich szczątki.
Źródłem tych informacji nie jest wiktoriańskie, "bo tak mi się wydaje". Benton ukazuje jak paleontologia stała się faktycznie nauką i zasłużyła na człon "logos" w swojej nazwie. Stało się tak dzięki zaangażowaniu do badań innych nauk takich jak informatyka, geologia, mechanika, statystyka, a nawet architektura oraz coraz lepszym metodom badawczym. W rezultacie wiedza o dinozaurach na przestrzeni ostatnich 30 lat rosła w postępie geometrycznym, pozwalając odpowiedzieć na pytania, na które nigdy nie spodziewano się znaleźć wyjaśnienia.
Polecam! Cud, miód i orzeszki dla dinofilów.
May 23, 2024
Solidna dawka przekrojowej wiedzy na temat ostatnich odkryć naukowych dot. dinusiow. Autor przystępnie prowadzi nas przez zestawienie dawnych hipotez opartych tylko na przypuszczeniach , analogiach , opiniach paleontologów i innych uczonych vs ewolucji weryfikowalnych tez, dowodów i metod naukowych, dzięki czemu wiemy co wiemy i czego nadal jednoznacznie nie wiemy o dinozaurach. Nie zawsze to było dla mnie całkowicie jasne a czasem chciałabym się dowiedzieć więcej w danym obszarze, ale jak najbardziej czuje się bogatsza o wiele ciekawych faktów dot. tych fascynujących istot.
May 12, 2024
5⭐️
Дуже цікавий і пізнавальний виклад інфи. Дуже багато для себе «закрив» питань, і загалом поки книги в-тва Кідруків радує цікавими книгами.
Рекомендую.
Дуже цікавий і пізнавальний виклад інфи. Дуже багато для себе «закрив» питань, і загалом поки книги в-тва Кідруків радує цікавими книгами.
Рекомендую.
Read
October 6, 2023навіть не здогадувався, наскільки мені була потрібна ця книга. поділюся деякими моментами:
- новий прорив у вивченні динозаврів стався приблизно 15 років тому, після того, як у Китаї знайшли динозавряче пірʼячко
- у 2016 в М'янмі так взагалі відкопали шматок бурштину з цілим хвостом малесенького динозавра, разом із кістками, пірʼїстим пухом, висохлою шкірою та мʼязами
- і так, динозаври — це пращури птахів
- було доведено що Карнійський плювіальний епізод — це десь 230 млн років тому, коли всі вулкани вирішили вивергнутися разом і на планеті трошки задощило кислотою, почалася зміна клімату і всі ці масові вимирання — допоміг динозаврам зайняти панівне місце на планеті; а до того вони були дрібнесенькі, як дракони у Подерв’янського
- рештки тиранозавра рекса зустрічаються тільки в Північній Америці, бо він з пізньої Крейди і зʼявився вже після того, як Пангея розкололася на шматки та сухопутний шлях між континентами розірвався
- взагалі майже всі прокачані маскультом динозаври (рогатий трицератопс, злий рекс, анкілозавр з булавою на хвості) — з Крейди, а не з Юри
- нарешті є відповідь на старезне питання про те, чи міг тірекс перекусити машину навпіл? сила його укусу десь між 37-58 тисячами ньютонів, тож так, міг
- брахіозаври були такими величезними, бо мали птахоподібні легені, що допомагало їм ефективніше засвоювати кисень, вони багато народжували, але не гаяли час на піклування за потомством (бути мамкою — енергозатратна справа), та не вміли жувати й складали все в черево як є, тож не потребували відносно багато їжі; в їхньому випадку висока температура підтримувалась завдяки величезному тілу, нагрітому сонечком пізнього Юрського періоду
- так, динозаври були теплокровними (повʼязано з частиною про кисень, а не про сонечко)
- скоріш за все клонування динозаврів чекати не варто, бо важкувато знайти неушкоджену ДНК почвари, вік якої перевищує сотню мільйонів років
- гад блесс математичне моделювання, хімічний аналіз та КТ-сканування: тепер ми знаємо якого кольору були динозаври, що вони їли, як рухались, наскільки довго жили (і це тільки початок)
- також завдяки сучасним технологіям один американський палеоботанік трошки поборсався в прадавньому мулі, трошки порівняв скам’янілості із сучасними відповідниками, та зʼясував, що той самий фатальний астероїд влупився в Землю саме в червні
- але скоріш за все динозаври були й так приречені — зміни клімату почали повільно вбивати їх задовго до прильоту астероїда, каменюка з неба просто все пришвидшила
