Reviewed by production assistant, Laura Hohman
The dinosaurs are certainly the superstars of the
prehistoric past, but Earth before the Dinosaurs gives us a glimpse of the
amazing creatures that came before. These animals are no less fascinating and
certainly deserve the excellent treatment they get in this book.
The book covers the evolution of vertebrates—limbs, other
adaptations for terrestrial life, early adaptations for flight (gliding), and
the ancestors of mammals. Photographs of fossils accompany incredible
illustrations of what these animals and their habitats possibly looked
like. I would personally love full-sized
versions of several of these illustrations to frame and hang on my wall, but
I’ll content myself with enjoying them in book form.
Technical and scientific information is accompanied by a welcome
sense of humor. I laughed at loud while
reading about “The ‘Precious’ of Lesotho:”
The piece
came back to one of its discoverers, Léonard Ginsburg, who published on it with
a colleague and then hid his “precious” away from prying eyes at the back of a
drawer. And some things that should not have been forgotten were lost. Years
went by. The specimen passed out of all knowledge. History became legend.
Legend became myth—that of the only temnospondyl from Lesotho. For nearly
thirty years no one talked of the capitosaur from Lesotho until, when the
chance came, the fossil ensnared another bearer, a paleontologist called
Philippe Janvier. For years, lurking in the unlit interior of a drawer, it
occupied his mind. Darkness crept back into the Jardin des Plantes. Rumors grew
of a shadow—whispers of a nameless fear. The Lesotho fossil knew its time had
come. But then something happened the fossil did not expect. Philippe gave me
the fossil and said, “Léonard’s fossil . . . He’s left to work on mammals. I’ve
kept it all these years and now it’s yours. Re-examine it carefully and, above
all, keep it safe. I have a few matters I must attend to."
The comparison made by the author to a mythical ring may not
be too far off the mark. The inclusion of humans in the vertebrate “glider’s
club,” complete with illustration, also merited a chuckle.
If you love reading about dinosaurs, expand your reading a
bit and give this book a try!