Dinosaur Science

For more than twenty-five years, paleontologist Stephen Jay Gould wrote a column called "The View of Life" for Natural History magazine. More than thirty entries from that column comprise this collection, which covers topics from dinosaurs to baseball and nearly everything in between related to natural history and evolution.

Stegosaurus means “roofed lizard.” This plant-eating dinosaur was about the size of a school bus and had two rows of bony plates along its back.

Dedicated reptile expert Oakley Laveau loves the thrill of wrestling a ’gator. But her dream job at the swamp tour slips away when she’s charged with a crime she doesn’t remember: her best friend’s murder. Sentenced to life on a secluded isle, she’ll have to battle violent criminals and genetically modified dinosaurs to uncover the truth. As soon as she steps on the island, she’s swept up by the charming leader of a gang of convicts and his dubious offer of protection.

Triceratops means “three-horned face.” This massive dinosaur had a parrot-like hard beak and a bony frill around its head. Triceratops had a horn above each eye and another horn on its nose. These horns were used to protect it from other meat-eating dinosaurs.

Tyrannosaurus was the fiercest meat-eating dinosaur. It was “king of the tyrant lizards,” with 50 sharp, jagged teeth!

A tale of some of the most amazing creatures ever to grace this tiny planet - unearth how the science fiction of the Jurassic World franchise inspired the evolution of dinosaur science.

Did the Earth become too cold for the dinosaurs? Maybe prehistoric mammals took the dinosaur eggs from the nests.

Portals continue to open faster and faster, spewing more and more aggressive dinosaurs across the world, and the situation has gone from bad to worse. Cities are out of supplies, small towns are being wiped out by the vicious reptiles, and it's taking everything they have for the military to maintain any semblance of order.Amid all the carnage and chaos, Jason, Becka, and Hae-won must journey north to rescue Becka’s mother. Navigating safely through bloodthirsty dinosaurs and the worst humanity has to offer will be no easy task.

Last week, 12-year-old Sky found a cryptic message from her dad, who mysteriously fled the safety of their underground compound five years ago. The note said the fate of the world depended on her going topside, to a lost world that's ruled by dinosaurs. Today, after a treacherous journey through the wilderness, Sky and her friends have made it to their destination: Lake Michigan.

One hundred and fifty years ago, the first dinosaurs were cloned. Soon after, they replaced humans at the top of the food chain. The only way to survive was to move into underground compounds.... Five years ago, Sky Mundy's father vanished from North Compound without a trace. Now she has just stumbled on a clue that not only suggests his disappearance is just the tip of an even larger mystery but also points directly to the surface. To find her dad - and possibly even save the world - Sky and her best friend, Shawn, must break out of their underground home and venture topside.

70 million years ago in what will one day become Mongolia, a successor to Velociraptor faces struggle after struggle. Times have grown cold and her eggs need constant care, and constant guard. How does a wolf sized raptor survive in the shadows of giants? How does she adapt to changing climates or circumstance? And what happens when a threat from her own past finds her new home?

Although dinosaur fossils were first found in England, a series of dramatic discoveries during the late 1800s turned North America into a world center for vertebrate paleontology. At the same time, the United States emerged as the world’s largest industrial economy, and creatures like tyrannosaurus, brontosaurus, and triceratops became emblems of American capitalism. Large, fierce, and spectacular, American dinosaurs dominated the popular imagination, making front-page headlines and appearing in feature films.

In the not too distant future, dinosaurs rule the world. Alan is deposited in a grassy field with all signs of humanity replaced. A few hundred of his peers are given a loincloth, spear, a few tools, and a mission: to integrate and survive... if they're not eaten first.

What's a millionaire bachelor to do? Join the army - with his butler - of course. Desperate to kick Phule out of the Space Legion, General Blitzkrieg sends a crack team of environmental investigators - including celebrity canine Barky the Environmental Dog - to sniff out Phule and his unnatural disasters. It doesn't take long. Phule is hosting a group of big-game hunters who think they can bag a dinosaur on Zenobia. Needless to say, dinosaurs are not a native species. But cold, hard facts never stopped a Phule....

Ex-cop Henry Shore has been Chief Park Ranger at Crater Lake National Park for eight years and he likes his park and his life the way it's been. Safe. Tranquil. Predictable. But he's about to be tested in so many ways. First the earthquakes begin, people begin to go missing, then there's some mysterious water creature that's taken up residence in the caves below Crater Lake and it's not only growing in size, it's aggressive and cunning and very hungry.

Jason’s lifelong dream was to study history at the prestigious University of Cambridge in England. But when portals started opening all over the world and thousands of hungry dinosaurs began to pour out of them, Jason suddenly regrets being in a country without guns. With the London police outnumbered, and the British military outgunned, it will be up to Jason to protect his two beautiful girlfriends from being eaten by prehistoric beasts. Together, the three of them will need to learn how to survive in a world that now belongs to the dinosaurs.

Learn how fossils teach us about dinosaurs.

To his admirers, Luis W. Alvarez was the most accomplished, inventive, and versatile experimental physicist of his generation.

Once each year, on orbital space stations, nano-engineered young women compete on the backs of dinosaurs in races as brutal and bloody as any witnessed in the Roman circus 3,000 years before. Highly skilled and capable of superhuman feats, these gladiators live isolated lives - except for the resurrected beasts with whom they form their deepest bonds. Tonight, on the red sands of the arena and inside the hollow asteroid where the dinosaurs are grown, the secrets these gladiators discover will shake their entire world.

In the distant future, Spaceways Incorporated detects a scarce and expensive mineral on a planet far beyond our galaxy. They send a well-trained crew on the spaceship Odyssey to mine the minerals; however, a major malfunction changes everything. The crew must escape the ship and head for the nearest planet. They find themselves marooned on a world that is millions of years younger than earth and have to fight for survival on the Planet of Dinosaurs.