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This is an OCR edition without illustrations or index. It may have numerous typos or missing text. However, purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original rare book from the publisher's website (GeneralBooksClub.com). You can also preview excerpts of the book there. Purchasers are also entitled to a free trial membership in the General Books Club where they can select from more than a million books without charge. Original Published by: Stanford University. in 1922 in 208 pages; Subjects: Mollusks; Science / Life Sciences / Zoology / General; Science / Life Sciences / Zoology / Invertebrates; ... Read more

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Lucid, nontechnical study presents the absorbing human, scientific and political dramas involved in the discovery and reconstruction of the gigantic reptiles, birds and other creatures who roamed the prehistoric West. Much of the book is devoted to the work of Othniel Charles Marsh and Edward Drinker Cope, two brilliant 19th-century paleontologists whose discoveries revolutionized the discipline, but whose bitter feud is legendary. "Excellently written...highly recommended..."—Science Books. 51 halftones. Bibliography.
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A crucial task for paleontologists and paleobiologists is the reconstruction of the appearance, movements, and behavior of extinct vertebrates from studies of their bones or other, more rarely preserved parts. A related issue is the boundary between the scientific evidence for reconstruction and the need to resort to imagination. In this book, sixteen paleontologists and biologists discuss these questions, review the current status of functional studies of extinct vertebrates in the context of similar work on living animals, and present a broad philosophical view of the subject's development within the framework of phylogenetic analysis. The authors describe and debate methods for making realistic inferences of function in fossil vertebrates, and present examples where we may be confident that our reconstructions are both detailed and accurate. ... Read more

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The Wild West provided the setting for some famous battles, but the gunfight at O.K. Corral doesn't hold a candle to the Bone Wars. Following the Civil War, the (Re-)United States turned its attention to the unexplored territories between the Mississippi and the Pacific. The railroads led the way, and to build them we blasted through mountains and leveled valleys and exposed rock that hadn't seen the light of day for millions of years. This is the story of Edward Drinker Cope and Othniel Charles Marsh, two scientists who found and fought for those bones, and the artist Charles R. Knight who almost single-handedly brought dinosaurs back to life for an awestruck public. Guest starring Chief Red Cloud and hundreds of his Indian Braves, the gun-totin' and gamblin' Professor John Bell Hatcher, colossal and stupefying Dinosauria of the New World, and featuring special appearances by The Cardiff Giant, P.T. Barnum, Buffalo Bill Cody, Ulysses S. Grant, Alexander Graham Bell, and a plentiful supporting cast of Rogues and Gallants from the Eastern Scientific Establishment and The Old West, the colorful supporting cast makes for a rich blend of history, adventure, science, and art. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

Paleontologists Battle it out in the old west!
The title sold me! Bone Sharps, Cowboys, and Thunderlizerds is a fun and informative read about Edward Drinker Cope and Othniel Marsh who sabotage each others digs and reputations. I only knew a little about these two Paleontologists (more about Marsh) before reading, like the huge collection of bones they obtained.There are also some cameos from other well known historical figures like Buffalo Bill Cody, P.T. Barnum, famous artist Charles R. Knight (The Lost World Painting ) and many more. This graphic novel was entertaining and I felt sorry for Drinker Cope at the end. I went on to read more about them and early Paleontology, so I would give this book thumbs up for re-sparking my interests even though it's fictionalized a bit. I picked it up at the 2008 MOCCA convention in New York and Jim Ottaviani was fun to talk with. Kevin Cannon was a nice fellow as well. I liked the Sepia colored art work and layout. An enjoyable read! Thanks for the story Jim!

Hoping for more
This is a mostly made up version of the famous "Bone Wars" between Marsh and Cope and would have been more interesting if they had stuck to the facts (see "The Gilded Dinosaur" by Mark Jaffe). More art work of the dinosaurs would have been a bonus. One of the few dinosaur books I've given away rather than kept.

Could have been much, much better
Ottaviani has good ideas and an interesting narrative sense, and his attempts to bring to popular notice via graphic novels some of the less well-known people in the recent history of science are certainly laudable, but his execution never seems to be up to his intentions. Here he recounts the history of the infamous "Bone Wars" of the late 19th century between rival American paleontologists Othniel Marsh and Edward Drinker Cope, which greatly entertained and greatly annoyed their colleagues (and sold lots of papers for James Gordon Bennett). The competition was virulent, with vituperative personal attacks, "salting" of scientific digs, bribery of workers, spying, and violations of Indian lands. Marsh, the first American professor of paleontology (at Yale), could be brilliant, but also was capable of dynamiting sites to keep other researchers from exploring them. Cope, probably the better scientist of the two, was also brash, melodramatic, and a bit paranoid. Together, the two men gave American paleontology a bad reputation elsewhere in the world that took several generations to undo. Ottaviani's story isn't nearly that clear, however. The book would have benefitted from a "dramatis personae" at the front, to give the reader a sporting chance at following things.

Fun book
this is longer than i expected(~165 pgs), but in a good way: perfect for a preteen to get into but not finish in 1 sitting. i love the sepia graphics but just wish there was a fling of color once in a while (its all sepia toned between the colorful covers). overall, very nice.

