The Horned Dinosaurs

Features

• Cover Type: Paperback with 360 pages
• Published by: Princeton University Press March 30, 1998
• Written in: English
• ISBN 10 Number: 0691059004
• ISBN 13 Number: 978-0691059006
• Book Dimensions: 9.2 x 6 x 0.9 inches
• Weighs: 1.1 pounds

From Library Journal
Dodson (veterinary anatomy and geology, Univ. of Pennsylvania, and coeditor of The Dinosauria, LJ 3/15/91) has written a fascinating and comprehensive scholarly and personal survey of the herbivorous ceratopsian dinosaurs that focuses on Triceratops, Chasmosaurus and Protoceratops. His detailed overview includes species taxonomy, skeletal anatomy, biological variation, evolutionary phylogeny, and geographical distribution as well as lingering questions concerning posture, social life, sexual dimorphism and behavior, and final extinction. Dodson's study also covers major sites, fossil discoveries, and professional interpretations of the growing evidence, from the early finds by E.D. Cope, Joseph Leidy, and O.C. Marsh to the present hypotheses by Robert Bakker, Jack Horner, and John Ostrom. Dodson gives special attention to both skull characteristics, e.g., the crest (frill), horns, sutures, and fenestrae and the significant monographs in ceratopsian paleontology. The author has successfully re-created the horned dinosaur in a fascinating book of facts, theories, and speculation. With extensive notes and great illustrations, this impressive volume is highly recommended for all academic and large public science collections.?H. James Birx, Canisius Coll., Buffalo, N.Y.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Kirkus Reviews
Every six-year-old can identify Triceratops; here's a book that shows just how much more there is to know about the extinct three-horned monster and its relatives. Dodson (Veterinary Anatomy and Geology/Univ. of Pennsylvania) begins with a broad overview of the horned dinosaurs. The suborder Ceratopsia includes four families, comprising 22 genera and numerous species, all dating from the Cretaceous Era. Large herbivores, they were clearly highly successful animals, as their fossils are among the most common of their time. (One early collector claimed to have seen at least 500 specimens; in comparison, nearly half of all dinosaur species are known from a single specimen.) In the second chapter, Dodson offers a detailed description of the bones of Chasmosaurus, a member of the same family as Triceratops. Having established the essential terminology, he proceeds to examine the various genera and species of ceratopsians based on their anatomy (with the aid of detailed illustrations by Robert F. Walters). Scientists of the last century often decided that any variant from the ``type specimen'' deserved the status of a new species; today most scientists ascribe such differences to natural variations, stages of growth, or sexual dimorphism. Thus, instead of the 13 species of Triceratops described in the literature, Dodson believes there was a single dominant species, T. horridus. While much of his material is highly technical, he brings considerable wit and charm to his argument and gives an great sense of the practice of paleontology, as well as of the personalities involved in it. Two final chapters discuss the classification of the various ceratopsian genera in light of the modern disciplines of cladistics and RFTRA (a sophisticated measuring technique), and such questions as their probable diet, mobility, and the cause of their extinction. Dodson has given the next generation of paleontologists a fine starting point from which to begin their own investigations. (6 color illustrations, 75 line drawings, not seen) -- Copyright ©1996, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Reader Reviews
_____________________________________________ Triceratops and family, as related by Penn paleontologist Peter Dodson, who is a clear and engaging writer. Have a look at the cover-scan at Amazon -- a preview of Wayne Barlowe's wonderful color plates. I bogged down in the anatomy lessons -- the occipital condyle dimensions seem important, but MEGO. The interior art is very nice. And I really like such tidbits as learning that William Buckland, who wrote the first formal dinosaur fossil-description in 1824, kept a pet bear in his house at Oxford. So there may be more here about old horned-face than you want to know, but you owe it to yourself, at least, to look at the wonderful Barlowe plates and read about the fieldwork. For a dino-dilettante like myself, the highlights of dino-books are the color plates, and I would certainly buy a nice, big "best-of" color dino-book. My nominations for artists would include Wayne Barlowe, Carel van Kampen (Dinosaurs of Utah), Doug Henderson (Dawn of the Dinosaurs), and others. If such a book exists, I haven't seen it. Have you? Publishers, take note.... Happy reading-- Pete Tillman Consulting Geologist, Tucson & Santa Fe (USA)