#dinosaurs

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This week's at the library:
- A second-hand copy of The Desert Bones: The and Paleoecology of Mid-Cretaceous North Africa by Jamale Ijouiher from Indiana University Press
- The just-published H. P. Collected Fiction Volume 3, the final of three annotated collections by S. T. Joshi from Chiroptera Press
- Following on from my review of Lechuguilla Cave, I found the earlier photographic book Lechuguilla: Jewel of the Underground by Urs Widmer from Speleo Projects for a very reasonable price on eBay.

@bookstodon

A photo of three books standing on a small, brown, wooden table. The out-of-focus background shows black shelves full of books and part of the beech-coloured laminate floor. On the left, standing up, The Desert Bones, showing a colour drawing of Spinosaurus on a sandy plain with two crocodylians in the foreground, and some sauropods in the background. In the middle, lying down, H. P. Lovecraft Collected Fiction Volume 3, showing the spine and a colourful illustration of a tentacled monster. On the right, standing up, Lechuguilla: Jewel of the Underground, showing a colour photo of a caver in a yellow outfit sitting in a cave, looking up at huge white hanging crystals in Lechuguilla.

New review: The Secret Lives of Dinosaurs turns heads with its beautiful presentation and its selection of remarkable fossils, improving on the concept introduced in Lomax's previous book.

https://inquisitivebiologist.com/2025/11/12/book-review-the-secret-lives-of-dinosaurs-unearthing-the-real-behaviors-of-prehistoric-animals/

@BobNicholls @bookstodon@a.gup.pe

New review: A mouth-watering and remarkably diverse collection of the very best of current palaeoart, Mesozoic Art II takes all the winning qualities of the first volume to give us, yes please, *more* of the same.

https://inquisitivebiologist.com/2025/09/24/book-review-mesozoic-art-ii-dinosaurs-and-other-ancient-animals-in-art/

@bookstodon@a.gup.pe @TetZoo @WryCritic @gaelleseguillon @HimaRudolf @BobNicholls

The Inquisitive Biologist turns 8! Here's the latest review...

How would life have evolved had the dinosaurs survived? This facsimile reprint of Dougal Dixon's second classic work of speculative zoology imagines the answer and remains as captivating and entertaining as it was in 1988.

https://inquisitivebiologist.com/2025/09/19/book-review-the-new-dinosaurs-an-alternative-evolution/

@bookstodon

This week's at the library: I contributed to the very successful Kickstarter campaign of the and received my copy this week (@goodomens_hq). A gorgeous book with a lush slipcase, illustrated by @ColleenDoran. I also adopted a damaged copy The Biology and Ecology of Streams and Rivers from Oxford University Press, and bought a former library copy of a hardback of Dinosaurs: The Encyclopedia, Supplement 4 from McFarland.

@bookstodon

A photo of three books standing on a small, brown, wooden table. The out-of-focus background shows black shelves full of books, a red curtain covering the door, and part of the beech-coloured laminate floor. On the left, standing up, Good Omens: The Graphic Novel, showing a black slipcase with the title of the book and signatures of the authors and illustrator in gold foil, while shiny black foil has been used to reproduce several panels of the comic in the background. Directly next to it is the actual graphic novel, a black hardback with gold foil used for the title and author's names. A colourful illustration in the middle shows a three-part church window with the angel Aziraphale on the left and the demon Crowley in the right panel. The middle panel shows a smaller figure of a boy in a red shirt and blue jeans standing astride planet Earth as if he were a mythical giant. Above him is the tree of all knowledge in the Garden of Eden, with a snake circling around its trunk. The middle book in the photo, lying down, is The Biology and Ecology of Streams and Rivers, showing a colour photo of a river flowing over numerous rocks, churning the water white in places. On the right, standing up, is a hardback copy of Dinosaurs: The Encyclopedia, Supplement 4, which is bound in black cloth with gold-coloured lettering used for the title and author name. A picture of a dinosaur is debossed in the cover, though no colour has been applied to it, making it quite hard to see
A photo of three books standing on a small, brown, wooden table. The out-of-focus background shows black shelves full of books, a red curtain covering the door, and part of the beech-coloured laminate floor. On the left, standing up, Good Omens: The Graphic Novel, showing a black slipcase with the title of the book and signatures of the authors and illustrator in gold foil, while shiny black foil has been used to reproduce several panels of the comic in the background. Directly next to it is the actual graphic novel, a black hardback with gold foil used for the title and author's names. A colourful illustration in the middle shows a three-part church window with the angel Aziraphale on the left and the demon Crowley in the right panel. The middle panel shows a smaller figure of a boy in a red shirt and blue jeans standing astride planet Earth as if he were a mythical giant. Above him is the tree of all knowledge in the Garden of Eden, with a snake circling around its trunk. The middle book in the photo, lying down, is The Biology and Ecology of Streams and Rivers, showing a colour photo of a river flowing over numerous rocks, churning the water white in places. On the right, standing up, is a hardback copy of Dinosaurs: The Encyclopedia, Supplement 4, which is bound in black cloth with gold-coloured lettering used for the title and author name. A picture of a dinosaur is debossed in the cover, though no colour has been applied to it, making it quite hard to see

THE SECRET LIVES OF DINOSAURS is out NEXT month!

We’ve been busy organising a book tour that will include talks & signings across the UK, USA, Canada, & Europe. The first will be at the wonderful Oxford University Museum of Natural History on Friday, 10 October 2025. I hope you can join us at one of these events – more details soon.

This week at the library: No new books; instead, I took two huge piles of books to and got them ALL signed (thanks @TetZoo and @markwitton for humouring me rocking up with a stack of your books). Overall, an excellent convention on which I will have more to say soon.

And yes, that is the just-published rerelease of Dougal Dixon's The New Dinosaurs from Breakdown Press! Keep your eyes peeled for a review in the near future.

@bookstodon @princetonupress

A photo of two stacks of palaeontology books lying on a small, brown, wooden table. The out-of-focus background shows black shelves full of books and part of the beech-coloured laminate floor.
A photo of the book The New Dinosaurs opened on its title page to show the author's signature. Partially visible behind this are two stacks of palaeontology books lying on a small, brown, wooden table.
A photo of the book The Sauropod Dinosaurs opened on its title page to show the author Mathew Wedel's signature and doodle of an Amargasaurus head and neck with long spines. The inscription reads: "Dear Leon - go big or go home!" Partially visible behind this are two stacks of palaeontology books lying on a small, brown, wooden table.
A photo of the book King Tyrant opened on its title page to show the author's signature and doodle of a young tyrannosaur. Partially visible behind this are two stacks of palaeontology books lying on a small, brown, wooden table.

This is very well done, like the rest of the episodes. Great , impeccable —or history of paleontology, in this case—and a story about predator-prey conflict that doesn't end the way you expect. I recommend the entire series. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OH57rtnKCEM

The Crystal Palace don't look like anything that's ever lived on Earth, but they do look like something that *could* have lived. In retrospect, they're a lot more believable than the upright tail-draggers that dominated for most of the following century! So it's good to see them brought to life, even briefly. Somewhere in the ...

It is 121 years ago today that the world lost . Meticulous in its historical detail, King of the Dinosaur Hunters is the definitive biography of this quietly famous and influential fossil collector.

https://inquisitivebiologist.com/2018/12/10/book-review-king-of-the-dinosaur-hunters-the-life-of-john-bell-hatcher-and-the-discoveries-that-shaped-paleontology/