Dinosaurs by Rachel Ignotofsky

Dinosaurs aims to present the evolution of life on Earth in an engaging way to young readers. Before embarking on this incredible journey through time, Ignotofsky provides readers with some background information. There are pages that provide explanations of the Geological Time Scale, What Is A Dinosaur?, Understanding Plate Tectonics, Ever Changing Geography, What Is a Fossil?, Reading The Rocks, Mass Extinction Events, and Understanding Evolution. This all sets the stage for exploring life on Earth.

The story begins with the PreCambrian SuperEon, the first four billion years of Earth's history, when the planet formed in the solar system. This period includes the Hadean Ion, the Archean Eon, and the Proterozoic Eon. There are many interesting facts about this time such as during the Hadean Ion the moon was close to fifteen times closer to Earth, during the Archean Ion the oceans were much saltier than they are today, and during the Proterozoic Eon the first mega continent formed. It was during the Proterozoic that the Great Oxygenation Event occured.

Life before the dinosaurs in the Paleozoic Era began to colonize land. The Paleozoic Era has been divided into six geological periods: Cambrian, Ordovician, Silurian, Devonian, Carboniferous, and Permian. The Cambrian saw many new life forms develop. This has been termed the Cambrian Explosion in which creatures with the first backbone, the first lungs and the first legs appeared. The Ordovician saw a huge increase in biodiversification, now termed the Ordovician Biodiversification Event  that saw the development of jawless fishes, tentacled cephalopods and starfishes. The Late Ordovician experienced a mass extinction event, the first of five such events to occur in geological history. The Silurian Period was a relatively quiet time during which fish continued to evolve.

In the Devonian Period much of the Earth's continents covered by warm, shallow seas." It was the age of fishes and coral reefs. A second mass extinction event, the Late Devonian mass extinction occurred but its cause is unknown.  The Carboniferous Period saw swamps and rainforests proliferate. The oxygen content of Earth's atmosphere was also very high at this time as carbon was trapped in the plants and trees. The largest terrestrial invertebrate to ever live, Arthropleura millipede which was eight feet long, inhabited the swamps of the Carboniferous Period.

The Permian Period saw the formation of the giant supercontinent Pangea, surrounded by the global ocean called Panthalassa. Reptiles thrived in the arid, warm interior of the continent. The Permian-Triassic mass extinction event closed out this period.

The Mesozoic Era was the age of the dinosaurs. Three periods have been designated in the Mesozoic: the Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous.  The Mesozoic Era began with the worst mass extinction and would end with the devastation of an asteroid impact. Earth had no polar ice caps as the planet was very warm. A day in the Mesozoic Era was twenty-three hours.

The Triassic Period saw the development of a new branch of reptiles - the archosaurs that included the dinosaurs. They were not the large creatures expected but were small. The Jurassic Period saw Pangea begin to break apart due to tectonic activitiy. During this time, it became two separate continents, Laurasia and Gondwana. Rainforests replaced the arid deserts of Pangea, providing a significant source of food for dinosaurs. The Cretacious Period was the climax of the dinosaur's reign. Tyrannosaurus rex the apex predator on land, azhdarchid pterosaurs in the air and Mosasaurus in the oceans. An asteroid impacting the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico would end their reign.

The beginning of the Cenozoic era, the three main mammal groups were already established. These were the monotremes  (egg-laying mammals), marsupials (mammals that birth live young and carry them with a pouch), and placentals (mammals who give birth to live young from the womb).  During the Cenozoic Era, Earth developed large polar ice caps. There were three periods in the Cenozoic Era: the Paleogene Period, Neogene Period and Quaternary Period.

The Paleogene Period saw large fluctuations in climate. This period was one of mountain building with the creation of the Rocky Mountains and the Himilayan Mountains.

During the Neogene Period the abundance of grasslands saw mammals adapt to running from predators. Early hominids began to evolve to walk upright. The Panama Land Bridge connecting North and South America developed during this time. This land bridge allowed animals and plants to inhabit new areas in what has been called the Great American Biotic Interchange. It also separated the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, changing ocean currents and weather patterns.

The Quaternanry Period was dominated by multiple ice ages. Animals adapted by becoming large and furry and were known as megafauna. They included mammoths, woolly rhinos and saber-tooth tigers. Modern humans evolved during this period and migrated to all areas of the planet. Humans transformed Earth's ecosystems. 

Finally, the Holocene Epoch which represents the last eleven thousand years of Earth history, is the time in which humans formed civilizations.

Discussion

Dinosaurs is a colourfully illustrated and engaging large picture book that offers a detailed summary of the evolution of life on Earth.  The title is somewhat misleading as the book's focus is more on geological history rather than exclusively on dinosaurs.

After providing some information on important concepts that will be encountered in the book, Ignotofsky launches into descriptions of life during each of the geological eras and their periods. After introducing each period of geologic time life is described in more detail through several features. The Land and Sea provides an overview of each period and there is also a Fun Facts section. For example, in the Devonian Period Fun Facts, the Australian lungfish which has gills and lungs is featured. Each section also has a fascinating "Stories of Discovery" section which highlights various important discoveries relevant to that geologic time period. Some of the features include the Canadian Burgess Shale, and discoveries in the Silurian rocks near the village of Chuanhegai in China, and on Ellesmere island in the high Arctic of Canada. Once the story moves into the Mesozoic Era, life on Earth is divided into two sections, Life on Land, and Air and Sea.

Each geologic period has a Creature Feature which describes some of the life in that period, hopefully based on fossil evidence, although Ignotofsky doesn't specify what is the basis for the descriptions and illustrations. Nevertheless, this makes for a very interesting part of the book.

Overall, Dinosaurs is a very well done, well-written with many interesting facts, colourful illustrations with a well thought-out layout. But there is just so much information, much of it very detailed, that it is questionable as to what age this will appeal to. For younger readers, the visuals will be most appealing, especially the Creature Feature secction, but the large amount of text, most of it in very small font to accomodate the amount of information may feel daunting. Nevertheless, this adult with a background as a geologist found it very appealing!

Book Details:

Dinosaurs by Rachel Ignotofsky

New York: Ten Speed Press    2025

127 pp.

The Fossil Whisperer: How Wendy Sloboda Discovered a Dinosaur by Helaine Becker

Wendy loved hunting through hills and gullies for unusual things like rocks, birds, burrs and bird feathers. She also loved to take pictures of her finds with her camera.

During a class field trip to the badlands near her home in Alberta, twelve-year-old Wendy discovered a piece of fossilized coral.  Her teacher explained that "Millions of years ago, this land was the Western Interior Seaway - an underwater world teeming with marine life." 

Wendy was intrigued by the information a fossil could provide about the past and so she began hunting for fossils in earnst. Her favourite place to hunt for fossils was Devil's Coulee, part of the badlands. Soon she was finding many fossils. 

When she was seventeen, Wendy made an rare find - a fossilized dinosaur eggshell. This discovery brought paleontologists to Devil's Coulee to explore for more fossils and they found them: more fossilized dinosaur eggs from Hypacrosaurus. Even more  important was the discovery of dinosaur embryos in the fossilized eggs!

