The Dinosaur Heresies: New Theories Unlocking the Mystery of the Dinosaurs and Their Extinction

by Robert T. Bakker

Book Overview

The inside story of a scientific heresy that is scandalizing traditional paleontology, told by the unorthodox leader of the dinosaurian heretics and featuring over 200 original black-and-white... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0688042872
• ISBN13: 9780688042875
• Release Date: January 1986
• Publisher: William Morrow & Company
• Length: 481 Pages
• Weight: 2.17 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.6" x 7.6" x 9.6"

Customer Reviews

Bakker assumed everything before it was discovered, and now he's right.......

This book talks about new theories(at the time) of dinosaurs and their extinction, ranging from warm-bloodedness all the way to dinosaurs evolving into birds. There are five parts to this story. Part I:The Conquering Cold-Bloods: A Conondum Basically this part describes reptiles and their advantages/disadvantages when it comes to either cold blooded or warm blooded animals. It even compares mammals to reptiles. It talks about how cold blooded and warm blooded reptiles/mammals how active and how their eating habits are different. Also talks about dinosaurs if they were warm or cold blooded. Here is a short excerpt from this part. "Ornitholestes was an impressive little dinosaur, and even the diehard defenders of orthodoxy yield a little to admit that perhaps Ornitholestes and its kin might have had high metabolism. Such a concession, however, would lead to yet another incosistency in the theory of mass homeothermy. Big dinosaurs, all of them, evolved from small-dinosaur ancestors. The idea that little ancestors had high metabolism and their bigger descendants didn't, would be tantamount to arguing that evolution reversed itself"(Bakker 98). Part II:The Habitat of the Dinosaurs This section discusses dinosaurs with their habitat and how their diet/body features adapt to their environment. It discusses dinosaurs who helped use gastroliths for digestion. Also talks about the evolution of plants in relation to dinosaurs. Here is a short excerpt from this part. "Brontosaur teeth, moreover, confirm the heretical idea that they ate a tough vegetable diet. If the brontosaurs dined only on soft water plants, then very little wear would appear on their teeth. But infact the teeth of Camarasaurus, Brachiosaurus and their kin manifest very severe wear, which could only have been produced by tough or gritty food"(Bakker 136). Part III:Defense, Locomotion, and the Case For Warm-Blooded Dinosaurs The third section discusses the locomotion of dinosaurs in comparison to lizards,crocodiles,etc. Discusses dinosaur defense, like Triceratops' horns and the "boneheads" of the Pachycephalosaurs. Also talks about Pterosaurs. Discusses Archeaopteryx and it's feathers helping to support warm-bloodedness. Here is a short excerpt from this part. "Anchisaurs' tails were stoutly muscled and they could easily have reared up, foreclaws at the ready, to face their enemies. Anchisaur hind claws, especially the one located on the large inner toe, could lash out with even more powerful blows than the foreclaws"(Bakker 256). Part IV:The Warm-Blooded Metronome of Evolution Talks about dinosaur sex, with threat displays of intimidation. Discusses growth in dinosaurs who were probably warm blooded. Talks about dinosaur lungs, heart, and large brains. Here is a short excerpt from this part. "How can the dinosaurs' growth be measured? An accurate estimate can be derived from the texture of the fossil bone. A thin slice can be cut from a fossil-bone chip and glued to a glass plate"(Ba

Fantastic popular science

Dinosaur Heresies is everything a popular science title should be. This book is a free-wheeling, thought-provoking, incredibly fun jaunt through the range of controversies and rethinkings paleontology has seen in the past twenty years or so. Robert Bakker, first of all, is probably the best popular science writer I've ever come across. His voice is accessible, full of humor and character, and he writes a lean, sharply-turned argument that's easy and fun to follow without being at all pedantic. You don't think, at all, about the welter of disparate arguments Bakker's making in this book, because he just tells them so darn well, he really does. This book is pure delight for anyone with even a passing interest in dinosaurs.I will mention, again, that this is a pop science title. It's a summary of the sorts of things that show up in academic articles, and a broad, idea-spinning take on those issues and problems. If, reading some other reviews here, you get the impression Robert Bakker singlehandedly rethought the whole cold-bloodedness thing, well, don't get too carried away. Pop science books don't do that work. Peer-review journals are where the evidence lives, in science, and books like Dinosaur Heresies get the word out to you and me.I would recommend this as a gift to give anyone twelve or older who has an interest in Dinosaurs. Later on someone may be enthused enough to try Jack Horner, who's slightly less accessible in my experience, and closer to the journal writers than Heresies is. Then, too, reading this book might throw you in all sorts of other directions. (I personally became really excited about prehistoric mammals.) I hate to be hackneyed, but that's what a dazzlingly good popular science book will do; it'll broaden your world and make you remember what curiosity is good for. Dinosaur Heresies does that, in spades. You'll reread it.

congratulations mr bakker

Mr. Bakker presents many incredibly obvious arguments in this book. Most of his reasoning is flawless, and while many call it deviating too far from old-fashioned ideas, the plain truth is that in many places the conventional ideas were just wrong and needed to be corrected. The only major mistake in the book is Mr Bakker's assertion of the weakness of Tyrannosaurus' front limbs. In more recent findings it has been discovered that the front limb's were actually much shorter than previously believed and much stronger. In fact, most tyrannosaurs could probably bench-press about three hundred pounds or more. Aside from that one misunderstanding, however, the book rates five stars in my view.

Dinos Abound!

Robert Bakker proves that he's more than "the chunky guy with a big beard and cowboy hat in documentary programs about Dinosaurs".I had seen references to his book in DRAGON Magazine, of all places, before I actually read it. I caught his act on a Dino Special, and found a copy of his book at one of the Museum Shops in D.C. It blew me away, with his lively illos and his easy to read, intelligent, funny, and clever text.The critters practically leap off of the page. I came away a believer, as should all who read this one.I have read far too many books about Paleontology and Dinosaurs for a layman, but this one is the BEST.He really knows how to ignite a controversy or 15, causing the reader to come away rethinking the issue.As Calvin of Calvin and Hobbes would say, "It would be lame if dinosaurs were any other way than Bob Bakker describes them!".I agree, and so will you.

The best dinosaur book ever written.

I've been reading dinosaur books ever since I was a little boy in the 1970s. I remember being fascinated at these creatures that the then "conventional wisdom" said were bulky, obese, overweight, dumb, slow witted, slow moving, cold blooded swamp dwellers. Ha! Our knowledge of dinosaurs sure has come far since then. In this book, Bakker presents a tremendous amount of evidence to challenge many of the popular ideas about dinosaurs. Bakker uses evidence in the fossil record to argue that dinosaurs were warm blooded, active creatures who lived in groups, and migrated, and raised their young, and were capable of running at rather rapid speeds, and who did not live in swamps. Actually, many of these ideas had been proposed during the 19th century, only to be swept under the rug. Bakker revives many of these ideas, as well as coming up with many original ideas of his own. This is an excellent book.