Another excellent work by Asimov! My edition had a different cover image, it showed a T-Rex attacking a large plant eating dinosaur, a Brontosaurus or a Diplodocus. The illustrations are old fashioned, showing tubby and slow-moving animals hanging out in swamps. They are charming, though. Asimov discusses the etymologies of lots of names for different sort of animals, pterosaur, pterodactyl, brachiosaurus, etc. This is a nice touch.

Chapter 1: Fossils
Georgius Agricola used the word "fossil" to mean something that has been dug up. I recollect that the Latin word for ditch is "fossa", so this makes sense. Gradually, "fossil" developed its specialized meaning. In 1691, John Ray, the observant enlightenment botanist, declares that fossils are the signs of animals or plants that existed very long ago, and that may be similar to animals or plants that exist now, but that are not identical. Perhaps, of course, these fossils were the remains of literally ante-diluvian animals or plants. Nicolaus Steno is convinced that he has found a fossil shark tooth. But the fossilization process is very gradual, so that fossilized shark tooth must be _really_ old, older than the age of the earth (supposed to be 6000 years). Something's gotta give. The Comte de Buffon theorizes that the earth formed from a chunk of the sun, and must then have subsequently cooled to current earth temperature. Some wild back-of-the-envelope calculation make him assert that this must have taken at least 75,000 years. At the time, that seems disturbingly long.

Chapter 2: Catastrophes?
Charles Bonnet argued for a series of catastrophes, each leaving its fossil record and only the events after the last catastrophe corresponding to Biblical time. James Hutton observes the slow changes of geology and the formation of rocks and in "A Theory of the Earth" argues for a very old and relatively gradually changing earth. In 1793 and Englishman, William Smith, is put in charge of canal cutting and end up publishing in 1816 "A Geological Map of England". In this book he describes strata and the fossils found therein, and how the patterns of strata are continuous.

Chapter 3: Evolution
From Linnaeus to Darwin by way of Cuvier. In the early 1700s Linnaeus begins to engage in taxonomy of living creatures. Cuvier bring his anatomists training to the classification of flora and fauna both living and extinct. It turns out that some fossils recur in strata more recent than those where they were first found, suggesting some continuity. Charles Lyell writes his "Principles of Geology" in which he asserts that the oldest fossils are several hundred million years old. That's a lot more than Buffon's 75,000 years. Darwin reads Lyell's book on his Beagle voyage and eventually writes his "The Origin of Species", proposing natural selection as the mechanism for the transmutation of species.

Chapter 4: The Ancient Animals
Cuviers identifies a lot of fossils: Megatherium (large beast), Mosasaur (Mosa-lizard), Pterodactyl (wing finger), pterosaur (wing lizard), Icthyosaur (fish lizard), Plesiosaur (almost lizard). The last two were discovered by Mary Anning. Gideon Algernon Mantell finds the first dinosaur (terrible lizard) an iguanadon (iguana tooth). Cuvier misidentifies the iguanadon initially.

Chapter 5: The Reptiles Develop
A standard discussion of evolution from earliest creatures to reptiles, taking in fishes and amphibians (double life).

Chapter 6: The Age of the Dinosaurs
Icthyosaurs and Plesiosaurs were, of course, reptiles that returned to the oceans. A standard discussion of the reign of the dinosaurs: Tyrannosaurus (tyrand lizard), Diplodocus (double beam), Brontosaurus (thunder lizard), Brachiosaurus (arm lizard), Stegosaurus (roof lizard), Triceratops (three-horn face), Ankylosaurus (growing together lizard). This must have been published before "Apatosaurus" superceded "Brontosaurus".

Chapter 7: After the Dinosaur
Many reptiles survived: alligators, crocodiles, turtles. Archaeopteryx (ancient wing), discovered by Hermann von Meyer in 1860, just a year after the publication of the first edition of "The Origin of Species" was a mixed reptile/bird. Mammals developed from a branch of reptiles. Baleuchitherium was pretty big, but not as big as some dinosaurs.

THE END ( )

Summary: This book talks about the wonders of dinosaurs and things that have to do with them. You don't have to know much because this book talks and explains them to you.
Review: Good just not something that intrigues me at all.
Class: Can be used for children who love dinosaurs and who want to know more about them.
Media:
Grade: Intermidiate
Genre: Science Fiction

How We Found Out About Dinosaurs is a good informational book because it explains about how scientists piece together information they find like puzzle pieces to find out what happened in the past. This book starts out about fossils and moves to what the ground and fossils can tell us about how these large animals died, what catastrophes happened. They then discuss other scientific things before they finally talk about what the world looked when dinosaurs lived.
1: I would share this book if students were doing a research paper on fossils, scientific discoveries, or dinosaurs.
2: I would also use this book when discussing ancient times.
Media: Pencil sketches ( )