It’s amazing the way our knowledge of dinosaurs has advanced with modern technology. Their behavior, however, remains elusive. Short of a time machine, scientists have been applying what they’ve learned from fossils to try to deduce how they lived and acted. This book is about what paleontologists know, what they can imply from the fossil record, and what they simply have no way of finding out, yet. The author discusses all the current theories and explains how they were formulated, proven or disproven and what we can learn from them. Much of it is also based on the behavior of extant animals. With this book, I not only learned about dinosaurs, but also Komodo dragons and giraffes. The author gives examples of different scenarios that could cause misunderstandings, such as ignoring sexual dimorphism or herd behavior. Despite the audiobook including a printed guide, I’m not familiar enough with dinosaurs to understand which ones he was discussing (except for the T-Rex, of course), so an internet connection helped me there. I enjoyed Graham Mack’s narration, because he sounds like a knowledgeable professor. I can’t wait for the results of current studies, including the addition of ethologists to these teams.
I chose to listen to this audiobook and all opinions in this review are my own and completely unbiased. Thank you, NetGalley/HighBridge Audio.