The Age of Dinosaurs in Russia and Mongolia edited by Michael Benton,
Mikhail Shishkin, David Unwin and Evgenii Kurochkin, Cambridge University Press,
£90, ISBN 0521554764
THE best-known dinosaur fossils represent only a small slice of the Mesozoic
world. Famous species such as Tyrannosaurus rex, triceratops, apatosaurus (often
misnamed brontosaurus) and stegosaurus all lived in western North America, while
iguanodon was a European native. Over the past 20 years or so we’ve been
fascinated by the rich hordes of new discoveries from Africa, Argentina and
China.
But there’s more. A whole host of hitherto unknown fossils have arrived. The
Age of Dinosaurs in Russia and Mongolia opens the doors to a vast swathe of
Eurasia. Mongolia has proved a better source than Russia of true dinosaur
fossils, including the deadly velociraptors—that found fame in Jurassic
Park—an oviraptor brooding on its nest, and cousins of triceratops
and T. rex. Russian scientists excavated many of these, as well as many
lesser-known denizens of Mesozoic Mongolia.
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Most of us will never get to Mongolia. Happily, you can find just about
anything yet discovered that crawled, walked, swam, or flew in Russia or
Mongolia in the 30 chapters and some 650 pages of this book. But be warned: the
authoritative text is far from easy reading. A solid background in vertebrate
palaeontology is recommended.