This captivating book laced with evocative anecdotes from the field gives the first holistic up-to-date overview of dinosaurs & their world for a wide audience of readers Situating these fascinating animals in a broad ecological & evolutionary context leading dinosaur expert Scott D Sampson fills us in on the exhilarating discoveries of the past twenty-five years the most active period in the history of dinosaur paleontology during which more 'new' species were named than in all prior history With these discoveries
- & the most recent controversies
- in mind Sampson reconstructs the odyssey of the dinosaurs from their humble origins on the supercontinent Pangaea to their reign as the largest animals the planet has ever known & finally to their abrupt demise Much more than the story of who ate whom way back when Dinosaur Odyssey places dinosaurs in an expansive web of relationships with other organisms & demonstrates how they provide a powerful lens through which to observe the entire natural world Addressing topics such as extinction global warming & energy flow Dinosaur Odyssey finds that the dinosaurs' story is in fact a major chapter in our own story