These discoveries led to Wendy working at the Royal Tyrell Museum of Paleontology and traveling the world to find fossils in other countries, including Greenland and Mongolia.

Wendy continued to hunt for fossils in Alberta, uncovering the fossil of a unique horned dinosaur. Because the rest of the fossilized remains of the dinosaur were buried deep, it took four years to excavate and extract the bones. Paleontologists were able to determine that this was the remains of a new horned dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous. The dinosaur was named after Wendy, Wendiceratops pinhorensis. Meanwhile, Wendy continues to find fossils.

Discussion

Wendy Sloboda is a Canadian fossil hunter who has made many significant fossil discoveries over the past few decades that have led to a great understanding of dinosaurs. Born in Warner, Alberta, Sloboda found her first significant fossil in 1987 as a teenager. This discovery was of fossil eggshells, as described in Becker's picture book that led scientists to discover several nests of duck-billed dinosaurs called hadrosaurs. Other notable finds include a fossilized turtle containing eggs, the footprint of a new ichnospecies of dinosaur, as well as her discovery of a new species of horned dinosaur which was named in her honour.

Becker's detailed account of Slobada's contributions to paleontology includes some information on the types of animals that populated the Western Interior Seaway, and explanations as to why the discovery of the  Hypacrosaurus embryos was so significant. Becker's research for the book included interviewing Wendy Sloboda.

Telling Wendy Sloboda's story in picture book format does make her contributions accessible to younger readers but photographs of locations and of Wendy would have been nice additions to the book. A map showing Wendy's hometown, the location of the Alberta badlands (including some photographs of this unusual landform) her discoveries would also be helpful. Sandra Dumais' colourful digital illustrations round out the story.

Included in the back matter are several pages with information about the real Wendy, How to Be a Fossil Hunter, Alberta's Amazing Bone Beds (a picture of the Alberta badlands would have done nicely here), How Are Fossils Formed?, About Wendiceratops, a Glossary and where to find more information.

The Fossil Whisperer will help inspire a new generation of girls to consider geology and paleontology as potential career options. Wendy Sloboda's life demonstrates that a childhood interest can develop into a life-long career.

Book Details:

The Fossil Whisperer: How Wendy Sloboda Discovered a Dinosaur by Helaine Becker
Toronto: Kids Can Press      2022

Tales of the Prehistoric World: Adventures From the Land of the Dinosaurs by Kallie Moore

For dinosaur aficionados, Tales of the Prehistoric World is book filled with some of the most interesting fossil discoveries over the last two hundred years or so.

Tales of the Prehistoric World opens with information on the Geologic Time Scale which geologists have devised to organize the previous four and half million years of Earth history and brief descriptions of the the five major extinctions that occurred during this time.

Chapter One The Beginning presents a description of two billion years of the PreCambrian when life was just getting started. Moore then quickly moves into the Paleozoic Era in Chapter Two when all of the major animal groups appeared in the Cambrian, around 500 million years ago. Life moved onto land from the ocean and a supercontinent named Pangea also formed. Moore includes the discoveries in the Burgess Shale, a story about the largest trilobite, the age of armored fish, and the appearance of the giant arthropods (insects) of the Carboniferous and Permian.

 

Chapter Three is all about the Age of Reptiles which includes the reign of the dinosaurs during the Jurassic. After explaining the formation of Pangea, Moore highlights the first giant dinosaurs, the sauropods (think Diplodocus and Brachiosaurus) and goes on to describe many interesting and unusual fossil finds, each one increasing our knowledge about dinosaurs. Of course no discussion of dinosaurs would be complete without an entry on Tyrannosaurus Rex. Several famous fossil hunters are also featured including Mary Anning considered  and the rivalry between Othniel Charles Marsh and Edward Drinker Cope. This chapter ends with the currently accepted theory of the cause of the demise of the dinosaurs.

In Chapter Four, Moore explores the post-dinosaur world.The Cenozoic began 66 million years ago and is the Era we currently live in. After the demise of the dinosaurs, with the exception of those who would evolve into birds, the age of mammals. Many other animals grew to enormous sizes such at Titanoboa. Primates evolved and from them our ancestors developed. There were a series of ice ages that changed the way the continents looked.

Discussion

Tales of the Prehistoric World focuses on describing some of the more interesting dinosaur fossil discoveries in the last one hundred and fifty years and how those discoveries have helped scientists piece together the reign of the dinosaurs.

To help younger readers understand where dinosaurs fit into the history of our planet, Kallie Moore, a paleontologist, begins with what geologists and paleontologists believe they know about the beginning of life on Earth. The development of life, from single celled organisms to increasingly more complex ones is presented until the Age of Reptiles in which many different types of dinosaurs and how we came to learn about them are featured. The stories after the demise of the dinosaurs are short and sweet, ending abruptly with the Last Mammoth.

Many unusual dinosaur fossils are featured including a frozen reptile fossil found in Antarctica, unique dinosaurs from prehistoric China, the gemstone dinosaurs of Lightning Ridge in New South Wales, Australia, the remarkable story of the lost and then found again fossils of Spinosaurus, the Egg Mountain site in Montana, the unsolved questions about triceratops, and of course the infamous Tyrannosaurs Rex.

The one drawback to this book is the sometimes uninspiring artwork that accompanies each story. Digitally created, the illustrations at times can be confusing as to what they are attempting to portray. With so many fascinating stories that use many correct terms for various dinosaurs, the illustrations simply aren't up to the same level. For example, one story, The Seafaring Ankylosaur is about the  discovery of an almost complete anklyosaur from the Millenium Mine, a huge oil sand quarry in northern Alberta in March, 2011. Shawn Funk, a heavy-equipment operator was digging in the quarry when he noticed a change in coloration and texture of the rocks. His excavator had already chewed off the tail and back end of the fossil. Funk contacted his supervisor who then reached out to the Royal Tyrrell Museum. When geologists arrived they realized that Funk had discovered the fossil remains of a dinosaur. This fossil specimen was particularly special because it had fossilized features like skin that are normally not preserved. For some reason, Moore doesn't mention the location of this remarkable discovery ( oil sands outside of Fort McMurray) that received much press and the accompanying small map showing the location of the fossil discovery in Northern Alberta is meaningless without any labels. (During the time the ankylosaurus lived, North America was split by a large, inland sea.) Was this just a general oversight or was the location of the discovery in the environmentally contentious oil sands to blame?Because the recovered fossil is so unique, a photograph accompanying this story would have been so much more engaging.

There is also no information about the author, Kallie Moore, except in the introduction to the book where she identifies herself as a paleontologist, nor about the illustrator, Becky Thorns. An online search reveals that Moore is the Fossil Librarian, at the University of Montana. 

Still, readers interested in dinosaurs will find Tales of the Prehistoric a great overview of just how much we've learned about dinosaurs over the past one hundred years.