- ссавці існували паралельно з динозаврами майже 170 млн років, але ніяк не могли еволюційно прокачатися; після зникнення конкуренції, ссавці розвинули всі сучасні групи впродовж якихось 10 млн років
- я можу продовжувати так ще довго
пару слів про українське видання: на жаль, воно трошки недопрацьоване. я зустрічав одруківки, переплутані мапи Крейдових та Тріасових періодів у досьє динозаврів і нечитабельні чорно-білі діаграми, які начебто забули адаптувати з оригінальних кольорових. сподіваюсь, видавництво ще раз пройдеться по тексту та перевидасть вже пропатчену версію. але разом із тим наголошую, що все це ніяк не впливає безпосередньо на контент, він топовий.
найголовніша думка книги: прогрес не зупинити, а отже через ~10 років більшість цієї інфи буде такою ж неактуальною, як і всі ваші старі енциклопедії та фільми по типу Парку Юрського періоду, де велоцираптори — це люті ящірки, а не розкішні півні в різнокольорових штанях із пірʼячка. what a time to be alive.
- новий прорив у вивченні динозаврів стався приблизно 15 років тому, після того, як у Китаї знайшли динозавряче пірʼячко
- у 2016 в М'янмі так взагалі відкопали шматок бурштину з цілим хвостом малесенького динозавра, разом із кістками, пірʼїстим пухом, висохлою шкірою та мʼязами
- і так, динозаври — це пращури птахів
- було доведено що Карнійський плювіальний епізод — це десь 230 млн років тому, коли всі вулкани вирішили вивергнутися разом і на планеті трошки задощило кислотою, почалася зміна клімату і всі ці масові вимирання — допоміг динозаврам зайняти панівне місце на планеті; а до того вони були дрібнесенькі, як дракони у Подерв’янського
- рештки тиранозавра рекса зустрічаються тільки в Північній Америці, бо він з пізньої Крейди і зʼявився вже після того, як Пангея розкололася на шматки та сухопутний шлях між континентами розірвався
- взагалі майже всі прокачані маскультом динозаври (рогатий трицератопс, злий рекс, анкілозавр з булавою на хвості) — з Крейди, а не з Юри
- нарешті є відповідь на старезне питання про те, чи міг тірекс перекусити машину навпіл? сила його укусу десь між 37-58 тисячами ньютонів, тож так, міг
- брахіозаври були такими величезними, бо мали птахоподібні легені, що допомагало їм ефективніше засвоювати кисень, вони багато народжували, але не гаяли час на піклування за потомством (бути мамкою — енергозатратна справа), та не вміли жувати й складали все в черево як є, тож не потребували відносно багато їжі; в їхньому випадку висока температура підтримувалась завдяки величезному тілу, нагрітому сонечком пізнього Юрського періоду
- так, динозаври були теплокровними (повʼязано з частиною про кисень, а не про сонечко)
- скоріш за все клонування динозаврів чекати не варто, бо важкувато знайти неушкоджену ДНК почвари, вік якої перевищує сотню мільйонів років
- гад блесс математичне моделювання, хімічний аналіз та КТ-сканування: тепер ми знаємо якого кольору були динозаври, що вони їли, як рухались, наскільки довго жили (і це тільки початок)
- також завдяки сучасним технологіям один американський палеоботанік трошки поборсався в прадавньому мулі, трошки порівняв скам’янілості із сучасними відповідниками, та зʼясував, що той самий фатальний астероїд влупився в Землю саме в червні
- але скоріш за все динозаври були й так приречені — зміни клімату почали повільно вбивати їх задовго до прильоту астероїда, каменюка з неба просто все пришвидшила
- ссавці існували паралельно з динозаврами майже 170 млн років, але ніяк не могли еволюційно прокачатися; після зникнення конкуренції, ссавці розвинули всі сучасні групи впродовж якихось 10 млн років
- я можу продовжувати так ще довго
пару слів про українське видання: на жаль, воно трошки недопрацьоване. я зустрічав одруківки, переплутані мапи Крейдових та Тріасових періодів у досьє динозаврів і нечитабельні чорно-білі діаграми, які начебто забули адаптувати з оригінальних кольорових. сподіваюсь, видавництво ще раз пройдеться по тексту та перевидасть вже пропатчену версію. але разом із тим наголошую, що все це ніяк не впливає безпосередньо на контент, він топовий.
