While at TetZooCon 2024 (the last one ever! Sort of), I took the opportunity to pick up the latest book from Dave Hone (for it is he) – Uncovering Dinosaur Behaviour: What They Did and How We Know, published by Princeton University Press (in early November for the non-TZC-going public). Dave’s previous book, The Future of Dinosaurs (known as How Fast Could T. rex Run? in the US for reasons best understood by the publishers) was certainly a decent read,…
As children, we’re all told the same story about the scientific evolution of Iguanodon, one of the earliest-named dinosaurs – how it went from a whale-sized lizard (some kind of ‘cetiosaur’, if you will. OK, not that), to a mono-horned quadruped, to a tail-dragging thumbs-upping tripod, to the mean and muscular, mostly quadrupedal but facultatively bipedal, intimidatingly brutish beast we know today. Along the way, we’re typically encouraged to have a good old chuckle at just how wrong people got…
If I were to sum up EX|TERRA, Welsh artist Andy Frazer‘s compendium of his 2022 palaeo-output, in a single word, it would have to be: caruncles. Make no mistake – if you are at all perturbed by the extraneous fleshy appendages present on the necks and faces of turkeys (and various other birds), then you’d best stay a great distance away from this book. Frazer is avowedly a fan of ‘weird’ dinosaurs, and in this case, ‘weird’ would appear to…
Back in 2021, plesiosaur-lovin’ scientist Adam Smith collaborated with author Jonathan Emmett and illustrator Adam Larkum to bring us Adam’s first children’s book – which was, naturally enough, all about plesiosaurs. Or rather, one particular plesiosaur species, namely Albertonectes vanderveldei. Now, Smith and Emmett are back, joined this time by artist Stieven van der Poorten, for a book that’s all about…Tyrannosaurus rex. But wait! It’s actually about how reconstructions of the animal have changed through time, and why. So it’s not as…
Today we’re happy to welcome back Tommy Leung, who previously delighted you with their review of My Girlfriend is a T. rex in 2016… which is, somehow, six years ago. Tommy’s blog Parasite of the Day is a blast to read, as long as you can push your ick feelings aside and appreciate the wild diversity of the parasite world. You can do that, surely. Tommy is also part of the wonderful Gallimaufric Science podcast, which you really should listen to.…
Who doesn’t want another coffee table book filled with very pretty palaeoart printed on good quality paper? Mesozoic Art is the spiritual successor to Dinosaur Art and Dinosaur Art II, both published by Titan Books in 2012 and 2017, respectively. As Bloomsbury has published this one, it can’t be a sequel in the literal sense, even if the front cover is very, very strongly suggestive of it being so. It also (in spite of the cover design) departs from its…
Palaeontologist Dr David Hone (for it is he) has been extremely busy since the release of his previous book, The Tyrannosaur Chronicles, back in 2016 – not content with involving himself in copious amounts of research and numerous scientific papers, he also lectures at Queen Mary University of London by day and co-hosts the Terrible Lizards podcast with Iszi Lawrence by night. (Or something like that.) In between all this, Dr Dave somehow found time to write a follow-up book…
You know we are firmly on Team Dinosaur here at Love in the Time of Chasmosaurs. Otherprehistoricanimals get the occasional shout-out, but at the end of the day we just don’t know all that much about them. Marine reptiles are cool, pterosaurs get a free pass as honorary dinosaurs, and we aren’t above putting some cool, freaky Permian synapsids and Cenozoic mammals in the spotlights. Then come the croc-line archosaurs, then the big bugs and amphibians of the Carboniferous and…
There aren’t many dinosaur books that I’ve largely read in the pub in a single sitting, but Dinopedia (published by Princeton University Press) is engaging and entertaining enough to keep one occupied through at least two or three pints. Written and illustrated by Darren Naish – you know, the scientist, author, blogger, consultant and beardy weirdy of TetZoo fame – it’s a wee compendium of dinosaurian ephemera, covering assorted clades, scientific hypotheses, individual palaeontologists, pop culture tropes and more besides.…
Palaeontologist (and compatriot) Dean Lomax has made quite a name for himself over the last several years, and rightly so. Here’s another string for his bow – the remarkably impressive children’s book Prehistoric Pets (published by Templar), a showcase for his skills as a passionate science communicator. The cover might imply that this is simply a book about the big, angry prehistoric relatives of today’s domestic animals, but there’s so much more to it than that; this is a celebration…
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Chasmosaurus belli silhouette in custom bulleted list by Scott D. Sampson, Mark A. Loewen, Andrew A. Farke, Eric M. Roberts, Catherine A. Forster, Joshua A. Smith, and Alan L. Titus, CC BY-SA 3.0. Sourced from PhyloPic.