Book Details:

Tales of the Prehistoric World: Adventures From the Land of the Dinosaurs by Kallie Moore
New York: St. Martin's Press
159 pp.

The Age of Dinosaurs by Steve Brusatte

The Age of Dinosaurs tells the fascinating story of how scientists believe dinosaurs came to be the dominant species on Earth for over 150 million years. Their story covers the Mesozoic Era which includes the Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous Periods from 250 million to 66 million years ago.

The story begins in the early Triassic when there was one land mass, a supercontinent called Pangea. To understand this story this first chapter gives a short explanation of fossils and the importance of the rocks they are found in and how they can tell scientists about life long ago. A brief overview of the Earth's history is given up to the end of the Permian when great changes led to a mass extinction. Brusatte's visit to Poland to investigate the tracks of an animal called Prorotodactylus and his research there set the stage for the opening chapter title The Ancestors of Dinosaurs. Based on the tracks, paleontologists believe that this animal was an archosaur, a type of reptile that survived the Permian extinction and was a forerunner of the dinosaurs. The archosaurs were divided into two branches: one group which includes crocodiles and their extinct cousins and a second group which includes the dinosaurs.

In the early Triassic dinosaurs were not yet dominant but we know they existed from fossil evidence from the area of Pangea that is now Argentina.  They were rare throughout the rest of Pangea, likely restricted to the Argentina area of Pangea which was located south of the equator, an area cooler, wetter and more humid. Dinosaurs at this time included both meat-eaters and plant-eaters.  Instead, huge amphibians, called super salamanders dominated the waters, while thousands of species of crocodiles ruled the land.

Dinosaurs began to dominate in the Jurassic. At the end of the Triassic, the supercontinent of Pangea began to break apart. Increased volcanic activity resulted in climate change and another extinction however it was not a large as the previous Permian extinction but it was significant enough. "Many of the animals that ruled the Triassic world went extinct." This included most of the crocodile species and super salamanders. The dinosaurs survived, something that is not fully understood.

The first 30 millions years of the Jurassic Period saw dinosaurs evolve into many new species. This diversification continued throughout the Jurassic with different species inhabiting a wide range of ecosystems from the poles to the equator. Some examples of this diversity could be seen in the ornithischian dinosaurs which are plant eating dinosaurs. These dinosaurs had beaks and included stegosaurs with back plates and ankylosaurs with spiked armour. By mid-Jurassic (170 million years ago) dinosaurs were dominant, "...the most important animals in ecosystems all over the planet." 

Another group of dinosaurs, the Sauropods, were the largest animals to live on land. Sauropods, which were plant eaters, were found all over the world. The dominant predator was Allosaurus which lived in North America, Europe and possibly Africa.

The transition to the Cretaceous was much calmer with the continents continuing to move further apart, continuing climate changes, changes to sea level and the formation of islands and land bridges that allowed dinosaurs to migrate. These factors all influenced the evolution of dinosaurs. The sauropods declined but those that remained became enormous. They were the titanosaurs and were truly colossal, at more than one hundred feet long and weighing over seventy tons. Velociraptors were a new type of predator in the Cretaceous as were the carcharodontosaurs, a huge carnivore. But these were soon to be replaced by the tyranosaurs and the most famous of them all was Tyrannosaurus Rex.

From this point on, Brusatte goes on to detail the evolution of the tyrannosaurs, as well as the types of dinosaurs that dominated the various regions of the Earth (North America, Asia, the South and Europe) during the peak of their reign in the Cretaceous. There are also chapters which explain how paleontologists believe dinosaurs evolved into birds, as well as what scientists believe ended the reign of the dinosaurs.

Discussion

The Age of Dinosaurs is a book for the young dinosaur enthusiast. Brusatte, a paleontologist at the University of Edinburgh takes his readers through time beginning with the ancestors of the dinosaurs, to their rise as the dominant life form on our planet and to their sudden demise. The Age of Dinosaurs was inspired by Brusatte's book, The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs which was published in 2018 for adult readers. As Brusatte notes in this current edition for younger readers, "It is the story of dinosaur evolution: how dinosaurs changed over time as their world changed around them." Brusatte pieces together the story as we currently understand it, in an exciting, engaging way for young readers.

There is plenty of information about many geologic concepts in The Age of Dinosaurs including explanations about fossils, how dinosaur species are identified, the use radioisotope dating, and plate tectonics. Brusatte spends some time explaining where specific types of dinosaurs were found, for example tyrannosaurs were located mainly in the western United States and Canada and explains how the Earth's changing landmass over millions of years, influenced where certain species of dinosaurs lived. However, one drawback to this book is the lack of maps to help young readers visualize the changing Earth through the Jurassic and Cretaceous. For example maps showing Pangea separating into Gondwana, its gradual break up into the continents we see today would have been helpful. 

There are "boxes" that highlight information about the research paleontologists are undertaking to learn more about dinosaurs. The book opens with a lovely pencil illustration on the title page of a dinosaur scene. Brusatte includes a detailed timeline and a dinosaur lineage chart that readers can refer to as they read the book. In the back, there is a Further Reading section, a Glossary and an Index.  Overall, this is a fantastic book, very informative, easy to read and chock full of interesting facts about dinosaurs that is sure to please older readers who might be interested in learning more about the subject. It may even inspire a future paleontologist or two!

Book Details:

The Age of Dinosaurs: The Rise and Fall of the World's Most Remarkable Animals by Steve Brusatte
New York: Quill Tree Books       2021
249 pp.

The First Dinosaur by Ian Lendler

The First Dinosaur tells the remarkable story of how scholars and scientists came to unravel the mystery of ancient life on Earth and to discover the dinosaur. The First Dinosaur traces the journey, step by step by telling the story of how the first four bones of the first dinosaur, Megalosaurus were found and ended up as part of a collection of fifteen bones in total. But within that story are multiple other stories of men and one woman who worked tirelessly to unravel the story of the Earth's past.

The Megalosaurus story begins with the discovery of a bone, two feet long and weighing twenty pounds by workers in a quarry in Oxfordshire, England in 1676. Dr. Plot, a chemistry professor at Oxford University, did not know that he was looking at the bone from an extinct animal that was in fact the first dinosaur, Megalosaurus. At this time, no one knew that reptiles of enormous size once roamed the Earth. The remains of animals, dug up out of quarries weren't really understood. They were called "formed stones" and people did not know where they came from, what they were or how they were formed.

To try to understand what he was given, Plot compared his bone with that of an elephant and saw that it was much larger. He believed it may have come from a race of giant humans. What he did do was record his observations for future scientists, measuring, describing and drawing the unusual bone in his book, The Natural History of Oxfordshire. 

In 1666, an enormous white shark was caught by fisherman in the Mediterranean Sea. Florence had become a learning center of science, so the Grand Duke of the city ordered it to be brought to his city. The Grand Duke Ferdinand de' Medici had created the Accademia del Cimento or "school of experiments" in 1657. It was the beginning of the Scientific Revolution and Florence was the center of new scientific endeavours. It embodied new way of thinking about the world. Previously "many European scholars believed that all human knowledge was contained in a few books, such as the Holy Bible." The students and professors of the Accademia  were the first to use Galileo's scientific method of observing and questioning.