найголовніша думка книги: прогрес не зупинити, а отже через ~10 років більшість цієї інфи буде такою ж неактуальною, як і всі ваші старі енциклопедії та фільми по типу Парку Юрського періоду, де велоцираптори — це люті ящірки, а не розкішні півні в різнокольорових штанях із пірʼячка. what a time to be alive.
May 26, 2019
Possibly Benton didn't know it but about twenty years ago Don Lessem published a book with the same title (different secondary title, though) that was about the revolution in dinosaur studies going on then. Benton of course has even more material to work with and this is a solid overview of the most recent discoveries in dinosaur appearance, behavior, cladistics, movement, extinction, and more, proving that indeed dinosaurs need to be regularly rediscovered!
This is not really written for beginners, however. Benton assumes a decent amount of existing knowledge on the part of the reader. He weaves the history of the science and some of his own experiences in effectively (sample: "I remember attending a meeting of the Willi Henning Society in London in 1984....where people were shouting at each other, and one speaker was twirling the microphone on its cord and threatening the chairperson, who was trying to shut him up." Just in case anyone thinks paleontology is dull!). This is one case where there are nice color plates included, but the diagrams printed in the body of the text are actually more useful as they helpfully clarify and illustrate the concepts. I did find one possible howler; Benton mentions Roy Chapman Andrews et al tooling around the Gobi in Model Ts, and I'm fairly certain they were in fact tooling around in Dodges, but that's of concern only to those of us who are of an age to remember how much we loved Andrews' books.
Good reading for anyone interested in dinosaur science, and it will bring you up to date as of the end of 2018 on the state of this fascinating and fast-moving field of study.
This is not really written for beginners, however. Benton assumes a decent amount of existing knowledge on the part of the reader. He weaves the history of the science and some of his own experiences in effectively (sample: "I remember attending a meeting of the Willi Henning Society in London in 1984....where people were shouting at each other, and one speaker was twirling the microphone on its cord and threatening the chairperson, who was trying to shut him up." Just in case anyone thinks paleontology is dull!). This is one case where there are nice color plates included, but the diagrams printed in the body of the text are actually more useful as they helpfully clarify and illustrate the concepts. I did find one possible howler; Benton mentions Roy Chapman Andrews et al tooling around the Gobi in Model Ts, and I'm fairly certain they were in fact tooling around in Dodges, but that's of concern only to those of us who are of an age to remember how much we loved Andrews' books.
Good reading for anyone interested in dinosaur science, and it will bring you up to date as of the end of 2018 on the state of this fascinating and fast-moving field of study.
October 15, 2020
Absolutely amazing. Rich with details, narrations, and images showcasing the development of dinosaur paleontology from speculation to rigorous science. A must read for even casual dinosaur fans curious about some of the most recent scientific developments and discoveries.
