My Beloved Brontosaurus

Author: Brian Switek
Publisher: Macmillan + ORM
ISBN: 1466836768
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 240

Book Description
A Hudson Booksellers Staff Pick for the Best Books of 2013 One of Publishers Weekly's Top Ten Spring Science Books A Bookshop Santa Cruz Staff Pick Dinosaurs, with their awe-inspiring size, terrifying claws and teeth, and otherworldly abilities, occupy a sacred place in our childhoods. They loom over museum halls, thunder through movies, and are a fundamental part of our collective imagination. In My Beloved Brontosaurus, the dinosaur fanatic Brian Switek enriches the childlike sense of wonder these amazing creatures instill in us. Investigating the latest discoveries in paleontology, he breathes new life into old bones. Switek reunites us with these mysterious creatures as he visits desolate excavation sites and hallowed museum vaults, exploring everything from the sex life of Apatosaurus and T. rex's feather-laden body to just why dinosaurs vanished. (And of course, on his journey, he celebrates the book's titular hero, "Brontosaurus"—who suffered a second extinction when we learned he never existed at all—as a symbol of scientific progress.) With infectious enthusiasm, Switek questions what we've long held to be true about these beasts, weaving in stories from his obsession with dinosaurs, which started when he was just knee-high to a Stegosaurus. Endearing, surprising, and essential to our understanding of our own evolution and our place on Earth, My Beloved Brontosaurus is a book that dinosaur fans and anyone interested in scientific progress will cherish for years to come.

Lulu and the Brontosaurus

Author: Judith Viorst
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1416999620
Category : Juvenile Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 128

Book Description
Lulu's parents refuse to give in when she demands a brontosaurus for her birthday and so she sets out to find her own, but while the brontosaurus she finally meets approves of pets, he does not intend to be Lulu's.

Skeleton Keys

Author: Riley Black (Brian Switek)
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 0399184910
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 290

Book Description
“A provocative and entertaining magical mineral tour through the life and afterlife of bone.” —Wall Street Journal Our bones have many stories to tell, if you know how to listen. Bone is a marvel, an adaptable and resilient building material developed over more than four hundred million years of evolutionary history. It gives your body its shape and the ability to move. It grows and changes with you, an undeniable document of who you are and how you lived. Arguably, no other part of the human anatomy has such rich scientific and cultural significance, both brimming with life and a potent symbol of death. In this delightful natural and cultural history of bone, Brian Switek explains where our skeletons came from, what they do inside us, and what others can learn about us when these artifacts of mineral and protein are all we've left behind. Bone is as embedded in our culture as it is in our bodies. Our species has made instruments and jewelry from bone, treated the dead like collectors' items, put our faith in skull bumps as guides to human behavior, and arranged skeletons into macabre tributes to the afterlife. Switek makes a compelling case for getting better acquainted with our skeletons, in all their surprising roles. Bridging the worlds of paleontology, anthropology, medicine, and forensics, Skeleton Keys illuminates the complex life of bones inside our bodies and out.

The Big Golden Book of Dinosaurs

Author: Mary Elting
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780307155672
Category : Dinosaurs
Languages : en
Pages : 64

Book Description
An introduction to the physical characteristics, habits, and natural environment of a variety of dinosaurs.

Jurassic

Author: Ted Rechlin
Publisher: Rextooth Studios, distributed by Farcountry Press
ISBN: 159152203X
Category : Juvenile Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 51

Book Description
Welcome to the exciting land of Jurassic, a dinosaur graphic novel for all ages one hundred and fifty million years in the making - featuring the triumphant return of the Brontosaurs! For decades the beloved Brontosaurus was thought to have never existed and that its bones belonged to another dinosaur known as the Apatosaurus. In 2015, dinosaur fans were rocked as the paleontology community concluded that the Thunder Lizard (as the Brontosaurus is known) was indeed a species of sauropod! From the mind of Ted Rechlin, author and illustrator of Tyrannosaurus Rex comes a thrilling new prehistoric adventure whisking readers along a wild journey encountering many famous dinosaur species. Both educational and scientifically accurate, Jurassic centers around the survival story of a young Brontosaurus calf trying to maneuver through the golden age of dinosaurs. As deadly mega-carnivores prowl the forests and mighty whale-sized herbivores walk the land, Jurassic features illustrations ranging from the monstrous (and hungry) Allosaurus, Ceratosaurs, and Torvosaurus to the massive herbivore Brachiosaurus, the whip-tailed Diplodocus, the tree-top munching Camarasaurus, and the largest land animal in North American history, the Supersaurus. From wild hunts and a congregation of Jurassic titans, to daring escapes and thrilling battles, witness the resurrected reputation of the Brontosaurus and watch one young calf's journey to become the Thunder Lizard he was born to be.

