Dinosaurs of Australia and New Zealand by John A. Long, Harvard University
Press, 拢24/$39.95, ISBN 067420767X
DINOSAUR books used to cover a broad range of the big beasts. Now, much like
dinosaurs during their 170-million-year reign in the Mesozoic era, the books
concerning them are evolving swiftly to fill specialised niches. And if you鈥檙e
looking for something both pretty and exotic, John Long鈥檚 Dinosaurs of
Australia and New Zealand may catch your eye.
Long doesn鈥檛 limit himself to dinosaurs, which were wiped off the Earth in
the aftermath of an asteroid impact 65 million years ago. As his subtitle
promises, he also takes a look at 鈥渙ther animals of the Mesozoic Era鈥�. To his
dinosaurs, which include the often neglected smaller end of the dinosaur size
spectrum, Long adds the marine reptiles and pterosaurs that are often treated as
honorary dinosaurs by the public, and the large amphibians and nondinosaurian
reptiles that faded away as dinosaurs came to dominate the Earth.
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Mesozoic mammals feature too. As fascinating as dinosaurs, they played their
own vital roles yet are all too often overlooked.
Expanding the coverage beyond dinosaurs also helps fill up the book. Purely
dinosaurian pickings are surprisingly sparse in Australia. The vast arid lands
of the outback may resemble the famous sites of western North America, which are
rich in dinosaur fossils, but they have yet to yield a comparable wealth of
finds. Part of the reason is the rocks themselves. Much of western North America
is covered with sediments laid down in the dinosaur age, whereas such sediments
are much rare in Australia. The more rugged American terrain has far more
exposure points鈥攃anyons and river cuts where water and wind lay fossils
bare. And, of course, the US has a far larger human population to hunt for
fossils: Australia has excellent palaeontologists, but there aren鈥檛 many of
them.
Even Australia is a better hunting ground for dinosaur fossils than New
Zealand, however. There, as Long explains, 鈥渙nly a handful of isolated bones
have been found鈥� since the first New Zealand dinosaur bone was discovered in
1981.
Palaeontologists have uncovered a few nearly complete skeletons in
Australia鈥攁lthough one of the most spectacular, the giant pliosaur
Kronosaurus, now hangs in Harvard University鈥檚 Museum of Comparative Zoology
just outside Boston. Far more typical are dinosaurs represented by as little as
a single bone. Photos of these fossils give you new respect for the expertise of
the palaeontologists who can identify dinosaurs from such scant remains.
You鈥檒l find more than bare bones as you flip through Long鈥檚 well-illustrated
book, however. He has included reproductions of several full-colour dinosaur
paintings plus sketches speculating what many of these animals may have looked
like. There is a wealth of excellent colour photographs of fossils,
fossil-hunters and fossil sites.
Although some species descriptions may be a bit dry for the less serious
dinophile, Long has a good line in tales of fossil discoveries, and his early
chapters neatly put the discoveries into their geological context.
Dinosaurs of Australia and New Zealand would make a nice surprise
for any dino buff who鈥檚 talked your ears off about tyrannosaurs, triceratops and
the like. You can be sure they won鈥檛 have anything like it in their library, or
on their coffee table.