September 22, 2019
This was such a breath of fresh air. Like most everyone, I had an early obsession with dinosaurs that lasted into my adult life. However, I hadn't kept up with the latest work in this field and wanted a volume that would bring me up to date, this is definitely the book to do that. We frequently only see scattered headlines where a new largest dinosaur is thought be found or we hear that a supposed apex predator is now a scavenger, and then a year later hear that is wrong. Michael Benton has written a thorough, beautifully presented, modern analysis of just how far the field of paleontology has come in recent decades. Once a field that was sarcastically compared to "stamp-collecting" by those in the hard sciences, the field has embraced a myriad of modern techniques to explain so many aspects of these fascinating creatures that were mere supposition 20 - 30 years ago.
Studies in melanosomes (actually knowing what color the things were? Yup), bone structure, metabolism, development of gigantism and also dwarfism, relationships to modern families of animals, growth rates, child-rearing, their mass-extinction, and many others are brought up to 2019 in this very candid and at times humorous work. At so many points you are presented with an idea only to have Benton follow it up the very next sentence with essentially, "but unfortunately we now know that's completely wrong."
Perhaps being a product of the 90's and still not having gotten over the shock of seeing Jurassic Park for the first time (the most incredible visual achievement ever in film), I don't predict my fascination with this subject to end anytime soon especially if people are writing and researching so cogently and completely as this beautiful new volume indicates.
Studies in melanosomes (actually knowing what color the things were? Yup), bone structure, metabolism, development of gigantism and also dwarfism, relationships to modern families of animals, growth rates, child-rearing, their mass-extinction, and many others are brought up to 2019 in this very candid and at times humorous work. At so many points you are presented with an idea only to have Benton follow it up the very next sentence with essentially, "but unfortunately we now know that's completely wrong."
Perhaps being a product of the 90's and still not having gotten over the shock of seeing Jurassic Park for the first time (the most incredible visual achievement ever in film), I don't predict my fascination with this subject to end anytime soon especially if people are writing and researching so cogently and completely as this beautiful new volume indicates.
October 13, 2019
One of the better if not one of the best books I have read about recent dinosaur discoveries and theories. The chapters regarding dinosaur color, breathing, brains and behavior, and dinosaur growth and eating are some of the most interesting. As some of these recent discoveries have been published I have read about them on Science Daily, but this book comprehensively puts them into perspective and explains all the science behind the theories.
The book more or less ends with a chapter about the K-T boundary asteroid impact and the extinction of dinosaurs. Again, a very comprehensive explanation of the science and how what was a controversial theory in 1980 is now generally accepted as fact.
Overall, however, this book is about how paleontology has become a more testable science because of recent advances in engineering, data science and other technologies.
The book more or less ends with a chapter about the K-T boundary asteroid impact and the extinction of dinosaurs. Again, a very comprehensive explanation of the science and how what was a controversial theory in 1980 is now generally accepted as fact.
Overall, however, this book is about how paleontology has become a more testable science because of recent advances in engineering, data science and other technologies.
December 20, 2023
Чудова книжка! Вона мене трохи заспокоювала від того, що твориться навколо. В одному з останніх розділів мова йшла про гігантський астероїд, після якого вимерли динозаври. Ох, не туда він потрапив!
December 25, 2024
4.0 Stars
This is a short informative read where I learned that most of what I knew about dinosaurs… is now incorrect.
This is a short informative read where I learned that most of what I knew about dinosaurs… is now incorrect.
November 17, 2021
Dinosaurs Rediscovered is a fascinating look at how paleontology has become more scientific over the past forty years, along with a review of the most recent understanding of dinosaurs. Ernest Rutherford is quoted as saying that "Science is either physics or stamp collecting", and paleontology does more stamp collecting than most fields. But systematization over Benton's career has reversed that trend.
