The Dinosaur Heresies: New Theories Unlocking the Mystery of the Dinosaurs and Their Extinction

When I was a kid back in the 1970s, dinosaurs were tail-dragging beasts that lumbered across a swampy landscape with spewing volcanoes in the distance. They were invariably gray or green, cold-blooded, and they were most certainly dead. In the late 80s that view changed, and shortly thereafter the movie Jurassic Park showed us some fearsome and fast-moving bird-like monsters that dined on lawyers. I like the newer version much better!

Apparently, this was the book that challenged the old view and presented dinosaurs in a much different light. Bakker presents a very compelling case (at least for a non-paleontologist like myself) that they were warm-blooded and very likely the ancestors of modern day birds. He does this by looking at bone show more structures and where muscles attached, wear and tear on teeth, and footprints (among many other things), and while I'm not a paleontologist, I still found it very understandable. The book is heavily illustrated (by the author) which helps, too. And although the book was written thirty years ago, and much of his argument seems to have already become accepted, I found it a very enjoyable book. show less

Interesting. Well written and engaging. The book was first published in 1986 so might be a bit outdated, but still provides some fascinating details about dinosaurs that weren't in the general dinosaur books.

Interesting, though somewhat oddly structured - partly due to his arguments becoming less heretical since this book was written, though. 95% of the book is spent declaring that dinosaurs were warmblooded (now considered a reasonable possibility, at least), with evidence of dozens of types to support the assertion. It becomes quite annoying, actually - footprints prove it! Bone structures prove it! Predator/prey ratios prove it! Chapter after chapter after chapter thumping on the same drum. It seems reasonable, and, as I said, is now largely accepted as a possibility - part of my problem may be that he was arguing with a different audience. Then at the very end - the last half of the last chapter - he gets on to a different subject; show more _since_ dinosaurs were warmblooded, the entire classification system for them is wrong. Among other things, modern birds are part of the same class - and therefore Dinosauria are not extinct! He's definitely a lumper - this and that and the other group should all be subsumed under Dinosauria. Interesting but not convincing to me - I'd like to see a paleontologist's opinion of his argument. And he mentions multiple times, but never goes into detail on, the oddest and most interesting (to me) aspect of this - according to him, the earliest paleontologists generally shared his views, on warmbloodedness and the structures of dinosaurs' lives; sometime in the early 20th century - 1920-1940 or thereabouts - the conventional wisdom totally switched to seeing them as giant, coldblooded, sluggish reptiles. Why, and exactly when, and who/what drove this change...nothing is explained, and it's a fascinating question to me! I'll have to look for mentions of this attitude switch elsewhere. show less

Bakker makes compelling arguments concerning ideas such as dinosaurs being warm blooded and covered in feathers which were controversial in the 80's but have largely been accepted today. A good read.

This book opened my eyes to a new way of thinking about dinosaurs. Highly recommended even now that Bakker's theories have gained more traction and no longer seem as radical as when he wrote this book.

I love Bakker and his theories, and this was a great book. Mostly, he talks about why he believes the dinosaurs were warm-blooded, which was pretty controversial at the time, but is now, I think, mostly accepted as fact. I expect the same to happen with his more recent theories as well. He's definitely my favorite "popular" paleontologist. I've also heard him speak, and he's hilarous - especially great with children.

Dr. Bakker explains much of what had been learned about dinosaurs in his time, emphasizing his theory of their warm-bloodedness in the process. Very interesting and entertaining.