Dinosaurs

How We Know What We Know

Mary Higby Schweitzer, Elena Rita Schroeter, Charles Doug Czajka

• Publisher: CRC Press
• Year: 2020
• eBook ISBN: 9780429882456
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Biological Sciences
• Subtopic: Biology
• Index: Biological Sciences

This textbook introduces research on dinosaurs by describing the science behind how we know what we know about dinosaurs. A wide range of topics is covered, from fossils and taphonomy to dinosaur physiology, evolution, and extinction. In addition, sedimentology, paleo-tectonics, and non-dinosaurian Mesozoic life are discussed. There is a special opportunity to capitalize on the enthusiasm for dinosaurs that students bring to classrooms to foster a deeper engagement in all sciences. Students are encouraged to synthesize information, employ critical thinking, construct hypotheses, devise methods to test these hypotheses, and come to new defensible conclusions, just as paleontologists do.

Key Features

• Clear and easy to read dinosaur text with well-defined terminology
• Over 600 images and diagrams to illustrate concepts and aid learning
• Reading objectives for each chapter section to guide conceptual learning and encourage active reading
• Companion website (teachingdinosaurs.com) that includes supporting materials such as in-class activities, question banks, lists of suggested specimens, and more to encourage student participation and active learning
• Ending each chapter with a specific "What We Don't Know" section to encourage student curiosity

Related Titles

Singer, R. Encyclopedia of Paleontology (ISBN 978-1-884964-96-1)

Fiorillo, A. R. Alaska Dinosaurs: An Ancient Arctic World (ISBN 978-1-138-06087-6)

Caldwell, M. W. The Origin of Snakes: Morphology and the Fossil Record (ISBN 978-1-4822-5134-0)

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half-Title
• Title
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• Preface
• Acknowledgments
• CHAPTER 1: How Do We Understand the Natural World? The Nature of Science and the Field of Paleontology
• CHAPTER 2: How Do We Know When Dinosaurs Lived? Interpreting Earth’s History from Rocks
• CHAPTER 3: How Do We Explain Variation among Past and Present Organisms? Evolution and Evolutionary Mechanisms
• CHAPTER 4: How Do We Know Who Is Related to Whom? Systematics and Phylogenetic Relationships
• CHAPTER 5: How Do We Know When and How Life Began and Evolved? The Origin of Life and Evolution through Time
• CHAPTER 6: How Do We Use Anatomy of Living Animals to Understand Dinosaurs? Bones and Anatomy
• CHAPTER 7: How Do We Know What a Dinosaur Is? Diagnosing and Defining Dinosauria
• CHAPTER 8: How Do We Name and Group Dinosaurs? Part I: Ornithischian Dinosaurs
• CHAPTER 9: How Do We Name and Group Dinosaurs? Part II: Saurischian Dinosaurs
• CHAPTER 10: How Do We Name and Group Mesozoic Animals That Are Not Dinosaurs? Pterosaurs, Marine Reptiles, Mammals, and Others
• CHAPTER 11: How Do We Know How Dinosaurs Became Part of the Fossil Record? Taphonomy and Fossilization
• CHAPTER 12: How Do We Interpret the Ecology of Dinosaurs? The Relationship of Dinosaurs to Their Physical and Biological Environments
• CHAPTER 13: How Do We Know How Dinosaurs Moved? Dinosaur Functional Morphology
• CHAPTER 14: How Do We Know What Dinosaurs Looked Like? Dinosaur Appearance
• CHAPTER 15: How Do We Know What Dinosaurs Ate? Direct and Indirect Evidence for Dinosaur Diets
• CHAPTER 16: How Do We Interpret Dinosaur Behavior? Dinosaur Trackways, Herding, and Pathologies
• CHAPTER 17: How Do We Know about Dinosaur Reproduction? Mating and Parental Care among Dinosaurs
• CHAPTER 18: How Do We Know If Dinosaurs Were Warm-Blooded, Cold-Blooded, Or Something in Between? Dinosaur Physiology and Metabolism
• CHAPTER 19: How Do We Know Birds Are Dinosaurs? The Phylogeny of Maniraptoriformes and the Origin of Flight
• CHAPTER 20: How Do We Know about Extinctions? The End of the Dinosaur Reign and Other Mass Extinctions
• Index