Dinosaurs: A Concise Natural History

Contents
Preface to the third edition
Dedication
PART I: REMEMBRANCE OF THINGS PAST
	1. To catch a dinosaur
		Chapter objectives
		Preservation and fossils
		Collecting
			Box 1.1 A dino named “Sue”
		Summary
		Selected readings
		Topic questions
	2. Dinosaur days
		Chapter objectives
		When did dinosaurs live (and how do we know)?
		Continents and climates
		Climates during the time of the dinosaurs?
		Summary
		Selected readings
		Topic questions
		Appendix 2.1 – Chemistry quick ‘n dirty
		Appendix 2.2 – Plate tectonics
	3. Who’s related to whom – and how do we know?
		Chapter objectives
		Who are you?
		Evolution
		Phylogenetic systematics – the reconstruction of phylogeny
		Summary
		Selected readings
		Topic questions
		Appendix 3.1 – What is “evolution”?
	4. Who are the Dinosaurs?
		Chapter objectives
		Finding the history of life
		In the beginning
		Tetrapoda
			Box 4.1 Fish and chips
		Diapsida
			Box 4.2 What, if anything, is a “reptile?”
		Dinosaurs
			Box 4.3 Stance: it’s both who you are and what you do
		Summary
		Selected readings
		Topic questions
	5. Dinosaurs: in the beginning
		Chapter objectives
		In the beginning
		Archosauria
		Dinosauromorpha
		Dinosauria
		Early Dinosauria
		Ornithischia and Saurischia
		Is Saurischia more primitive than Ornithischia?
		The evolution of Dinosauria
		Let the games begin!
			Box 5.1 No dates; no rates
		Feathers
		Summary
		Selected readings
		Topic questions
PART II: SAURISCHIA: MEAT, MIGHT AND MAGNITUDE
	6. Theropoda I: nature red in tooth and claw
		Chapter objectives
		Theropoda
		Theropod lives and lifestyles
			Box 6.1 Putting some meat on them bones
		Thoughts of a theropod
			Box 6.2 Triceratops spoils or spoiled Triceratops
			Box 6.3 Dinosaur zombies
		Summary
		Selected readings
		Topic questions
	7. Theropoda II: meet the theropods
		Chapter objectives
		The outline of theropod relationships
		Neotheropoda
		Tetanurae
			Box 7.1 Every breath you take
		Summary
		Selected readings
		Topic questions
	8. Theropoda III: the origin and early evolution of birds
		Chapter objectives
		Introduction
		Meet Archaeopteryx
			Box 8.1 Plus ça change
		So what is a bird?
		Mesozoic birds
			Box 8.2 Molecular evolution and the origin of Aves
		Summary
		Selected readings
		Topic questions
		Appendix 8.1 – what makes a modern bird a modern bird?
	9. Sauropodomorpha: the big, the bizarre, and the majestic
		Chapter objectives
		Sauropodomorpha
		“Prosauropods”
		Sauropoda
		The evolution of Sauropodomorpha
			Box 9.1 Weighing in
			Box 9.2 On again; off again: the checkered career of Brontosaurus
		Summary
		Selected readings
		Topic questions
PART III: ORNITHISCHIA: ARMORED, HORNED, AND DUCK-BILLED DINOSAUR
	10. Thyreophorans: the armor-bearers
		Chapter objectives
		Thyreophora
		Eurypoda: Stegosauria
			Box 10.1 Dino doggerel
		Eurypoda: Ankylosauria – mass and gas
		The evolution of Thyreophora
		Summary
		Selected readings
		Topic questions
	11. Marginocephalia: bumps, bosses, and beaks
		Chapter objectives
		Marginocephalia
		Marginocephalia: Pachycephalosauria – in domes we trust
		The evolution of Pachycephalosauria
		Marginocephalia: Ceratopsia – horns and all the frills
			Box 11.1 Dino brains
		The evolution of Ceratopsia
		Summary
		Selected readings
		Topic questions
	12. Ornithopoda: mighty Mesozoic masticators
		Chapter objectives
		Ornithopoda
		The evolution of Ornithopoda
		Box 12.1 Those pesky basal neornithischians!
		Summary
		Selected readings
		Topic questions
PART IV: ENDOTHERMY, ENDEMISM, AND EXTINCTION
	13. Dinosaur thermoregulation: some like it hot
		Chapter objectives
		The way they were
		Physiology: temperature talk
			Box 13.1 Chain of fuels
		What about dinosaurs?
			Box 13.2 Warm-bloodedness: to have and to have hot
			Box 13.3 In the tracks of dinosaurs
			Box 13.4 Dinosaur smarts
		Different strokes for different folks?
		Summary
		Selected readings
		Topic questions
	14. The flowering of the Mesozoic
		Chapter objectives
		Dinosaurs in the Mesozoic Era
			Box 14.1 The shape of tetrapod diversity
			Box 14.2 Counting dinosaurs
		Plants and dinosaurian herbivores
			Box 14.3 Dinosaurs invent flowering plants... or at least fuel their evolution?
		Summary
		Selected readings
		Topic questions
	15. A history of paleontology through ideas
		Chapter objectives
		The idea of ideas
		In the beginning
			Box 15.1 Indiana Jones and the Central Asiatic Expeditions of the American Museum of Natural History
		Seventeenth and eighteenth centuries
		The nineteenth century through the mid-twentieth century
			Box 15.2 Sir Richard Owen: brilliance and darkness
		Dinosaurs in the Victorian Age
			Box 15.3 Dinosaur wars in the nineteenth century: boxer versus puncher
			Box 15.4 Louis Dollo and the beasts of Bernissart
		Dinosaurs in the first half of the twentieth century
			Box 15.5 Rollin’ on the river
		The second part of the twentieth century to today
			Box 15.6 “Mr Bones”
			Box 15.7 Tails of Two Germans
			Box 15.8 Franz Baron Nopcsa: Transylvanian dinosaurs and espionage
		Today
			Box 15.9 Young Turks and old turkeys
		Summary
		Selected readings
		Topic questions
	16. The Cretaceous–Tertiary extinction: the frill is gone
		Chapter objectives
			Box 16.1 Extinction
		How important were the deaths of a few dinosaurs?
		Volcanic eruptions
		Biological record of the latest Cretaceous
			Box 16.2 Getting fooled by the fossil record: the Signor–Lipps effect
			Box 16.3 Dinosaurs: all wrong for mass extinctions
		Extinction hypotheses
			Box 16.4 The real reason the dinosaurs became extinct
		Summary
		Selected readings
		Topic questions
Glossary
Figure credits
Index of subjects
Index of genera