America has had a fascination with dinosaurs, particularly since the wild enthusiasm of Jurassic Park and its sequels. The term "dinosaur" was coined in 1841 by the Victorian scientist Sir Richard Owen. By the end of the 19th century, geologists and paleontologists had described fossil skeletons of many groups, and museums competed for the best dinosaur fossils. In this 1915 book, famed paleontologist William Diller Matthew describes fossils from the American museum collections, including the carnivores such as Tyrannosaurus Rex, the amphibious plant eaters such as Brontosaurus, and the horned dinosaurs such as Triceratops. A perfect primer for those who are intrigued by the giants that ruled the earth before mammals.
By : William Diller Matthew (1871 - 1930)
|
This volume is in large part a reprint of various popular descriptions and notices in the American Museum Journal and elsewhere by Professor Henry Fairfield Osborn, Mr. Barnum Brown, and the writer. There has been a considerable demand for these articles which are now mostly out of print. In reprinting it seemed best to combine and supplement them so as to make a consecutive and intelligible account of the Dinosaur collections in the Museum. The original notices are quoted verbatim; for the remainder of the text the present writer is responsible. Professor S.W. Williston of Chicago University has kindly contributed a chapter—all too brief—describing the first discoveries of dinosaurs in the Western formations that have since yielded so large a harvest.
The photographs of American Museum specimens are by Mr. A.E. Anderson; the field photographs by various Museum expeditions; the restorations by Mr. Charles R. Knight. Most of these illustrations have been published elsewhere by Professor Osborn, Mr. Brown and others. The diagrams, figs. 1-9, 24, 25, 37 and 40, are my own.
Comments
Post a Comment