Lying Low: A Lesson from Dinosaurs...Or What Happens When You Have a Cold

The Rise and Fall of Dinosaurs: A New History of a Lost World by Steve Brusatte was one of my Christmas books that I dipped into in early January, but had to put aside for work-related reading. Three days of a cold, however, allowed me to plunge back in, and I found myself transported from my living room hideout to the world of the deep past. Brusatte is both a paleontologist of some accomplishment (it seems) and an engaging writer. He effectively communicates his life-long passion for dinosaurs and the joys of the fossil hunt, as well as explaining in very accessible terms the kind of statistically-based research that he and his cronies have done to unravel the mystery of how dinosaurs arose and what doomed them.

That would be enough to make this a book worth reading. But Brusatte also writes extremely evocatively, and his description of what it must have been like to live the final moments of the dinosaurs' world before the earth was hit by an asteroid 66 million years ago is better than any special effects sequence dreamed up by film- or video-makers.

Also thought-provoking is his description of what happened afterwards, with small, timid, generalist mammalian creatures rising to prominence when the dust had settled and the wild fires had burned themselves out. There may be take-home here: specialization into many niches in a diverse landscape comes with its perils. Maybe there's something to be said for maintaining a low profile and the ability to exploit many kinds of opportunities. Must think about this some more, particularly since my time on the couch in the living room has been so fruitful in terms of reflection. 

The photo, by the way, is from the Royal Tyrrell Museum in Drumheller, AL where we spent a wonderful couple of days many years ago.  Our son was eight,  fascinated by dinosaurs, and we'd planned on spending an afternoon there before pushing homeward after a long trans-continental camping trip.  But the place was so interesting that we ended up spending nearly three days investigating the displays and talking to the staff.  By the end of our visit, our guy had started giving little tours to people, explaining what he'd learned and offering opinions on the best fossils. People actually listened to him!  It helped he was very cute and had become quite knowledgeable.  Would love to take his own sons there to look around.