Dinosaurs!

by Scientific American, Ann Richardson (Reading)

Terrible lizards. That\x26#8217;s what the word \x26#8220;dinosaurs\x26#8221; means. Yet dinosaurs are not true lizards, and they are not necessarily terrible either. Paleontologists have overturned many misconceptions, and in Dinosaurs!, we look at what the latest research tells us and what we still have to learn about these endlessly fascinating creatures.

Genres: Science, Nonfiction, Audiobook, Evolution, Dinosaurs, History, Biology

1 pages, Audio CD

First published December 1, 2014

About the author

Scientific American , as an institutional author, is a popular science magazine founded by Rufus M. Porter and controlled by Nature Publishing Group since autumn, 2008. Mariette DiChristina has been editor-in-chief since December, 2009.

Reviews

[E · Rating 3 out of 5]

Listened to this as an audiobook on Audible. Interesting but the narrator was very dry. She had a great voice, but not much variance in how she was reading the material so it was pretty boring. It was decent to listen to while doing something else like cleaning. I think I would have been more interested just reading this on my Kindle. It’s a series of articles published in Scientific American and all the articles are from like 2014-2016, so it’s not super new data, but paleontology doesn’t advance that quickly so it’s interesting to hear about scientific advances regarding dinosaurs even from 2014.

[Nancy · Rating 3 out of 5]

3+

I'm surprised that I didn't enjoy listening to this more. I gained some interesting information on the recent discoveries and techniques being developed and used in paleontology, especially on animals that lived during the Mesozoic and died out, apparently suddenly, at the end of the Cretaceous. However, most of the time this sounded like someone reading an academic textbook.

It was a free offering from audible for members.

[Bells · Rating 2 out of 5]

I listened to this in audio form and it was terrible

[Alex Shrugged · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a series of article written for Scientific American concerning dinosaurs and how we know what we know about them. Fascinating and clever stuff. However, the paleontologists are somewhat full of themselves... justifiably so, but it shows.

Contents

Section 1-Prehistoric Giants (00:04)
o How Dinosaurs Grew So Large and So Small by John R. Horner, Kevin Padian, and Armand de Ricqlès (20:30)
o Triumph of the Titans by Kristina A. Curry Rogers and Michael D. D'Emic (25:51)

Section 2-Coexistence (00:04)
o Dinosaurs of the Lost Continent by Scott D. Sampson (22:46)
o Madagascar's Mesozoic Secrets by John J. Flynn and André R. Wyss (42:01)
o Breathing Life into T. Rex by Gregory M. Erickson (28:37)

Section 3-Adaptation (00:04)
o Dinosaurs of Polar Australia by Patricia Vickers-Rich and Thomas Hewitt Rich (26:11)
o Dinosaurs of Arctic Alaska by Anthony R. Fiorillo (18:28)
o A 70-Million-Year-Old Murder Mystery by Raymond R. Rogers and David W. Krause (20:54)

Section 4-Evolution (00:04)
o Winged Victory by Gareth Dyke (16:42)
o Which Came First, the Feather or the Bird by Richard O. Prum and Alan H. Brush (29:05)
o The Dinosaur Baron of Transylvania by Gareth Dyke (16:19)

Section 5-Treasure Troves (00:04)
o Dinosaur Death Trap by Paul C. Sereno (21:37)
o Blood from Stone by Mary H. Schweitzer (28:09)
o Why Dinosaurs Are Important by Mary H. Schweitzer (05:21)

[Catherine Puma · Rating 5 out of 5]

This audiobook is a narrated version of a 2015 Scientific American special edition magazine on the latest and greatest dinosaur research. It was great! I really enjoyed it; a wonderful listen for any dinosaur lover.

Because it was originally published 7 years ago, however, I am sure there have been significant advancements in paleontology since then. As such, I think this is an amazing way to become reengaged with the paleontological field if you've been away from the field. I love dinosaurs, but I haven't read about them in a while, so I learned a lot. Perhaps people who work in paleontology wouldn't learn as much, but because these articles were published in Scientific American, they were curated to be readable and understandable by a wider audience than professionals in this field.

I'm really glad I listened to this and I will keep my ears open for further audio adaptations of SciAm works.

[Jim · Rating 3 out of 5]

Think of a book of short stories, except that the stories are actually articles about different aspects of dinosaurs (and related reptiles) written in a peer reviewed journal. The varied dinosaur topics were entertaining as well as informative.
The free download from Audible added to several long walks and reminded me of my keen love of all things earth-science!

[Rhys Causon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some of this stuff made me feel like I was in a little over my head but there were some articles that were rather interesting in this collection from Scientific American, such as the Transylvanian aristocratic/palaeontologist and the evolution of feathers.

Would recommend this to fans of Dinosaurs and palaeontology in general.

[Schvenn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun. It's really just a random bunch of articles from the magazine and there isn't really any cohesion, but it helps to get some relatively recent information; most articles were actually published in 2014, so 9 years before I completed this book..

[Andy Klein · Rating 2 out of 5]

Pretty dry update on the latest (as of 2014) in the science of Paleontology. This was on Audible and, while the narrator had a nice voice, she was very bland in her delivery.

[Shawn Deal · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very good read. You get a little bit of everything in this, which is good and bad. There is no real focus on the knowledge you’re getting, but you are certainly get a wide range of it.

[christie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Listened on audible and it was very relaxing and interesting to listen to would probably listen again

[Craig Amason · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a good collection of articles about dinosaurs that appeared in Scientific American magazine around 2014, based largely on research and findings from the early 21st century, which are considerable. One of the amazing takeaways from the audiobook is how dinosaurs were so widely dispersed around the globe. Scientists are still finding treasure troves of fossils that provide greater clues to the mysteries of these creatures, who are now almost universally accepted as the ancient ancestors of our modern birds. These articles also do a good job of dispelling many misconceptions about dinosaurs and posing new ideas based on evidence collected and analyzed. One of the most startling perhaps is the theory that T-rex may not have been primarily a lone predator but instead a team scavenger, a proposal I don't remember from previous books on the subject. The book is short but packed with good information, and presented in an accessible manner.

[Bethany · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a set of essays from Scientific American magazine about Dinosaurs and what we have learned about them in the last 10 yrs or so. It was very interesting.

[Sarah Jean · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good collection of articles from Scientific American, if you’re interested in learning more about dinosaurs.