Time Traveler: In Search of Dinosaurs and Other Fossils from Montana to Mongolia - Softcover

Novacek, Michael

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0374528764 ISBN 13: 9780374528768

Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2003

Synopsis

"A superb introduction to paleontology as it really is and how it is done, from fish to dinosaur, bird, and mammal." ―Edward O. Wilson

Michael Novacek, a renowned paleontologist who has discovered important fossils on virtually every continent, is an authority on patterns of evolution and on the relationships among extinct and extant organisms. Time Traveler is his captivating account of how his boyhood enthusiasm for dinosaurs became a lifelong commitment to vanguard science. Novacek writes of the alluring perils of fieldwork with affection and discernment, and he illuminates the most exciting issues in paleontology today.

About this title

Review:

If you're of a certain age, you likely went through a dinosaur phase as a kid, perhaps even dreaming of turning up the bones of stegosauruses, tyrannosauruses, and other famed creatures of the Age of Reptiles. In this affectionate memoir of "a life in the field," paleontologist Michael Novacek writes of his early years entertaining such dreams and of his ongoing education in the ways of the "terrible lizards."

Now curator of paleontology at the American Museum of Natural History, Novacek has traveled the world on the trail of fossils and ancient bones, collecting thousands on thousands of specimens. Often, we gather from his pages, his expeditions have been fraught with danger, whether in the form of some exotic disease or some incautious driver on a faraway road. No matter: for Novacek, the thrill of the hunt is reason enough to shrug off peril, and he shares charming anecdotes drawn from his decades of fieldwork, as well as his understanding of what such research can teach us about the past and present alike.

Armchair travelers and paleontologists in training, to say nothing of readers going through a dinosaur phase of their own, will take much pleasure in Novacek's journeys into his--and the planet's--past. --Gregory McNamee

About the Author:

Michael Novacek is curator of paleontology as well as senior vice president and provost of science at the American Museum of Natural History. He lives in New York City.

About this edition

• Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
• Publication date: 2003
• ISBN 10: 0374528764
• ISBN 13: 9780374528768
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 380