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How Fast Did T. rex Run?: Unsolved Questions from the Frontiers of Dinosaur Science
The revolution in science that is transforming our understanding of dinosaurs
In just the past twenty years, we have learned more about dinosaurs than we did in the previous two centuries. This book describes the extraordinary advances in palaeontology that are beginning to solve many of the mysteries surrounding these marvelous prehistoric creatures, from their ways of communicating to their mating habits, the color of their skin, their migration patterns and extinction. How did dinosaurs rear their young? What did they eat? What did T. rex actually do with those tiny arms? David Hone draws on his own discoveries at the forefront of dinosaur science to illuminate these and other questions.
Each chapter in this lively and informative book covers a key topic in dinosaur science, such as origins, diversity, evolution, habitats, anatomy, behaviour, ecology and dinosaur descendants—the birds. For each topic, Hone discusses the history of what palaeontologists thought in the past, the new insights we are gleaning from recent fossil finds and the latest technologies and the gaps in our knowledge that still remain. He shares his own predictions about the research areas that may produce the next big ideas in dinosaur science and addresses the unknowns we may never solve.
How Fast Did T. rex Run? reveals everything we now know about dinosaurs—and everything we don’t—and charts thrilling new directions for tomorrow’s generation of dinosaur scientists.
In just the past twenty years, we have learned more about dinosaurs than we did in the previous two centuries. This book describes the extraordinary advances in palaeontology that are beginning to solve many of the mysteries surrounding these marvelous prehistoric creatures, from their ways of communicating to their mating habits, the color of their skin, their migration patterns and extinction. How did dinosaurs rear their young? What did they eat? What did T. rex actually do with those tiny arms? David Hone draws on his own discoveries at the forefront of dinosaur science to illuminate these and other questions.
Each chapter in this lively and informative book covers a key topic in dinosaur science, such as origins, diversity, evolution, habitats, anatomy, behaviour, ecology and dinosaur descendants—the birds. For each topic, Hone discusses the history of what palaeontologists thought in the past, the new insights we are gleaning from recent fossil finds and the latest technologies and the gaps in our knowledge that still remain. He shares his own predictions about the research areas that may produce the next big ideas in dinosaur science and addresses the unknowns we may never solve.
How Fast Did T. rex Run? reveals everything we now know about dinosaurs—and everything we don’t—and charts thrilling new directions for tomorrow’s generation of dinosaur scientists.
280 pages, Hardcover
Published August 2, 2022
42 people are currently reading
676 people want to read
About the author
David Hone
15 books55 followersDavid Hone is a paleontologist and senior lecturer at Queen Mary University of London. He has written about dinosaurs for leading publications such as National Geographic, The Guardian, The Telegraph and HuffPost. His books include The Tyrannosaur Chronicles: The Biology of the Tyrant Dinosaurs
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 40 reviews
February 17, 2023
More of a 3.5 stars for me. This book was both very interesting and very frustrating.
It was very interesting in that it gives a lot of info. It covers a lot of dino knowledge and theories, and how that knowledge has been found and pieces together. I also like the way Hone did this for well over a dozen different areas, like anatomy, ecology, behavior, mating, diet, etc. And his thoughts on ways paleontology might progress in the future were intriguing.
But this book is obviously focused on what we don't know, and of course there is still an awful lot that we don't know about dinosaurs. In many instances the reasons are fairly expected: fossils are rare and hard to make, rarer to find and safely excavate, and rarer still to preserve safely, etc. But I will admit, reading 17 chapters of "We know some cool stuff, but we don't know all of this other stuff and have no idea if we will ever be able to figure it out" became very frustrating at times.
It was very interesting in that it gives a lot of info. It covers a lot of dino knowledge and theories, and how that knowledge has been found and pieces together. I also like the way Hone did this for well over a dozen different areas, like anatomy, ecology, behavior, mating, diet, etc. And his thoughts on ways paleontology might progress in the future were intriguing.
But this book is obviously focused on what we don't know, and of course there is still an awful lot that we don't know about dinosaurs. In many instances the reasons are fairly expected: fossils are rare and hard to make, rarer to find and safely excavate, and rarer still to preserve safely, etc. But I will admit, reading 17 chapters of "We know some cool stuff, but we don't know all of this other stuff and have no idea if we will ever be able to figure it out" became very frustrating at times.
November 6, 2023
The title of this books makes it seem like it would just be some fun facts on dinosaurs, but it really is just a nice summary of what we do and don't know about them. It was a nice balance of giving good details without overwhelming the reader.
