The true story of Cephis Hall and Sid Love, the Arkansas hillbilly and Choctaw indian who outsmarted the corporation and saved the dinosaur. This story chronicles the struggle of two amateurs against powerful, adverse foes (including a corporation, academia, and the legal system) for control and ownership of a world-class dinosaur specimen.

"The Field Museum's new $8.4-million Tyrannosaurus rex is the largest, most complete skeleton of its kind ever unearthed. The animal endured terrible injuries and mortal combat when it stalked the earth, but those agonies pale in comparison with what it suffered 65 million years later--the bitter legal war over its fossilized remains"--Page 63.

Just as the fuss over Darwin's Origin of Species was getting really heated, an extraordinary fossil was found. It was apparently half bird and half reptile, and was hailed by Darwin's supporters as the missing link which proved that species could change. Opinion was furiously divided and still is, and this fossil, christened Archaeopteryx, has caused more trouble than any other scientific icon.

How can paleontologists know what a living dinosaur was like more than a hundred million years ago, particularly when only partial skeletons remain? Focusing on one large carnivorous dinosaur, Acrocanthosaurus (“high-spined lizard”), paleontologist Kenneth Carpenter explains the process, pairing scholarly findings with more than 75 color illustrations to reconstruct “Acro” before readers’ eyes. In Acrocanthosaurus Inside and Out, he offers the most complete portrait possible of this fascinating dinosaur’s appearance, biology, and behavior. Acrocanthosaurus—similar in size to its later cousin Tyrannosaurus rex, but studded with large spines—roamed what is now the south-central United States 110 to 115 million years ago, during the Early Cretaceous. Carpenter worked on the most complete of the Acrocanthosaurus skeletons (nicknamed “Fran”) that has been found. Here he describes the techniques that tell us about Acro’s biological makeup, movements, and habits. Studies of joints reveal the range of possible motion, while bumps, ridges, and scars on the bones show where muscles, ligaments, and tendons attached. CT scans allow us to peer into the braincase, while microscopes afford a cross-sectional view of bones. These findings in turn offer an idea of how Acro stalked and ate its prey. Scientific evidence beyond the fossils provides avenues for further inquiry: What does the sedimentary rock encasing Fran’s bones tell us about Acro’s environment? What does our knowledge of Acro’s distant relatives, such as crocodilians and birds, imply about its heart and other soft tissues? Can our understanding of other animals explain Acro’s huge spines? Carpenter distills all this information into a clear, accessible, engaging account that will appeal to general readers and scholars alike. As the first book-length work on Acrocanthosaurus, this volume introduces a prehistoric giant that once stalked Texas and Oklahoma and offers a rare, firsthand glimpse into the trials and triumphs of paleontology.

The 52 papers in this vary in content from summaries or state-of-knowledge treatments, to detailed contributions that describe new species. Although the distinction is subtle, the title (Vertebrate Paleontology in Utah) indicates the science of paleontology in the state of Utah, rather than the even more ambitious intent if it were given the title “Vertebrate Paleontology of Utah” which would promise an encyclopedic treatment of the subject. The science of vertebrate paleontology in Utah is robust and intense. It has grown prodigiously in the past decade, and promises to continue to grow indefinitely. This research benefits everyone in the state, through Utah’s muse ums and educational institutions, which are the direct beneficiaries.

A dinosaur book like no other, this irreverent chronicle of science and pseudoscience takes the reader on a journey through numerous bizarre ideas about ancient reptiles. Were dragon legends inspired by human encounters with fire-breathing dinosaurs? Do the Bible and other ancient works of literature and art depict dinosaurs? Astoundingly, those and other strange notions have infiltrated grade-school science textbooks. This exposé unmasks the errors that underlie such notions and reveals the science that flattens them, while treating readers to explanations of rocket fuel, nuclear power plants, the electric eel’s shocking capabilities, and how the young-Earth creationist position contradicts the very scripture that it strives to uphold. Finding humor in absurdity, the book shows fans of science, religious studies, folklore, and fire that young-Earth creationist dinosaur pseudoscience is deeply comic once one gets to know it properly.

The Ceratosauria is modified to include two super families with one new subfamily. Two new species of Ceratosaurus are described, the first based on an articulated skeleton from the Fruita Paleontological Area in western Colorado, and the second on skeletal elements of a single individual from the Cleveland-Lloyd Dinosaur Quarry in east-central Utah. A number of additional specimens, identifiable only to genus, have been found in North America and are mentioned or briefly described. Specimens from East Africa and Switzerland are also considered to be identifiable only to genus. The peculiar genus Labrosaurus is placed in synonymy with Allosaurus.

Offers the very latest information on dinosaur eggs, hatchlings and babies, as well as a detailed look at dinosaur courtship, mating, nests, and physical development.