Dinosaurs Without Bones

Author: Anthony J. Martin
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1643139215
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 683

Book Description
"Bubbles over with the joy of scientific discovery as he shares his natural enthusiasm for the blend of sleuthing and imagination."—Publishers Weekly, starred review What if we woke up one morning all of the dinosaur bones in the world were gone? How would we know these iconic animals had a165-million year history on earth, and had adapted to all land-based environments from pole to pole? What clues would be left to discern not only their presence, but also to learn about their sex lives, raising of young, social lives, combat, and who ate who? What would it take for us to know how fast dinosaurs moved, whether they lived underground, climbed trees, or went for a swim?Welcome to the world of ichnology, the study of traces and trace fossils – such as tracks, trails, burrows, nests, toothmarks, and other vestiges of behavior – and how through these remarkable clues, we can explore and intuit the rich and complicated lives of dinosaurs. With a unique, detective-like approach, interpreting the forensic clues of these long-extinct animals that leave a much richer legacy than bones, Martin brings the wild world of the Mesozoic to life for the 21st century reader.

Prehistoric Predators

Author: Brian Switek
Publisher: Applesauce Press
ISBN: 1604335521
Category : Juvenile Nonfiction
Languages : en
Pages : 102

Book Description
Discover the most dangerous carnivores that ever roamed the Earth in this exciting and action-packed exploration of Prehistoric Predators, featuring a unique cover that feels like dinosaur-skin! The biggest baddies of the prehistoric world -- the carnivores -- come alive in Prehistoric Predators. From favorites like T-Rex and Giganotosaurus, to the ferocious Spinosaurus and terrifying Megalodon, the stunning full-color illustrations from renowned paleoartist Julius Csotonyi make these dangerous creatures spring to life on each page. Bursting with fascinating facts written by National Geographic contributor Brian Switek, dynamic artwork, and a unique dino-skin textured cover, this is the perfect book for dinosaur lovers of every age!

Why Dinosaurs Matter

Author: Kenneth Lacovara
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1501120107
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 192

Book Description
What can long-dead dinosaurs teach us about our future? Plenty, according to paleontologist Kenneth Lacovara, who has discovered some of the largest creatures to ever walk the Earth. By tapping into the ubiquitous wonder that dinosaurs inspire, Lacovara weaves together the stories of our geological awakening, of humanity’s epic struggle to understand the nature of deep time, the meaning of fossils, and our own place on the vast and bountiful tree of life. Go on a journey––back to when dinosaurs ruled the Earth––to discover how dinosaurs achieved feats unparalleled by any other group of animals. Learn the secrets of how paleontologists find fossils, and explore quirky, but profound questions, such as: Is a penguin a dinosaur? And, how are the tiny arms of T. rex the key to its power and ferocity? In this revealing book, Lacovara offers the latest ideas about the shocking and calamitous death of the dinosaurs and ties their vulnerabilities to our own. Why Dinosaurs Matter is compelling and engaging—a great reminder that our place on this planet is both precarious and potentially fleeting. “As we move into an uncertain environmental future, it has never been more important to understand the past.”

The Calculus Diaries

Author: Jennifer Ouellette
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 1101459034
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 337

Book Description
Kiss My Math meets A Tour of the Calculus Jennifer Ouellette never took math in college, mostly because she-like most people-assumed that she wouldn't need it in real life. But then the English-major-turned-award-winning-science-writer had a change of heart and decided to revisit the equations and formulas that had haunted her for years. The Calculus Diaries is the fun and fascinating account of her year spent confronting her math phobia head on. With wit and verve, Ouellette shows how she learned to apply calculus to everything from gas mileage to dieting, from the rides at Disneyland to shooting craps in Vegas-proving that even the mathematically challenged can learn the fundamentals of the universal language.

Bully for Brontosaurus: Reflections in Natural History

Author: Stephen Jay Gould
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN: 0393340821
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 548

Book Description
"Provocative and delightfully discursive essays on natural history. . . . Gould is the Stan Musial of essay writing. He can work himself into a corkscrew of ideas and improbable allusions paragraph after paragraph and then, uncoiling, hit it with such power that his fans know they are experiencing the game of essay writing at its best."--John Noble Wilford, New York Times Book Review