Dinosaurs: The Textbook

By Spencer G. Lucas

Book Overview

Geared toward a broad variety of students, Dinosaurs: The Textbook offers a concise and lucid presentation of the core biological and geological concepts of dinosaur science. Revised throughout to reflect recent fossil discoveries and the current scientific consensus, this seventh edition details the evolution, phylogeny, and classification of various dinosaur species while modeling the best approach for navigating new and existing research.

Spencer G. Lucas takes readers through the major taxonomic groups, including theropods, sauropodomorphs, ornithopods, ceratopsians, pachycephalosaurs, stegosaurs, and ankylosaurs. He also examines the behavior and extinction of the dinosaurs, their biological relationship to birds, and their representation (or misrepresentation) in art, literature, film, and other forms of popular culture.

This seventh edition of the leading text for introductory courses on dinosaurs incorporates comprehensive updates based on the latest research. Lucas highlights how dinosaur science is rapidly evolving, exploring how new discoveries, methods, and ideas are expanding the frontiers of knowledge. The book features cutting-edge and scientifically rigorous illustrations by leading paleoartists. It also includes extensive and reader-friendly end-of-chapter summary tools, review questions, a detailed glossary, a dinosaur dictionary, and a comprehensive index.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0231206011
• ISBN13: 9780231206013
• Release Date: July 2022
• Publisher: Columbia University Press
• Length: 392 Pages
• Weight: 2.05 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 8.4" x 10.9"

Customer Reviews

Excellent Introduction to the study of Dinosaurs

This book is a basic introduction to the study of dinosaurs. It briefly covers the history of paleontology in general and of dinosaur paleontology specifically. The reader will learn what makes a dinosaur a dinosaur, and why other reptiles aren't. It covers the major divisions of dinosaurs with brief descriptions of all of the large subgroups. If you're looking for a book that will get you beyond general audience level without requiring years of other studies to understand, this will be a good choice.

Excellent for non-science majors

I teach a course about Dinosaur biology at a local community college and this textbook is exactly what we need for this type of course. This text allows me to teach science to students who think that science is boring or too hard. Although I have added a lot of scientific thinking on top of this text, the book itself does introduce students to thinking like a scientist by presenting both sides of an argument - for example what caused Dinosaurs to go extinct. The text allows me to teach both sides, all the facts behind each, and to allow the students to draw their own conclusions.

Dinosaurs the textbook

I have used two editions of this book as one of the texts for a general vertebrate paleontology course. The class, organismic biology majors, with some secondary science, PE., elementary education and geography majors, liked the clear writing, statement of objectives, and reviews of each chapter. Diagrams were also clear. It perhaps needs more background on plate tectonics, stratigraphy/sedimentation and extinction/bird origins.