Nicolaus Steno, a master dissectionist who dissected human cadavers to learn the secrets of the human body, was invited by Grand Duke Ferdinand to the Accademia. Steno, in his dissection of the shark head, noted that the teeth in the shark were similar to the "tongue stones" found by the thousands in Malta. In his book about the shark dissection, Steno wrote that the tongue stones were shark teeth, connecting the living animal with the remains of once living animals in the ground. He was the first to determine WHAT fossils are - the remains of animals and plants. And in fact, we now know that "tongue stones" are teeth from megalodons, giant prehistoric sharks that lived millions of years ago.

Robert Hooke, a scientist who improved many instruments such as the microscope, read Steno's book and was fascinated. Hooke was the first person to apply the scientific method by working in a laboratory and running experiments.  Hooke published a book, Micrographia, of his drawings of the natural world as seen through the microscope. His observations led him to theorize that fossils or "formed stones" might be the result of a process he called "Petrifaction".

In seventeenth century Europe and England, the idea of extinction, that entire species of animals and plants could die out was not considered possible. This was because the Bible was taken literally and it was thought that all the animals currently alive on the Earth had been there from the beginning of a world that was believed to be 6000 years old. However, Hooke, through his studies of fossils, began to consider the possibility that the past might look very different from the present and that fossils were the clue to helping understand the past. 

Collecting fossils was a pastime of the aristocrats that had begun several hundred years earlier. These fossils became a type of entertainment kept in a "cabinet of curiosities". Eventually a large museum, the Ashmolean Museum, housing a huge collection of fossils and "curiosities" opened at Oxford University and was overseen by Dr. Plot. The fascination with fossils created a booming industry in which fossils were dug up and sold by quarry workers in Oxford.

In 1699, Dr. Edward Llwyd saw a large tooth for sale in the window of a quarry worker's house in Stonesfield, a small town outside of Oxford. The quarries in this area were rich with fossils and this fossil tooth was different - it was the type of tooth used to rip flesh. It was in fact, the second Megalosaurus fossil and it came to be stored at the Ashmolean Museum. 

At this time many scientists were struggling to understand what was called "the Seashell Problem". Many fossilized fish skeletons and sea shells were found in rocks well above sea level, in mountains and even deserts. How could this be? To solve the seashell problem scientists needed to understand "Where do fossils come from?" and "Why are they found where they are?" Nicolas Steno in searching for answers to these questions went to Malta where the tongue stones were found and through observation developed what came to be known as Steno's First Law of Super-Position: "...rocks form in flat layers on top of one another." This meant that the oldest rocks formed the bottom layers. So how to account for younger rocks that contained seashells?

To answer these questions meant that scientists had to reconsider the time frame of the Earth. In the early 1700's calculations by James Ussher, an archbishop of the Church of Ireland determined that the Earth was formed on Sunday, October 23, 4004 B.C. But more and more, the evidence in the rocks did not support the biblical view of life on Earth. Scholars had turned to the Bible for answers and believed that Noah's Flood was the explanation.  However, some scholars began to think differently and offered strange and unusual theories to explain the seashell problem. 

By this time, the third fossil unknowingly belonging to the Megalosaurus was purchased by Sir Christopher Pegge. It was a large jawbone with some intact teeth and it too ended up in the Ashmolean Museum.

The next major development came with the birth of the Industrial Revolution and the use of coal to run factories. With the construction of canals to transport coal to factories in the cities, William Smith, an engineer was able to map the layers of rock that were exposed with each excavation. Smith came to recognize the same layers or strata as he called them, that he had noticed during his work in the Mearns Pit coal mine. Smith began mapping the strata all over England using the fossils he found in each layer and eventually created a geological map of England. This process took him 14 years. The importance of Smith's work is that he "understood that the strata and their fossils were telling a story" of the past in England.

Each new discovery simply generated more questions: "Why did each strata start and stop?...What causes these eras to come to an end?...What happened to the animals who were alive when the end came?..." From this point on, Lendler follows the story into France where revolution let to drastic social change and new ideas about the natural world. One key idea was proposed by renowned scientist Georges Culvier: life on Earth experienced extinctions on a catastrophic scale.

As more fossils were discovered, scientists began to realize the world was much older than they had ever thought, and that there was a world before humans and before that a world even before mammals. William Buckland, Mary Anning, Gideon Mantell, Richard Owen and Charles Lyell would all work in their own way to change forever how we think about the past.

It would be Culvier, with his brilliant ability to identify a collection of fifteen bones at the Ashmolean Museum, as a new type of land reptile that had never been seen before. This was the Megalosaurus. The discovery would be William Buckland's to announce to the scientific community. The age of dinosaurs had begun again....

Discussion

The First Dinosaur is detailed and fascinating account of how scientists came to discover dinosaurs. To do so required a monumental shift in how scientists viewed our world and our place in the world and how we viewed the past. 

Ian Lendler takes readers on a 200 year journey from the first known discovery of what would eventually be identified as a dinosaur bone to the coining of the word "dinosaur" by Richard Owen and and exhibition of the first dinosaurs at the Crystal Palace in London. Along this journey, young readers will meet many of the major players, who not only worked long arduous hours searching for fossils, but who often struggled for years to have their efforts recognized. In some cases, such as Mary Anning, their contributions would take centuries to be recognized. 

His portrayal of the main players offers interesting perspectives on characters such as William Buckland, Gideon Mantell, Richard Owen and Mary Anning. Young readers will find each person comes alive on the pages of The First Dinosaur. There is William Buckland whose over-the-top personality  included eating every kind of animal he could find. Gideon Mantell whose obsession with fossils saw him lose both money and family while making fantastic contributions to science. Richard Owen whose hatred of Mantell led him to actively work against this good man even after Mantell's death. And Mary Anning who discovered three of the dinosaurs on exhibit at the Crystal Palace but whose enormous contributions to paleontology went unrecognized for 200 years. Lendler also touches on the relationships many of these men had with one another and how the class structure in England influenced scientific endeavours.

One of the more interesting aspects Lendler features is the move away from a biblical perspective that early geologists and paleontologists had to make. In the seventeenth century man's place in the cosmos was based heavily on what was taught in the Bible. But the Bible is not a scientific work but rather an account of man's relationship with God. This was not the view of the Bible in the seventeenth century because it was considered a history of the world with the most important events recorded. Galileo was the first to challenge the way man would think about himself in the universe. For many scientists such as Richard Owen, there was no reconciling the biblical version with these new ideas. For others like William Buckland, who spent his life trying to prove Noah's flood, the new ideas prevailed.

Lendler touches on the effects revolutions played in the discovery of dinosaurs, including the Scientific Revolution, the French Revolution and the Industrial Revolution. He shows how these revolutions changed society and brought about different ways of thinking.

