On the Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs

Every author has to decide how much “scaffolding” they want to show in the construction of a book. By “scaffolding,” I refer to the way knowledge is produced, theoretical framing, and so on. With many books, we see the house itself, without seeing the frame on the inside. Brusatte, in contrast, shows us a great amount of this internal scaffolding. He shares his experiences finding dinos, historical anecdotes of other fossil hunters, and a number of significant people from the field. This can be a strength for a book, because we get to learn how the knowledge is actually produced.

In Brusatte’s case, it is actually a weakness. Too often, it seems that the scaffolding functions as filler so that he can be light on actual information on dinosaurs. What is written seems a bit shallow. I was hoping for a deep-dive into an understanding of the age of dinosaurs. While I did learn some new things, the story he tells is rather familiar without a huge amount of new-ness. Much of what is found here can be found in any high quality natural history museum, with a clearer image (as we get to see the fossils themselves, models that recreate how dinosaurs may have looked, etc.). Too bad, I really wanted to know a little more about these fantastics beasts.