February 22, 2025
An alright book for beginners to dinosaurs and dinosaur behavior. I was looking for a more intermediate, in depth look at dinosaur behavior after my initial interest and research, and most of the things discussed in the book were mostly things I already knew. If you consider yourself pretty familiar with the basics of dinosaurs and read many fun facts about them online, you'll probably already know most of what's brought up in this book.
June 17, 2023
great book with all the new findings in the field. I had no idea that we could understand so many things by just examining the skull of a dinosaur. That was really fun!
December 11, 2024
A 3 star read, not because it wasn't well-written or that I didn't enjoy it, but because I grew more and more frustrated about all the cool things we don't know that I want to know 😂
September 8, 2022
Though I may not be able to quote from memory all the cool new dino facts and mysteries I learned from this book, I can now tell you in broad brushstrokes some of the big ideas going on in dinosaur science right now, which is!!! Very cool to me!!!!!!!!! I love dinosaurs!!!!!!!!!!!!!
August 18, 2022
Audiobook, so no quotes. Lively reading by Tom Lawrence.
Hone’s last book, The Tyrannosaur Chronicles, was a fairly deep dive into dinosaur anatomy, so based on the title of this one I thought it would focus primarily on dinosaur motion mechanics. Or something to that effect.
Instead, it’s a broad survey course covering what scientists know and what they don’t know about dinosaurs, and how the public’s perception of both things is often quite skewed (particularly based on dinosaur representation in books, movies, and even well-meaning nature programs).
It’s a good book, definitely written more for the lay person than the last one, and I enjoyed it. I’m not sure how much new information I learned, but I’ve read or listened to a lot of dinosaur books the past couple of years and there’s only so much new information out there for all of those writers to share.
I did like Hone’s focus toward the end of the book on how money (or lack thereof) is shaping the way dinosaur research will look going forward. With grant money spread thin and universities shifting program focus, Hone contends we’ll probably see more professional scientists working in conjunction with amateur science nerds and using ever-evolving technologies like drones and 3D scanning and printing to bring about the next big revelations in the field.
I can dig that, no pun intended.
Hone’s last book, The Tyrannosaur Chronicles, was a fairly deep dive into dinosaur anatomy, so based on the title of this one I thought it would focus primarily on dinosaur motion mechanics. Or something to that effect.
Instead, it’s a broad survey course covering what scientists know and what they don’t know about dinosaurs, and how the public’s perception of both things is often quite skewed (particularly based on dinosaur representation in books, movies, and even well-meaning nature programs).
It’s a good book, definitely written more for the lay person than the last one, and I enjoyed it. I’m not sure how much new information I learned, but I’ve read or listened to a lot of dinosaur books the past couple of years and there’s only so much new information out there for all of those writers to share.
I did like Hone’s focus toward the end of the book on how money (or lack thereof) is shaping the way dinosaur research will look going forward. With grant money spread thin and universities shifting program focus, Hone contends we’ll probably see more professional scientists working in conjunction with amateur science nerds and using ever-evolving technologies like drones and 3D scanning and printing to bring about the next big revelations in the field.
I can dig that, no pun intended.
August 4, 2023
Can’t rate it less than 5stars. The book is really well written and could be read even by those who know little about dinosaurs. Which element brings me directly to the point of this review. If the aim of the author was to show to the readers that we know nigh to zero about almost any mesozoic environment, well… he’s been successful. Yes, we know quite a bit about these wonderful animals, at least scientists hypotheses have been updated continuously through the 200 years of study of these fossils, and yet, we have had just scratched the surface. There are so many point of contention, so many unanswered questions that one like me, who loves reading about the history of life, can’t help but feeling amazed. Amazed by the sheer size of our ignorance and by the amazing information that might be revealed in the future. If it was not dinosaurs stuff, I’d feel perhaps disappointed. I mean, there are dozens of books about dinosaurs which focus mainly on what we are confident about, and what we have discovered. Little or no room is usually left for what we actually don’t know about the field. Eventually, a casual reader might think that we’ve uncovered much. Yes, we have uncovered much, but the sheer size of paleontology, it’s scope, is much bigger than any of us can understand. Many times in the book the author recalls examples from the study of our ecosystems: of course we know much more about the environments we live in, we collect data day after day, and yet there are several questions that, to date, remain unanswered. Think now how sparse is the knowledge about extinct ecosystems that we can study just because we have found one (one!) incomplete fossil of a long gone species of herbivorous dinosaur. The fossil record is patchy at best and prone to both great surprises (new species, amazing levels of preservation, and so on…) and sour biases. The latter especially have proved to be far from uncommon in the long history of paleontology. Errors in the interpretation of one bit of fossilized ecosystem, or even a single bone, puts us on the wrong road, pushing wrong interpretations and, eventually, to wrong perception of the animal interested, how he lived, how he interacted with other species.