While there is a much detail in this book that might bog down younger readers, Lendler entices his readers with plenty of interesting photographs, illustrations done in pen, ink and digital medium and sidebars of information. There is a Bibliography, an Index, and Lendler includes an Epilogue which tells what happened to the major players in the quest for the first dinosaur. The First Dinosaur is a must read for those who are interested in dinosaurs and the past. 

Book Details:

The First Dinosaur by Ian Lendler
Toronto: Margaret K. McElderry Books     2019
220 pp.

Prehistoric Dinosaurs, Megalodons, and Other Fascinating Creatures of the Deep Past by Kathleen Weidner Zoehfeld

Prehistoric Dinosaurs takes readers on a journey backwards in time beginning with our own epoch, the Anthropocene.

Readers start with the Holocene epoch which began approximately 10,000 years ago and is the most recent in the Cenozoic era. During this time, humans evolved, the Earth warmed resulting in the retreat of vast ice sheets. This allowed humans to migrate and settle in most parts of the world.

The Pleistocene which began approximately 2.6 million years ago saw the most recent ice age. With climate cooling, ice caps formed at the North and South poles. There were interglacial periods when the climate warmed allowing forests and mammals to flourish. It was a time of saber tooth cats such as Smilodon. Prior to this, during the Neocene epoch (23 million to 2.6 million years ago), mammals began to dominate the Earth.

The Neocene was preceded by the Paleocene which began 66 million years ago. The climate was warm allowing large rain forests to grow and  new types of mammals to evolve. Early primates began living in the trees during this time.

Before the Paleocene, the Cretaceous Period saw the reign of the dinosaurs which were a very diverse group of animals. There were meat-eating dinosaurs such as Tyrannosaurs, as well as plant-eating ones such as Spinops. Flowering plants or angiosperms also developed during the Cretaceous Period providing fruits as a food. In the sea, giant mosasaurs, turtles and ammonites flourished. Scientists have evidence that the Cretaceous experienced a mass extinction even that destroyed seventy percent of the life on Earth. The cause is believed to be an asteroid that crashed in what is now Mexico, resulting in the Earth being overwhelmed with dust and smoke, blotting out the sun. This catastrophic event is believed to be responsible for the demise of the dinosaurs.

It was during the Jurassic, 201-145 million years ago, that the largest land animals developed. These were the sauropods. During this time, the super continent known as Pangea began to break up. This began with the break up of North America from Europe and Asia and later Africa from South America.

About 252 million years ago, the ancestors of dinosaurs and other reptiles were evolving. At this time dinosaurs were small, inhabiting most areas of Pangea.

The Permian period (299- 252 million years ago) saw the formation of the supercontinent called Pangea from the collision two great land masses. At this time there were amphibians, reptiles and pre-mammals. Most were predators who ate other predators.Although there were many plants, they were consumed mostly by insects. The end of the Permian is characterized by a great extinction resulting from an extended period of widespread volcanic activity. It is believed over ninety percent of life on Earth was destroyed.

Before the Permian, the Carboniferous was a time of giant trees and towering ferns. These lush forests were filled with many different arthropods, amphibians and the first reptiles.From 419 to 359 million years ago, the Devonian period saw the development of the first trees and forests, the first insects and spiders and the first four-legged animals such as salamanders.  Prior to the Devonian, during the Silurian (443 to 419 million years ago), temperatures on Earth were slowly rising, allowing new life forms to develop. The first fish with jaws developed allowing predation to occur, as well as the evolution of eurypterids ("scorpion-like arthropods) which could grow to be very large.

In the Ordovician (485 to 443 million years) most life existed in the oceans. Snails, clams, nautiloids, trilobites and conodonts as well the world's first fish lived in the water. This period was characterized by the expansion of coral reefs across the world. The period before the Ordovician is called the Cambrian and this era saw the explosion of life on Earth. This sudden increase in life forms is called the "Cambrian Explosion". Trilobites, a primitive arthropod, dominated the Cambrian period which is sometimes referred to as the "Age of Trilobites".

Finally, the period before the Cambrian is known as the Ediacaran, some 4.6 billion to 541 million years ago. The amazing story of life on Earth began during this time and little is known about the creatures who lived during this phase.


Discussion

In Prehistoric Dinosaurs, Megalodons and Other Fascinating Creatures of the Deep Past, author Zoehfeld has chosen to tell the story of life on Earth beginning with the modern epoch of the Anthropocene (which we are now living in) and moving backwards through time to the very beginning. This makes it difficult to fully understand how life developed from simpler forms to more complex ones, how the climate and the land masses changed over time and how catastrophic events shaped life and the world afterwards. Therefore, it is recommended that readers start at the back of this book and read backwards to the front! Reading in this way works superbly, making the timeline of events more logical and understandable.

Zoehfeld's simple text gives readers a good understanding of the changes that occurred through each period and there are detailed, full colour illustrations which provide a sense of what the Earth may have looked like during each time period as well as the creatures that could be found in the seas and on land. The author includes many interesting facts for each period, and sets aside small areas on each page to explain certain events or to provide more details. For example, there are short, simple explanations of how coal formed, supervolcanoes, how dinosaurs walked, mass extinctions, ice ages and many other topics.

This book was produced in association with the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History. A more concise title with a more engaging illustration on the cover is also recommended. Overall, an  interesting presentation of the development of life on Earth. However, the claim on the book's back cover, "What's the best way to see the past? From the present, of course!" didn't work for this reader!

Book Details:

Prehistoric Dinosaurs, Megalodons, and Other Fascinating Creatures of the Deep Past  by Kathleen Weidner Zoehfeld
Greenbelt, Maryland: What on Earth Publishing   2019
45 pp.

When Sue Found Sue by Toni Buzzeo

The inspiring story of Sue Hendrickson and her incredible discovery is told in When Sue Found Sue a picture book for younger readers.

Growing up in Munster, Indiana, Sue was a shy and curious child who loved to read and loved to find lost things. Sue was a very smart child who learned about the world around her through her extensive reading. She would visit the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago to view the exhibits of fossils and other items people had found over the years.

At age seventeen, Sue began travelling and joining teams of other treasure hunters. Her travels eventually led her to the hills of western South Dakota, known for its fossils. Sue spent four summers digging for duck-billed dinosaurs. It was dusty, hot work but Sue loved it. She found herself drawn to a sandstone cliff in the distance. On a day off, Sue and her dog Gypsy hiked to the cliff and it was there that she saw the bones of a T. Rex exposed. It took the team five days of hard work to expose the fossil skeleton and another three weeks to map and carefully remove them. Today the skeleton, named Sue, resides in the Field Museum of Natural History. This remarkable fossil has added significantly to our knowledge about this dinosaur.

Discussion

When Sue Found Sue tells the amazing story of the discovery of the most complete Tyrannosaurs Rex skeleton to date. The fossil skeleton containing about 250 bones was discovered in 1990 by marine archeologist, field paleontologist and professional diver Sue Hendrickson. There are believed to be about 380 bones in a T. Rex skeleton, meaning Sue is ninety percent complete.

The new Sue with gastral basket and shifted stance.

