Dixon’s book is a very tastefully illustrated and fairly modern book about dinosaurs.
Interesting tidbit: T-Rex had long arms compared to many of its cousins.
Author: Daniel
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“The Princeton Field Guide to Dinosaurs” by Gregory S Paul
Dinosauria is such a fascinating subject. This book opens with a rather in-depth overview of what we know (and what we are guessing) about dinosaurs and attempts to catalog most of the better know dinosaurs.
Interesting tidbit: We have actual preserved impressions of dinosaur skin (in “mummified” samples). In some case, we even know what colors it was.
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Erez Lieberman Aiden and Jean-Baptiste Michel: What we learned from 5 million books (TED)
Aiden and Michel used data made available from the Google Books project to explore the changes in our published books and thus our culture over time.
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A Muse on Whales
Whales weep not, neither do they sorrow. For they, more so than any other creature, know of nothing to cause either. They are born in the midst of their very womb, a womb they will only leave for mere moments as they leap out of the water into the infinite sky above.
Whales worry not, neither do they fret. For they, more so than any other creature, know that the earth, their true mother, will always provide for their every need. So, they are left to ponder their existence. Not in the same lowly way as a man, but from all, to all, for all.
Whales cry not, neither do they shed any tears. For they, more so than any other creature, know only of being surrounded by joy. Their greatest joys are shown in their bounding out of the ocean’s soothing embrace and in the songs they sing from the ocean glades.
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“When Life Nearly Died” by Michael J Benton
Benton does a fantastic job detailing the evolution of geology, paleontology and other related sciences over the past couple of centuries. The author actually details the two largest mass extinctions, though he gives extra coverage to the larger of the two (which is the namesake of the book).
Interesting tidbit: most of our knowledge of these past two (of the five great extinction) has been put together over the past two decades. Sometimes I think that everything we know about the ‘dinosaurs’ we have known forever, but no, it is common for us to have only recently figured it out.