In each of the chapters of this amazing book, Hone illustrates how clever we are in understanding how much we know and how ignorant we are about the bits that we still miss. A nice touch at the end of almost every chapter, is the addition of a “word of hope”, a wish that one day we may find answers to the questions that we have today and that the field would move on towards more knowledge. I appreciated this positive attitude. Indeed, especially given the exciting jumps that technology has made possible in the last couple of decades, it is highly possible that in a not so far future, paleontologists will gift us with incredible discoveries. But, as the author states in the book, it’s difficult to make predictions…
To conclude my opinion, this is a book about dinosaurs that talks a lot about them but not in the usual way. The discussion is broad, sometimes goes into delicious details in a precise, never boring way. It reveals how good a scientist Hone is and how wonderful a science communicator he has become.
In each of the chapters of this amazing book, Hone illustrates how clever we are in understanding how much we know and how ignorant we are about the bits that we still miss. A nice touch at the end of almost every chapter, is the addition of a “word of hope”, a wish that one day we may find answers to the questions that we have today and that the field would move on towards more knowledge. I appreciated this positive attitude. Indeed, especially given the exciting jumps that technology has made possible in the last couple of decades, it is highly possible that in a not so far future, paleontologists will gift us with incredible discoveries. But, as the author states in the book, it’s difficult to make predictions…
To conclude my opinion, this is a book about dinosaurs that talks a lot about them but not in the usual way. The discussion is broad, sometimes goes into delicious details in a precise, never boring way. It reveals how good a scientist Hone is and how wonderful a science communicator he has become.
August 16, 2023
This was a quick read, not very technical. From the author's comments he might have a previous book at a much higher technical / professional level.
The book is a survey of what is known and what is not known about dinosaur science. For this perspective it is quite valuable and worth reading. What it lacks in general are in-depth treatments, and for one example it doesn't even attempt to answer the question posed in the title. What it does do, and this is also very valuable, is describe what the current problems are in various subfields: ecology, biomechanics and movement, origins of dinosaurs, and many others - and what the likelihood is of advances, and how they might be made.
This book is also useful to those interested in the evolution of birds from dinosaurs, and this is where it does go a little deeper, into the knowns and unknowns of feathers and scales, the mysteries at the root of bird evolution. There are also some omissions here, but the digital scan of the fossil syrinx of a Vegavis, a pre-K-Pg bird, is a highlight.
This book is a good prospectus for a TV show, something like Shubin's PBS version of Your Inner Fish. THe bones, the coverings, the ecology problems, feathers, and especially the 3d modeling would really come alive.
A good companion read is Prothero's Story of Dinosaurs in 25 Discoveries. Somewhat similar space, a lot of technical depth but managed well, more human stories of the paleontologists (Prothero makes it clear how viewpoints of the time influence how paleontologists interpret their findings, something Hone also attempts).
The book is a survey of what is known and what is not known about dinosaur science. For this perspective it is quite valuable and worth reading. What it lacks in general are in-depth treatments, and for one example it doesn't even attempt to answer the question posed in the title. What it does do, and this is also very valuable, is describe what the current problems are in various subfields: ecology, biomechanics and movement, origins of dinosaurs, and many others - and what the likelihood is of advances, and how they might be made.
This book is also useful to those interested in the evolution of birds from dinosaurs, and this is where it does go a little deeper, into the knowns and unknowns of feathers and scales, the mysteries at the root of bird evolution. There are also some omissions here, but the digital scan of the fossil syrinx of a Vegavis, a pre-K-Pg bird, is a highlight.
This book is a good prospectus for a TV show, something like Shubin's PBS version of Your Inner Fish. THe bones, the coverings, the ecology problems, feathers, and especially the 3d modeling would really come alive.
A good companion read is Prothero's Story of Dinosaurs in 25 Discoveries. Somewhat similar space, a lot of technical depth but managed well, more human stories of the paleontologists (Prothero makes it clear how viewpoints of the time influence how paleontologists interpret their findings, something Hone also attempts).