Although there are now over thirty T. Rex skeletons that have been discovered, only five are approximately forty percent complete. This makes Sue Hendrickson's discovery that much more important. The T. Rex Sue does have some missing bones including one foot and one hand as well as about eight inches of her tail. And unlike many other fossil bones, Sue's bones were in very good condition.

Although the dinosaur is named Sue, scientists do not know if this skeleton is that of a male or female T. Rex. Dating from the Cretaceous period (about 67 million years ago) the skeleton was discovered with rib like gastralia bones that scientists were not sure exactly how they were connected to the skeleton. Scientists have now determined that the gastral bones were probably a feature that helped the T. Rex breathe. They have added the 26 bones that comprise part of the dinosaurs gastal basket to the skeleton.

When Sue Found Sue presents the story of Sue's discovery in easy to read prose, emphasizing Sue Hendrickson's determination to do in life what she found most interesting  - search for things. But unlike her childhood, Sue became part of teams that searched for lost boats, planes, for prehistoric fossils and finally for dinosaurs. Sue is an inspiration for young readers to follow their interests, challenging them to really look at the world around them. Sue's observations of the world inspired her and filled her with wonder and curiosity. There are many more discoveries waiting to be made!

Artist Diana Sudyka's earthy illustrations help the story of Sue Hendrickson come alive. Gouache and watercolours made from earth pigments were used to create the Dakota scenes in the picture book.

Buzzeo includes a short Author's Note about Sue Hendrickson and her discovery, a Resources For Children section and also lists some Additional Resources.

Readers are encouraged to check out The Field Museum of Natural History's webpage on Sue.

Sue image:  https://www.fieldmuseum.org/blog/fresh-science-makeover-sue

Book Details:

When Sue Found Sue by Toni Buzzeo
New York: Abrams Books For Young People    2019

Titanosaur: Discovering The World's Largest Dinosaur by Dr. Jose Luis Carballido and Dr. Diego Pol

In Titanosaur, Argentinian paleontologists, Dr. Jose Luis Carballido and Dr. Diego Pol tell the remarkable story of uncovering the world's largest dinosaur, aptly named Titanosaur. Dr. Carballido specializes in studying the evolution and anatomy of sauropod dinosaurs while Dr. Po, a research associate of the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) Division of Paleontology, focuses on understanding the evolutionary relationships between dinosaurs and other fossil reptiles.

In 2011, a ranch worker, Aurelio Hernandez, came across what appeared to be a large fossil in the desert of Patagonia, near La Flecha, approximately 250 kilometers west of Trelew, Patagonia in southern Argentina. The worker eventually came to tell two paleontologists, Dr. Carballido and Dr. Pol about the amazing bone he had seen on his land and how it was much larger than the dinosaur on display at the museum. Initially Pablo Puerta from the museum traveled out to the ranch to investigate the find. Then Dr. Carballido and Dr. Pol traveled to the ranch of the Mayo family and agreed the fossil bone was indeed that of a dinosaur and looked to be very large.

The excavations by a team from the Museo Paleontologico Egidio Feruglio led by Dr. Carballido and Dr. Pol recovered a total of 180 bones revealed the skeletons of six dinosaurs. The dig located bones in several different layers of  rock, indicating that there were six dinosaurs who died in three separate instances, over a period of years, perhaps even centuries.

Dr. Diego Pol beside a large fossil.

At the museum, the team began the arduous task of cleaning the bones and assembling a skeleton of the titanosaur. After fourteen months of work, the newly assembled titanosaur skeleton measured one hundred twenty-two feet long and approximately twenty-six and half feet tall - the largest dinosaur ever uncovered. Carballido and Pol believe this titanosaur is a new species which they named Patagotitan mayorum.

This new discovery promises to add much to our knowledge of these amazing creatures.

Discussion

Titanosaur is a fascinating account of the discovery of the largest dinosaur to be recovered. Paleontologists, Carballido and Pol have written an engaging picture book that features not only their incredible story but also packs interesting facts on each page. Each page features the watercolour illustrations of Florencia Gigena portraying the events Carballido and Pol describe in their text. Many pages also incorporate a section that explains geologic terms, provides extra details on certain aspects of the dig such as preparing the bones and transporting them, and on how the scientists calculated the weight of the titanosaur  At the back of the book is a two page spread of the completed skeleton, its incredible size demonstrated by the presence of workers near the skeleton.

Readers of all ages who are fascinated by dinosaurs will love this exceptional picture book.

Image credits: https://www.ibtimes.co.uk/david-attenborough-giant-dinosaur-naturalist-unveil-37-metre-long-titanosaur-1537666

Book Details:

Titanosaur: Discovering The World's Largest Dinosaur by Dr. Jose Luis Carballido and Dr. Diego Pol
New York: Orchard Books, An Imprint of Scholastic Inc. 2019

The Evolution of Claire by Tess Sharpe

Claire Dearing has just finished her freshman year of college and is packing up her room to return home for the summer. Claire wants "a bigger life. One far from here. One that's never boring. One that's always a challenge. One where I fix problems and always have the answer." Her older sister Karen picks her up and on the long drive home reveals that their parents are struggling in their marriage, but trying counselling. They discuss Claire's plans for the summer. She has applied to six internships, four at law firms and one internship with a judge. But the one she really wants is with the Masrani Corporation, run by Simon Masrani who is continuing the work of Dr. Hammond on dinosaurs. Masrani has expanded Dr. Hammond's work of creating the world's first dinosaur park, Jurassic Park. The park never opened.

Masrani's internship program, Bright Minds, is looking for "the best and brightest" in the country. He is planning to open a park where people can experience the dinosaurs on Isla Nublar.

However, Claire learns from Karen that she did in fact receive an offer of an internship at Bright Minds.Although her mother has reservations, Claire is determined to do something risky and different.

On her flight to connect up with the other interns, Claire meets Justin, a business major. As it turns out they discover that they are both Bright Minds interns. Clair and Justin also meet some of the  other twelve interns including Eric and Tanya whom Claire suspects are siblings, Wyatt whose father works on the island and Ronnie a girl who plans on attending West Point in the fall. While waiting for the ferry,  that will take them to Isla Nublar, Jessica assistant to Beverly Jamison tells them a bit about the park. They learn it will open next year with eight species of dinosaurs including a herd of Triceratops and Brachiosaurs.On the ferry Claire realizes there are also many others traveling with them who are not interns but are vets, trainers, scientists and other specialists.

Claire's roommate is Tanya Skye, while Tanya's brother,  Eric's roommate is Wyatt. Their lodgings are on the fourth floor of the park's luxury hotel. In the morning Mr. Masrani welcomes the interns, telling them they are integral to the opening of the park in nine months. New species are continuing to arrive from their secondary location, Isla Sorna but he also warns them that some carnivorous dinosaurs such as T. Rex and Dilophosaurus are restricted. As the monorail is not yet completed, the interns are taken on a drive through the park to Gyrosphere Valley where they see the herd of Triceratops.

