Uncovering Dinosaur Behavior: What They Did and How We Know

Very happy

Excellent book, I picked this up after listening to the Terrible Lizards podcast that Dr Hone co-hosts. Even though this is very much a higher level reading book I managed to follow it along and get a lot out of it despite not having a background in biology or paleontology. I'd definitely recommend this book, its a great read and well referenced if you want to read the source material.

This is the third David Hone book I have read and it is excellent as always. If you are new to the subject, keep a dictionary close at hand for the more technical terminology. The drawings and paintings by Gabriel Ugueto are superb! They are a perfect compliment to the text. Unfortunately the black and white photographs are not clearly printed and are difficult to make out. Otherwise, an excellent addition to my library.

The factual content of this book is excellent, but it is peppered with little mistakes that should have been picked up during proofreading. Most are typos, such as "sepatare" on p.57, "preceived" on p.91, "dinosasaurs" on p.108, "similalry" on p.110, "grater" on p.119, and "Giaffes with theis" on p.148. There are also a few instances where the space between words has been omitted, such as "thisin" and "providestrong". Also, contrary to the caption, figure 10.1 does not include a Stegosaurus, and figure 7.1 shows combat *within* species, not between them. My other main grouses, are that the black and white photos are not at all clear, and the paper is so thin that a photo on one side of a page casts a grey rectangle randomly over the text on the other side. This also rather detracts from the effect of the grey text boxes used to highlight case studies. As for the number of Frogmouths in figure 5.6 - your guess is as good as mine! :-) Grumbles aside, the content is very clear, thorough, well organised, and bang up to date. The line drawings are very good, and the colour plates excellent. All in all, this is a very useful and timely book, and essential reading for anyone with an interest in dinosaurs. PS Despite the author being a Brit, the book is published by Princeton University Press, so be prepared for American spellings throughout!

Well written and presented in a way for everyone to understand. I am a dinosaur fan so some of the terminology is easy for me to follow. I feel I got value for money would recommend

Informative and straightforward text, well referenced. Plenty of drawings and diagrams to illustrate the points made. Gabriel Ugueto provides 13 full colour paintings that are beautiful, accurate depictions of the animals described engaged in various acts. Recommended by this Dinosaur enthusiast who has collected paleontology books for over 50 years.

Written more academically (though still accessible to non experts) than Dave Hone's other books and heavily referenced throughout. Gorgeous artwork from Gabriel Ugueto.

TV nature programmes leave me cold, but I was quite interested in Walking with Dinosaurs, which arguably picked up on the impact of Jurassic Park to give us a vivid visual exploration of dino life. The main problem with it was that the makers made assertions as if fact that could not have been more than hypothesis about the details of dinosaur appearance and behaviour, so the subtitle of this book 'What they did and how we know' (my italics) really caught my attention. To be honest, my first thoughts were not wholly positive when in the first page of chapter 1 I read 'Throughout this book I will refer to dinosaurs and Dinosauria as a paraphyletic group' - although David Hone goes on with 'therefore excluding both Mesozoic and modern birds unless explicitly stated otherwise' - most potential readers, like me probably still aren't really clear what paraphyletic means. This is sold as for the general public, but a more care with the editing might have ensured that it avoided some of the unnecessary terminology biologists and palaeontologists are distictly fond of. I'll only give one more example 'The archosaurs are united in the presence of an antorbital fenestra' - good to know. Hone then gives a definition of this term, but why did we need to know it in the first place? Unnecessary labelling, as Richard Feynman pointed out, is the bane of biology when trying to communicate with a wider audience. Without doubt, Hone does go on to provide some fascinating information on dinosaur behaviour, deduced from a combination of the fossil record and the behaviour, for example, of their living descendants, the birds and even of many vaguely equivalent mammals. This does sometimes still feel distinctly speculative, but (unlike the TV show) the wording largely indicates where this is the case, with comments like 'dinosaurs likely had excellent color vision' rather than stating it as fact. In a nod to the non-academic audience there are some attractive colour plates by Gabriel Ugueto, though these are collected together in the old-fashioned way, and as a result don't relate easily to the text. I really wanted to like this book, and it does without doubt give a whole range of insights from use of camouflage to the purpose of Stegosaurus tail spikes. But the writing style really lets it down. It used to be that I often had to say that an academic author would benefit from a professional writer as co-author. This is far less the case these days, with some excellent academic popular science writers, but unfortunately it does apply here.

As someone who has struggled to stick with a book to the end for years this book has made me unbelievably emotional. Not only have I had the best time reading this book but from start to finish this book has been astounding. I have so much respect for the author and how this was written, it truly felt exactly as they described. Welcoming to those starting their dino knowledge journey, educational, easy to navigate for specific interests but mostly a thoroughly enjoyable read that kept me interested and reached me. I truly can not talk this book up enough, it was mentioned by someone going by "the dino guy" on social media who i started following for dino facts and the like and opened me up to the best read I've ever enjoyed. Thank you David Hone. I look forward to more of your books in the future.(and reading previous books) Sincerely a new fan starting my dino knowledge journey

Das richtige Buch für Saurierfans. Habe es verschenkt und die Freude war groß. Inhaltlich anspruchsvoll, also nicht einfach zum durchblättern, sondern eher ein Fachbuch. Genau das habe ich auch gesucht. Perfekter Kauf.

El libro muy interesante y la entrega en un punto de recogida fue perfecta

I have never read a Preface that gave me chills and the sense that my core was about to be rocked. Until now. I purchased Uncovering Dinosaur Behavior while on a deeply personal journey, writing a book in honor of my sister, whom we recently lost to breast cancer. Writing is how I’m choosing to mourn and process the loss of my best friend, page by page. One thing we shared was a love of research and science, and I wanted that spirit reflected in our story. Along with dinosaurs, a passion of mine. I picked up this book to better understand paleontological methodology and to ground my fictional depictions of prehistoric animals in accuracy. What I found was an exceptionally accessible, generous text. The conversational prose, chapter cross-references, and flexible structure invites curiosity. It lets the readers follow their interests without losing coherence. Crucially, it teaches you how to think/approach the "evidence". Paleontology’s balance of probabilities and possibilities is explained early and clearly. The book’s explorations of dinosaur biology, habitats, sensory development, and behavior are complimented with really thoughtful (and appreciated) comparisons to modern day animals. It served to both sharpen evolutionary understandings and visual imagination. Again, appreciated! A wholehearted 10 out of 10 from me. Perfect for the curious novices and middle-grade dinosaur enthusiasts alike, and I feel, valuable for professionals seeking cross-field insight and new questions to pursue. PS. Sorry I should have photographed the text BEFORE annotating lol But the hardcover copy is wonderful, Gabriel Ugueto is an amazing paleo artist and the convenient book size is excellent for travel.

This book is super detailed and very informative! Being honest, this is the first scientific book I've picked up since middle school, and it was a great reentry into nonfiction! The book is separated into specific sections, and within those sections describes both specific examples of dinosaur behavior we have direct fossil evidence for as well as general concepts and trends that can be applied to many species. Each chapter also ends with a case study going into detail about the behaviors of a specific species, which were amazing to read! Because of how specific the species and question was, it allowed for the author to go into a lot of depth in their explanation. The artwork was also amazing! Gabriel Ugueto did an amazing job with all of the different dinosaurs and situations he was asked to make! You will need a decent amount of base knowledge of biology, paleontology, and the terms associated with both in order to understand this book though. There's lots of big words and specific phrases that you'd need a good amount of background knowledge to understand, but as long as you have that knowledge or are willing to stop and Google a lot I'd highly recommend this book!