The lost world of the dinosaurs Uncovering the secrets of the prehistoric age

Schmitt, a specialist in vertebrate paleontology, takes readers on an absolutely spellbinding journey back into the deep past, to a time when dinosaurs walked the earth (and flew in the air, and swam in the seas). Not only is he a lively, entertaining writer, he is determined, apparently, to instill in us the same enthusiasm about dinosaurs he's had since he was a small boy--and succeeds. Rarely has a book about paleontology been this exciting (there's Donald Johanson and Maitland Edey's classic Lucy, Edward Dolnick's recent Dinosaurs at the Dinner Party, and a handful more). Schmitt doesn't shy away from scientific discussion, but he is careful never to lose the reader in a forest of polysyllabic terminology. His goal here is simple: to explain how paleontology can illuminate the lives of creatures who lived and died millions of years ago. Drawing on the latest technologies and discoveries, the author is able to take us to places we've never been before (even habitual readers of books on this subject will find things to startle and amaze them). It should be noted, too, that the illustrations by Ben Rennen are gorgeous, and bring these ancient creatures vividly to life.

Schmitt, a paleontologist and research assistant at Oxford University, debuts with an engrossing exploration of dinosaurs' 186-million-year reign. He explains that 250 million years ago, massive volcanic eruptions in Siberia caused air pollution, droughts, and extreme heat that killed off 90% of all plant and animal species and cleared the way for surviving archosaurs, the ancestors of dinosaurs and crocodiles, to dominate Earth. Speculating on dinosaur behavior, Schmitt suggests that Plateosaurus probably travelled in herds (their fossils are "often found in mass assemblages"), and that Triceratops likely fought each other over territory or mates, as evidenced by puncture wounds on their fossilized frills. Schmitt also delves into the lively scientific quarrels that have shaped contemporary understanding of prehistoric reptiles. For instance, he discusses the bitter feud between paleontologists Othniel Charles Marsh and Edward Drinker Cope, who in the 1870s and '80s went so far as to dynamite "entire sites just to hide their finds" as they competed to become the first to describe Stegosaurus, Brontosaurus, and other dinosaur fossils they uncovered in the American West. There's plenty of fascinating trivia (T. rex had no medium-size carnivorous competitors because juveniles probably occupied that ecological niche), and the scientific history paints a surprisingly rowdy portrait of paleontology's past. It's a vigorous complement to Steve Brusatte's The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs. (Nov.)