At lunch, Claire dines with Simon Masrani who is intrigued by Claire, her life goals and her vision of the future. After lunch, they visit the command center and then the labs in the basement. Dr. Wu who worked with Dr. Hammond on the original Jurassic Park, has continued to refine the technique that extracts dinosaur DNA. During their visit, Claire overhears a conversation between Simon Masrani and Dr. Wu in which Wu references an earlier group of interns. She later asks Justin if he caught Wu's remark but he was unable to hear what he said.

Wyatt tell them that there are rumours about "phantom interns", a previous group of interns from an earlier program renamed after the incident. Wyatt explains that "They're called phantom interns because all evidence of the program disappeared..." This was done because something terrible happened and was covered up. According to Wyatt, some of the Brachiosaurses were brought over from Isla Sorna to Isla Nublar and interns were brought in to help the dinosaurs acclimatize to their new surroundings. A few months into the process, a severe storm knocked out the island's electrical grid forcing the evacuation of the park and the island. In the process, a female intern was left behind.

That night, while alone in her room writing up her journal, Clair makes a startling discovery: a notebook, its spine cracked and its pages yellowed, tucked inside the box spring of her bed. It appears to be someone's journal. Over the next two weeks, Claire and the interns spend time with the trainers and vets, learning about the dinosaurs. At first everything seems quite normal but gradually Claire begins to suspect that not everything is as it seems. With Justin's help she begins to try to solve a past mystery only to stumble onto a plan to steal the park's technology, one that will have deadly consequences for one of the interns.

Discussion

Fans of the recent Jurassic World movies will enjoy reading Sharpe's novel which is set during Claire Dearing's young adult years and explores how she came to be involved in the development of the new Jurassic Park on Isla Nublar.

Sharpe takes time to develop Claire as a character, who at the beginning of the novel seems to be the quintessential modern teenager, deeply concerned with animal rights, determined to be a trailblazer for women. Sharpe crafts her as an ambitious young woman who wants a life that's very different from her older sister Karen. While Karen has returned home after college, gotten an job, married and had a child, Claire doesn't feel that inclination. Although she sees herself as someone who follows the rules, she admits that "...there's another side of me, the reckless side, that's all about wonder and discovery, that wants something else." Claire wants "...to be the kind of woman who could make laws and enact the kind of sweeping change that was needed."  And indeed, Sharpe grows her character throughout the novel, towards her ambition. Claire becomes more assertive as an intern. At first she dismisses Wyatt's story about a missing intern, even showing surprisingly little curiosity about a journal she finds just after Wyatt's allegations. But when she begins to suspect that Masrani and the park administration are covering up something she doggedly pursues the trail of evidence.

The Evolution of Claire is somewhat formulaic, true to the story lines in the previous Jurassic Park movies: visitors, in this case young student interns arrive at the park, are awestruck by the beautiful, majestic dinosaurs. Meanwhile, there is an undercurrent of something suspicious happening at the park, a deadly carnivorous dinosaur is inadvertently let loose, and mayhem and death follow. The book's heroine survives, only to become employed by the park. The events that lead up to the novel's terrifying climax are common to the movies; these prehistoric creatures are deadly and just can't be contained.

Sharpe foreshadows Claire's deadly encounter with the raptor in the novel's climax. For example, Claire's sister Karen insists that she purchase bear spray, something Claire is reluctant to do. "You and Mom both have a totally wrong idea of what's going to be going on during my internship." she tells her sister.  But it is Claire who is unprepared for what she will face on the island.

The science isn't always spot on but after all, this is science fiction. For example, when Claire and her fellow interns visit Dr. Wu's lab, the scientists are in the middle of extracting dinosaur DNA from a mosquito's body - by hand. Mosquito's are tiny fragile insects and the level of accuracy required to extract, by hand using a needle is so great, it's unlikely this would be done manually. Instead, it would be done with highly specialized, computerized equipment.

This novel will appeal to those readers who enjoy the Jurassic Park movies and want to read more about Claire Dearing in the most recent novel. It might be interesting to read the backstory to Owen Grady, the velociraptor trainer and the other principal character in the movie.

Book Details:

The Evolution of Claire by Tess Sharpe
New York:  Random House Children's Books     2018
390 pp.

Every Hidden Thing by Kenneth Oppel

Every Hidden Thing is based on the the decades long feud between American two paleontologists, Edward Drinkwater Cope and Othniel Charles Marsh which took place in the middle of the 19th century. Their feud which became known as the "Bone Wars" saw both men attempt to outwit the other in the hunt for dinosaur fossils in the American Midwest. Their rivalry new no bounds and lasted until Cope's death in 1897. Canadian author Kenneth Oppel has used Marsh and Cope's rivalry as the basis for his story in Every Hidden Thing.

The story begins with Samuel Bolt's father, Professor Michael Bolt presenting his latest find at a meeting of the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia. Bolt is a gentleman scientist without a university education but well respected as a self-taught paleontologist. Professor Bolt is the second to discover a dinosaur in America - a partial skeleton, but enough that he could name it.

Also in attendance at this meeting is Professor Cartland from Yale. The self-taught Bolt is seen as an amateur by Cartland whose connections to Yale give him important status. It is at this meeting that Samuel Bolt meets the homely but highly intelligent Rachel Cartland, Professor Cartland's daughter, whom he finds most captivating. They spend a short time conversing, neither aware that the other is the child of their father's rival.

Bolt had been sent crates of bones by a dentist, Dr. Hawthorn of Kansas. From these bones, Bolt was able to reconstruct a skeleton of a large sea creature he named Elasmosaurus. However, during his presentation, Cartland informs Bolt and the audience that Bolt has erred in his reconstruction of the creature. He has placed the head of the Elasmosaurus on the wrong end, mistaking the long length of vertebrae as the tail when in fact it is the neck. Cartland picks up the skull and clicks it into place on the other end of the skeleton stating, "Which would indicate to me, Professor Bolt, that the tail is in fact the neck, and you have built your dinosaur backward, sir." This outrage leads to the two men brawling at the meeting.

The next morning Samuel discovers an unopened crate in his father's office. In the crate, Samuel and his father find the largest tooth they have ever seen as well as a note written nine weeks earlier by a fossil hunter named Edward (Ned) Plaskett. Plaskett writes that he located the large tooth northeast of Fort Crowe and is offering his services to help find the rest of the fossil. Samuel's father determines that a creature with such a large tooth would be bipedal and "of some fifty feet in length, whose height measured from the ground, would be in the area of thirty feet." Samuel, tells his father that this would be the king of dinosaurs, so Professor Bolt decides to partially name it rex.

Professor Bolt wants to simply telegraph Plaskett that he is hired but Samuel argues they should travel to Fort Crowe to find the rex themselves. However, lack of money is a huge problem because Samuel's father has used up all the capital from the sale of his inheritance. Samuel takes the initiative and at a Quaker's meeting tells the men he feels called to find God's creatures buried in the ground. The men take up a collection and raise enough for the Bolts to launch an expedition.