Some of the extensions are rather natural. Finite element analysis, a standard computer modelling technique in engineering, can be applied to dinosaur skulls to estimate the bite strength of a Tyrannosaurus rex and the locomotion of a Brontosaurus. Studies of stride length and biomechanics can give numbers for how fast dinosaurs moved, and lead towards their metabolism. We now know that dinosaurs are feathered, and we even know what color some of those feathers were. My favorite factoid was that we know that the Chicxulub impact happened in the month of June, because fossilized ponds show lilies in as they would be blooming in June, followed by a layer of iridium rich dust, followed by a 1000 years of ash. Pretty cool! Benton doesn't quite manage to explain the cladistics revolution, despite being deeply involved in it, though a data and algorithm driven approach to deriving past patterns of evolution is perhaps a little abstruse for a popular science book.
Benton's love of the field and appreciate for his fellow paleontologists shines through. This book pulls back the curtain, and is an interesting read.
Some of the extensions are rather natural. Finite element analysis, a standard computer modelling technique in engineering, can be applied to dinosaur skulls to estimate the bite strength of a Tyrannosaurus rex and the locomotion of a Brontosaurus. Studies of stride length and biomechanics can give numbers for how fast dinosaurs moved, and lead towards their metabolism. We now know that dinosaurs are feathered, and we even know what color some of those feathers were. My favorite factoid was that we know that the Chicxulub impact happened in the month of June, because fossilized ponds show lilies in as they would be blooming in June, followed by a layer of iridium rich dust, followed by a 1000 years of ash. Pretty cool! Benton doesn't quite manage to explain the cladistics revolution, despite being deeply involved in it, though a data and algorithm driven approach to deriving past patterns of evolution is perhaps a little abstruse for a popular science book.
Benton's love of the field and appreciate for his fellow paleontologists shines through. This book pulls back the curtain, and is an interesting read.
January 22, 2019
I am so excited for this book to officially publish - readers are in for a treat. It is remarkable what we now know about dinosaurs, and Mike Benton has been at the forefront of many of these discoveries, including research into the colour of dinosaurs (fun fact: there were ginger dinosaurs).
This book answers questions I never thought to ask - how could dinosaurs possibly be so huge? What sexual signalling did they use to attract a mate? It's also full of amusing anecdotes (at one point a palaeontologist is swinging a microphone threatening a chairman) and exquisite drawings to profile different species. It's going to be great.
This book answers questions I never thought to ask - how could dinosaurs possibly be so huge? What sexual signalling did they use to attract a mate? It's also full of amusing anecdotes (at one point a palaeontologist is swinging a microphone threatening a chairman) and exquisite drawings to profile different species. It's going to be great.
November 14, 2024
Це було спочатку і складнувато, але загалом цікаво. Більш за все сподобались моменти, як зазначав автор, "перетворення палеонтології на науку", та той контраст змін розуміння і відкриттів, що був зроблений протягом останнього століття.
August 25, 2024
Моя внутрішня дитина просто верещить від захвату!!!!!!
September 6, 2023
Fantastic! I loved it, I do not read a lot of non fiction, but non fiction about Dinosaurs kind of rocks!
I did the audiobook which comes with a code to see numerous graphs and such,I was very much interested in all the dino things.
Bad news/good news he says never say never, but he does not believe there could be a real life Jurassic park as the DNA degrades so quickly, he also says that future technology may be able to change how we find and clone dna.
Michael Benton is very much of the opinion that the science is always evolving and what is fact now may be debunked in the future. He also explains how scientific theories are proven and that with out evidence it is your opinion and should be worth nothing in the scientific community.
Also they had feathers everyone has to accept this
I did the audiobook which comes with a code to see numerous graphs and such,I was very much interested in all the dino things.
Bad news/good news he says never say never, but he does not believe there could be a real life Jurassic park as the DNA degrades so quickly, he also says that future technology may be able to change how we find and clone dna.
Michael Benton is very much of the opinion that the science is always evolving and what is fact now may be debunked in the future. He also explains how scientific theories are proven and that with out evidence it is your opinion and should be worth nothing in the scientific community.
Also they had feathers everyone has to accept this
September 1, 2019
Good summary of current knowledge of dinosaurs and how we have reached this point through advances in technology as well as accumulated knowledge. The book is both accessible and has been really fun to read through (I may be biased since I've studied palaeontology).
