Dinosaurs

"From the authors of The Evolution and Extinction of the Dinosaurs comes an introduction to the study of dinosaurs for non-specialists designed to excite readers about science by using dinosaurs to illustrate and discuss geology, natural history and evolution. While focusing 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 and the higher-level academic books, addressing the paleontology of dinosaurs exactly as professionals in the field do."--Jacket. Includes bibliographical references and indexes. To catch a dinosaur -- Dinosaur days -- Who's related to whom--and how do we know? -- Who are the dinosaurs? -- Thyreophorans : the armor-bearers -- Marginocephalia : bumps, bosses, and beaks -- Ornithopoda : the tuskers, antelopes, and "mighty ducks" of the Mesozoic -- Sauropodomorpha : the big, the bizarre, and the majestic -- Theropoda I : nature red in tooth and claw -- Theropoda II : the origin of birds -- Theropoda III : early birds -- Dinosaur thermoregulation : some like it hot -- The flowering of the Mesozoic -- A history of paleontology through ideas -- The Cretaceous-Tertiary extinction : the frill is gone.