Books by David E. (University of Rhode Island) Fastovsky

From the authors of The Evolution and Extinction of the Dinosaurs, comes a general introduction to the study of dinosaurs for non-specialists, designed to excite readers about science by using the ever-popular animals - the dinosaurs - to illustrate and discuss geology, natural history and evolution. While it focuses on dinosaurs, it also uses them to convey other aspects of the natural sciences, including fundamental concepts in evolutionary biology, physiology, life history, and systematics. Considerable attention is devoted the nature of science itself: what it is, what it is not, and how science can be used to investigate particular kinds of questions. Dinosaurs is unique because it fills a gap between the glossy, fact-driven dinosaur books for younger readers, and the higher-level academic books, addressing the palaeontology of dinosaurs exactly as professionals in the field do.

This is a comprehensive 2005 student textbook on dinosaurs that non-specialists will also find fascinating. It is the only comprehensive text that takes an explicitly phylogenetic approach to dinosaurs. The geological context of dinosaurs is also stressed, and dinosaurs are presented in the context of plate tectonic and climatic settings.