September 10, 2023
David Hone’s “How Fast Did T. Rex Run? Unsolved Questions from the Frontiers of Dinosaur Science” (2022) discusses what we used to believe about dinosaurs, what we have recently discovered, and most importantly what we still do not know. Topics include things such as dinosaur origins, diversity of dinosaurs, evolution, anatomy, physiology, reproduction, behavior, and other topics. Much attention is paid to the selective nature of the evidence we have. For example, dinosaurs may be numerous in tropical environments, but such environments are poor for preservation and fossilization. On the other hand, dinosaurs may be few in deserts, but those are great environments for preservation. As a result, desert dinosaurs are over-represented in our samples. This is an interesting book. My only complaint is that Princeton University Press really let him down by not providing adequate editorial services. There are sections that are hard to follow because (for example) antecedents of sentences are unclear. Or, he may mention three species, but then continue to comment on two of the three, but you are not sure which two. Despite these shortcomings, this is a good book if you are interested in the current state of dinosaur research.
June 10, 2023
The title of book is a little misleading. It gives off the sense that the book will answer some of the questions paleontologists and dino-fanatics have wanted to know for years; but it isn't that book. As some have stated, Hone, pretty much in every chapter, states that more study, research, and findings will yield more information--which is true in every science, but it does grow tiresome. I think mentioning this in an introduction, rather than in every chapter, would be more than suffice--and anyone with a general sense of science should know this as well.
As a dinosaur enthusiast, myself, I didn't really walk away learning much of anything new, but was reminded of some minutiae that I had forgotten from reading previous dinosaur-related materials. For those, like myself, it's not a recommended reading as I don't think you'll walk away learning anything new despite the subtitle of the book. But for those who are more casual, or have been out of the dinosaur loop for a while, it will be a worthwhile read to get a quick catch-up on what, in a general sense, has happened in the study of paleontology--more specifically with dinosaur research.
As a dinosaur enthusiast, myself, I didn't really walk away learning much of anything new, but was reminded of some minutiae that I had forgotten from reading previous dinosaur-related materials. For those, like myself, it's not a recommended reading as I don't think you'll walk away learning anything new despite the subtitle of the book. But for those who are more casual, or have been out of the dinosaur loop for a while, it will be a worthwhile read to get a quick catch-up on what, in a general sense, has happened in the study of paleontology--more specifically with dinosaur research.
November 13, 2022
I consider myself an informed layman, paleontology-wise, and a bit of a dinophile. That said, I found this book about what scientists know, what they don't know, and what they will likely never know when it comes to the Dinosauria a very clear and informative one. Plenty of informational nuggets and a number of surprises mixed in made for an enjoyable read. The author explains quite well what goes into paleontology research and why the general public may have unrealistic expectations when it comes to how scientists determine how dinosaurs looked, acted, and generally lived. Recommended for any dinosaur fan.
December 23, 2022
I really enjoyed this one, because I read a lot of books earlier in the year that dealt with paleontology and they were much more definitive about what we knew. This book points out that there's a whole lot that we just don't know, not for lack of trying to understand, just that we don't have the necessary parts to give definitive answers.
One of my favorite facts I learned is that we have a fossil that shows the outline of the dinosaur's digestive tract, because it must have swallowed sediment prior to fossilization. Even though the viscera didn't fossilize it left behind the impression so we know what this dinosaur's digestive tract looked like. Fascinating stuff.
One of my favorite facts I learned is that we have a fossil that shows the outline of the dinosaur's digestive tract, because it must have swallowed sediment prior to fossilization. Even though the viscera didn't fossilize it left behind the impression so we know what this dinosaur's digestive tract looked like. Fascinating stuff.
November 22, 2023
I wanted dinosaur facts and that’s exactly what I got.
This book goes into what we know and don’t know about dinosaurs, clearing up misconceptions and pointing out gaps in our knowledge. It’s accessible to the layman and the science is presented in a clear and concise way.
As a fan of dinosaurs and paleontology in general I enjoyed this book, though most of it can be summed up with one line: there’s a lot of things we don’t know for sure, but there’s reason to believe we will know more in the future. Not an earth shattering insight, but a fair and reasonable one with science backing it up.
This book goes into what we know and don’t know about dinosaurs, clearing up misconceptions and pointing out gaps in our knowledge. It’s accessible to the layman and the science is presented in a clear and concise way.
As a fan of dinosaurs and paleontology in general I enjoyed this book, though most of it can be summed up with one line: there’s a lot of things we don’t know for sure, but there’s reason to believe we will know more in the future. Not an earth shattering insight, but a fair and reasonable one with science backing it up.
October 23, 2025
The premise of examining what we don't yet understand about dinosaurs was an interesting angle and led to discussions about emerging finds and new technology. But it did get old quick, and often seemed like the author was just guessing at stuff or throwing up his hands and saying "idk". Maybe talking about how what we do know (or thought we knew) has changed with more evidence, such as the titular question about T.rex's speed, would have given this book more depth.