Meanwhile Professor Cartland and Rachel are on their summer expedition to the Western Territories. The Cartlands will have an army escort, twelve paying Yale students as well as free rail passes from Union Pacific. Initially Professor Cartland had decided that Rachel would stay in New Haven with her Aunt Berton attending picnics, church socials and a debutante ball. Rachel wants none of it; she wants to attend university and hunt fossils and the expedition offers her a chance to work towards that goal. When she's sent to her aunt, Rachel releases a snake in her aunt's bed and is sent home. With her father having no other alternative, Rachel joins him on the expedition.

Coincidentally, Samuel and Rachel meet up at Omaha Station to take the Union Pacific train heading out west, although neither party knows the exact destination of the other. Samuel continues to be completely enamored with Rachel. Their fathers set them both to spying on one another to try to determine their plans.  One of the Yale students appears to reveal to Professor Bolt that the Cartland's expedition is traveling to North Platte. This leads Samuel to tell Rachel about the tooth they have been sent by Plaskett. However the Bolts soon discover that the Cartland's destination is the same when they all leave the train in Crowe. To the frustration of the Bolts, they discover that Cartland has bought up almost all the supplies. When they finally meet up with Plaskett, his rough appearance at first worries Professor Bolt but he is determined to help them get to the badlands. While the Cartland's are burdened with their thirty soldiers and the Yale students, Samuel and his father along with Plaskett and a driver named Hitch Powers set out for the badlands. Samuel and his father set up camp and begin exploring. 

When Bolt discovers Cartland's expedition camped on the banks of the nearby river, he is furious and confronts Cartland. The two men agree that whoever finds a bone first owns the site which will be staked with a flag. The two men race to find the rex of dinosaurs against the backdrop of hostile Indians bent on recovering what was stolen from them. Meanwhile, Samuel and Rachel become increasingly infatuated with one another, leading them to make an outlandish choice to control their own destinies.

Discussion

Every Hidden Thing is a story loosely based on the intense rivalry between two American paleontologists in the mid to late 19th century. In the novel the rivalry is between two fictitious paleontologists, Professor Bolt and Professor Cartland, who are also loosely based on the real paleontologists, Edward Cope and O.C. Marsh. Other than their determination to find dinosaur fossils before the other, and to quickly name them, Oppel's story is very much different. In the novel Professor Bolt's son Samuel is portrayed as having discovered the Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton after having a vision resulting from a rattlesnake bite. In fact, both Cope and Marsh did discover pieces of the Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton in the late 1890's but these pieces were not identified until much later in the 20th century. Although Cope married and had a child, Marsh never did.

Instead Oppel re-imagines the feud from the point of view of the two paleontologists' teenage children who form an alliance and eventually run off to get married. Samuel and Rachel share the storytelling in alternating narratives. The main strength of Oppel's story is the characters who are well crafted. Professor Bolt is described as a man who isn't "afraid to talk with his fists." Samuel describes his father as having a deranged look about him due to "his left eye had a slightly awkward angle to it..." Compared to Cartland, Bolt is a man with a bit more integrity who is deeply angered by Cartland's dishonest methods to obtain fossils. He also appears more willing to respect the Indians than his rival.

Cartland is the most vile of the characters, stealing from just about anyone he can. He is described as short and "solid as a potbellied stove" with "sparse hair" and a mustache.  Rachel mentions that her father has a "rather unfortunate verbal tic of saying 'yes yes' in the midst of his sentences. And it rarely meant he agreed with you." He doesn't support Rachel's ambition to attend university and become a scientist. He's bought off his rivals so they can supply him with information on fossil finds and has blocked Bolt's papers from being published. Cartland shows profound disrespect for the indigenous people of the plains when he desecrates an Indian burial site, chopping the heads off the bodies to take back for research. Thoroughly in a rage when he discovers his daughter has married Samuel Bolt, Cartland attempts to kidnap his daughter.

Samuel is portrayed as an awkward teen definitely not comfortable with his changing body. He is determined to make Rachel both trust and like him so he tells her about the large tooth fossil.  Rachel describes Samuel as being "tall, with a mop of wavy, coarse hair. He looked like one of those puppies that hadn't grown into its body yet but gave all the signs of its full size to come..." Samuel sees Rachel as a potential wife and partner, working together to hunt fossils and do research but he's confused by her lack of feeling towards him.

Rachel is not considered attractive and she knows it, often focusing on how she is rarely complimented about her appearance. "But without a mother I was never told I had lovely hair or a pleasing figure or striking eyebrows..." Samuel's compliment that she has "the most extraordinary eyes." make her feel special. She's also described by Samuel as being unromantic, "She was like a fortress. Impenetrable."  Rachel is determined to attend university even marrying Samuel in the hopes of achieving this goal despite not wanting to marry.

Oppel moves the story about a fossil hunting rivalry into one that focuses on Samuel and Rachel's awkward relationship. The story is somewhat contrived with Rachel being brought into the expedition after throwing a snake in her aunt's bed (really???) and the coincidental meeting at the train station. Their blossoming romance is in contrast to the violent rivalry between their fathers. To that end there is Samuel's description of how his body responds to Rachel  in a way that most readers really don't want to know. When he first meets Rachel Cartland, despite her being somewhat unattractive Samuel narrates how he becomes aroused. Why the author felt this was necessary is uncertain. When the two elope and end up in a hotel room on their wedding night, the reader is subjected to a three page detailed account of their struggles and awkwardness. It's possible Oppel felt this might attract the interest of teen readers, but it's done at the expense of the story telling and was completely unnecessary to the story. 

In contrast, Oppel's descriptions of the badlands are welcome and colourful. "The steep slopes showed all their ancient layers -- tawny, black, gray, red -- like the diagrams in Father's geology books...Some of the stepped buttes looked like Mayan temples. There were gaunt castles. Archways and spires of a great Gothic cathedral..." When they arrive in the badlands Samuel narrates, "It was surprisingly lush along the brown, slow-curving river lined with cottonwoods and tall grass and flowers. In the sun's low evening light, the stone was rich yellow and peach and purple. The wind made a pleasant dry rustle in the cottonwoods." The ravines are described with equal eloquence: "The ground was scattered with rocks of all shapes and sizes, gray basalt and pink granite and yellowy limestone and great speckled silver hunks and creamy pebbles, all broken and crushed by glaciers and rounded and smoothed by rivers over thousands of years. There were green sage and spiky cactus and clumps of perfectly spherical deer droppings."

For those readers with an interest in geology, this novel may initially seem intriguing. However, Samuel's wedding night narrative and the whole elopement subplot really distracts from the overall story. Readers truly interested in Tyrannosaurus rex and the rivalry between Cope and Marsh can learn more from the PBS website. Every Hidden Thing had such potential in the hands of such an accomplished author. Hopefully another author will make an attempt to portray this interesting rivalry in a way that will be more informative and less sensational than Every Hidden Thing.

The Marsh and Cope Rivalry: https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/dinosaur-rivalry/

Book Details:

Every Hidden Thing by Kenneth Oppel
Toronto: HarperCollins Publishers Ltd.    2016
361 pp.