A few places felt like Benton seems to dismiss others view when they don't align with his own, but he always mentions any studies that support the opposite view.
Definitely recommend it to anyone who's interested in dinosaurs, or wants to know how the field of palaeontology has evolved in the last few decades.
A few places felt like Benton seems to dismiss others view when they don't align with his own, but he always mentions any studies that support the opposite view.
Definitely recommend it to anyone who's interested in dinosaurs, or wants to know how the field of palaeontology has evolved in the last few decades.
May 11, 2025
Absolutely phenomenal and I am feeling a sudden and mighty surge of inspiration.
January 2, 2025
Крута книжка про методи сучасного дослідження. Це як детектив про динозаврів.
Сучасні науковці знають колір деяких видів і навіть в який місяць року в Землю врізався метеорит, який спричинив вимирання багатьох видів.
Динозаврами я ніколи сильно не цікавилася, типу вимерли і вимерли. Але ця книга приємно здивувала цікавими описами підходів, теорій, розвитку думки вчених.
Сучасні науковці знають колір деяких видів і навіть в який місяць року в Землю врізався метеорит, який спричинив вимирання багатьох видів.
Динозаврами я ніколи сильно не цікавилася, типу вимерли і вимерли. Але ця книга приємно здивувала цікавими описами підходів, теорій, розвитку думки вчених.
December 15, 2024
For a non-fiction book about research and summing up the current knowledge on a subject, this was really interesting and readable
January 11, 2025
shoutout to Morganucodon the ancestor of all mammals 🙏🙏🙏🙏 that is literally our 200 million year old grandmother guys
finished this right as we landed in michigan. read a few dinosaur books these past months but still ready to be humbled by my 3 year old cousins
finished this right as we landed in michigan. read a few dinosaur books these past months but still ready to be humbled by my 3 year old cousins
August 3, 2025
Although this book reads like professors in lecture talk, I often found myself bored with the writing style. There were plenty of silly jokes mixed in, which often recaptured my attention, but as far as clever ways to deliver important information… this book reads a little bit more like a syllabus of paleontological discoveries, rather than a book for the public. Additionally, the chronology of which discoveries were mentioned first in the book didn’t make much sense and somewhat came across as random. If you want to do research, this is a great book for you; but if you want to learn about dinosaurs out of general interest without an academic drive behind it, this book might not be the page turner you’re looking for.
February 10, 2022
Further, it allows us to answer the classic dino-geek question: could T. rex have bitten a car in half? The answer is a resounding 'yes'.
I've recently developed an unhealthy resurgence in my longterm fascination with dinosaurs, thanks mostly to the excellent YouTube channel Your Dinosaurs Are Wrong. This spurred me to look for recent popsci books about dinosaurs - and lo and behold, one of the modern fathers of paleontology had written one not too long ago!
DINOSAURS REDISCOVERED isn't a wild opinion piece or a groundbreaking piece of research, but what it is a fantastic overview of what we know about dinosaurs (or knew, as of 2019), how they lived, and how we know the things we know.
Benton writes an incredibly readable and digestible book! I learned a lot, from what colour a Spinosauropteryx was (a ginger!) to us apparently knowing the month that the extinction event that wiped out the dinosaurs took place? What??
A lot of the information was things I knew, but had forgotten - and even more of it was building on things I knew from years ago. Nothing moves too fast in paleontology, so it was nice to feel like I still had a decent handle on most of the things in the book.
Per the above quote, Benton also injects a general dorky humour to a lot of it, which I enjoyed - it's very easy to make non-fiction (especially non-fiction based primarily around listing facts) to be dry, and DINOSAURS REDISCOVERED is definitely not dry.
Even better, there is an appendix at the back listing over a hundred 'theories' of why the dinosaurs went extinct, a lot of them very funny and out of date. As well, there is a list of recommended reading for general knowledge about dinosaurs, birds, and everything inbetween.
An excellent refresher on our current knowledge of dinosaurs!
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