Also, the version I read was riddled with typos, even in species names and such. Not a big deal, but a huge pet peeve of mine and made the book seem unfinished. Really needs a better editor for any future printings.
Also, the version I read was riddled with typos, even in species names and such. Not a big deal, but a huge pet peeve of mine and made the book seem unfinished. Really needs a better editor for any future printings.
September 20, 2023
I read a lot of natural history books, and this one was near the top of this year's list. I have very little knowledge of dinosaurs and they've never captured my attention in any big way. This book is written for those like me - who don't have previous technical knowledge of dinos. It has enough facts and lays out what we do know, what we don't know and how we came to know it (or came to know we may never know it). It has a lot of facts, but is written in a reader friendly way and avoids getting "into the weeds" too much at any time.
April 19, 2023
I read this book as background research for a book I hope to write someday. Yes it’s infuriating to realize how many “known unknowns” are out there in dinosaur science, but that’s the point of scientific rigor, and I found it very useful to define some “degrees of freedom” where I can let my imagination play while still keeping my story plausible. For my purposes, this book fit the bill very well.
January 6, 2023
I loved this book! Really in depth analysis of what paleontologists know and don’t know about dinosaurs and why they know or don’t know it. Also debunks some popular myths. Did you know that velociraptor might have been a herbivore? I recommend this book of you are interested in dinosaurs or even science in general.
July 7, 2023
Great book. As someone who hasn't kept up too much with paleontology these last few years, this book was a great way to be reintroduced to the development and remaining mysteries of the field. There have been some really fascinating discoveries, and the way scientists have drawn some conclusions in the field was really cool to learn about!
April 23, 2024
Pretty interesting! I never had a dinosaur phase as a kid, but I enjoyed reading this as an overview of the state of the field. Super interested in how much our understanding of things you would think would be fundamental have changed over time. Occasionally got overwhelmed things about just how large some now extinct creatures were. Pretty good bedtime reading though.
May 7, 2024
If you are looking for a concise book about dinosaurs, this isn't for you.
But if you want to learn about the current theories regarding dinosaurs (and be reminded constantly how science is always changing and hypotheses about animals from the Mesozoic period cannot be certain) it's a very interesting read.
But if you want to learn about the current theories regarding dinosaurs (and be reminded constantly how science is always changing and hypotheses about animals from the Mesozoic period cannot be certain) it's a very interesting read.
September 7, 2022
It was an easy read with interesting and updated information on dinosaur discoveries. However it tries to cover a lot of topics and thus is frustratingly surface-level and sparse on details on most of them. The edition I read also had an annoyingly high rate of spelling and grammatical errors.
December 27, 2022
It's good, interesting, and very comprehensive.
I'm not sure what takeaways I got from it, besides that there is more to be found out and certain things, like determining color patterns, are nearly impossible with current tech
I'm not sure what takeaways I got from it, besides that there is more to be found out and certain things, like determining color patterns, are nearly impossible with current tech
March 25, 2023
Excellent book about how we know what we know about dinosaurs. If you’re curious how paleontology answers questions, this is the book for you. However, if you’re more interested in the history/chronology of dinosaurs, stick with Steve Brusante
August 20, 2023
The author is very open about it in the introduction, but the book focused more on unanswered questions, rather than answers to questions. It's nice to get a little bit of an update, but I don't think it does as good of a job as other recent dinosaur books.
November 4, 2023
Very scientific and somewhat dry, this was an unbiased look at what we know, how we know it, what we don't know, and why we don't know it. So helpful in terms of getting up to date with the only field outside of English that I ever considered.
June 15, 2025
How fast did T-Rex run? We still don’t know.
Dr. Hone writes intriguing books more on what we DON’T know or may never know. It is good to have someone willing to write such things to combat rampant misinformation about dinosaurs, perpetuated often by the media.
Dr. Hone writes intriguing books more on what we DON’T know or may never know. It is good to have someone willing to write such things to combat rampant misinformation about dinosaurs, perpetuated often by the media.
Want to read
April 25, 2022Note: I accessed a digital review copy of this book from the publisher through Edelweiss.
January 3, 2023
Descriptions of various unanswered questions in paleontology along with research methods.
January 24, 2023
dnf... gave it a hundred pages but just couldn't get into it. Dry writing and tons of technical jargon and by its very nature (it's right there in the title!) there's lots of unanswered questions.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 40 reviews