Believe It Or Not - The Bone Wars
In the graphic novel Bone Sharps, Cowboys, and Thunder Lizards, Jim Ottaviani and the folks at G.T. Labs take on E.D. Cope and O.C. Marsh and the Bone War.In the last third of the 1800's, geologists were exploring the West, and two of those geologists, Cope and Marsh, were looking for dinosaur bones.These rivals discovered and named many of the most famous dinosaurs while carrying on the most famous [sometimes violent] feud in geology.Bone Sharps, Cowboys, and Thunder Lizards is a fine book, but didn't impress me to the level that the earlier graphic novels Fallout and Suspended In Language did.I still highly recommend this book to anyone with an interest in history, the old West, dinosaurs, and is willing to give the graphic novel format a try. ... Read more

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This digital document is an article from UXL Encyclopedia of Science, brought to you by Gale®, a part of Cengage Learning, a world leader in e-research and educational publishing for libraries, schools and businesses.The length of the article is 679 words.The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase.You can view it with any web browser.This collection of entries covers major areas of science including: biology, genetics, microbiology, astronomy, chemistry, physics, engineering, technology, geology, weather, archaeology, psychology, mathematics, and medicine, and provides readers with a wide range of up-to-date, relevant, and accurate information. ... Read more

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This digital document is an article from Macmillan Reference USA Science Library: Animal Sciences, brought to you by Gale®, a part of Cengage Learning, a world leader in e-research and educational publishing for libraries, schools and businesses.The length of the article is 506 words.The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase.You can view it with any web browser.This interdisciplinary resource explores the wide-ranging diversity that exists within the animal kingdom. Entries examine how animals develop, animal ecology and behavior, and the connection between animals and humans. Also includes biographies of key scientists who have contributed to the study of animal life, as well as career opportunities within the field. ... Read more

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This digital document is an article from UXL Complete Life Science Resource, brought to you by Gale®, a part of Cengage Learning, a world leader in e-research and educational publishing for libraries, schools and businesses.The length of the article is 732 words.The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase.You can view it with any web browser.Features alphabetically arranged entries on theories, concepts, and scientific discoveries and developments pertinent to the study of life science in schools today. Also featured is a chronology of discoveries and a report topic section that suggests a range of research topics and experiement ideas. ... Read more

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This is an OCR edition without illustrations or index. It may have numerous typos or missing text. However, purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original rare book from the publisher's website (GeneralBooksClub.com). You can also preview excerpts of the book there. Purchasers are also entitled to a free trial membership in the General Books Club where they can select from more than a million books without charge. Subjects: Fossil hominids; Human beings; Anatomy, Comparative; Science / Life Sciences / Evolution; Science / Paleontology; Science / Life Sciences / Anatomy ... Read more

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Explores fossil remains and the probable origin of life by depicting both familiar and lesser known prehistoric animals, ranging from invertebrates through dinosaurs and early mammals up to man. ... Read more

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Chapters: Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology, Society of Vertebrate Paleontology, Museo Carmen Funes, Paleontological Society, Palaeontological Association, Pander Society. Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 24. Not illustrated. Free updates online. Purchase includes a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Excerpt:The Royal Tyrrell Museum is a popular Canadian tourist attraction and a leading centre of palaeontological research noted for its collection of more than 120,000 fossils. Located 6 kilometres (4 mi) from Drumheller, Alberta and 135 kilometres (84 mi) from Calgary, the museum is situated in the middle of the fossil-bearing strata of the Late Cretaceous Horseshoe Canyon Formation and holds numerous specimens from Dinosaur Provincial Park and the Devil's Coulee Dinosaur Egg Historic Nest Site. The Royal Tyrrell Museum is operated by Alberta's Ministry of Culture and Community Spirit. The museum's mission is to "collect, preserve, research and interpret palaeontological history with special reference to Albertas fossil heritage". The museum is named in honour of Joseph Burr Tyrrell, a geologist who discovered the first dinosaur in the Red Deer River Valley in 1884. The Museum opened September 25, 1985 and was given "Royal" status by Queen Elizabeth II in 1990. Bruce Naylor was the Director of the Royal Tyrrell Museum from 1992 until his death in April 2007. Under his direction, an ambitious exhibit renewal program was established with 21,000 square feet (2,000 m) of brand new gallery space completed in 20062007 alone. In its first year of operation, the Museum attracted over 500,000 visitors. The average annual number of visitors is approximately 400,000. More than 4,400 square metres (47,000 sq ft) of the museum's 11,200 square metres (121,000 sq ft) is dedicated to exhibits in a series of chronological galleries celebrating the 3.9 billion ...More: http://booksllc.net/?id=1177220 ... Read more

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This digital document is an article from Macmillan Reference USA Science Library: Biology, brought to you by Gale®, a part of Cengage Learning, a world leader in e-research and educational publishing for libraries, schools and businesses.The length of the article is 615 words.The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase.You can view it with any web browser.A comprehensive collection of articles on all aspects of biological science, including its history and issues. Includes articles on biology-related careers and important individuals, as well as topics from active transport to zoology research. ... Read more

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General Books publication date: 2009Original publication date: 1919Original Publisher: Carnegie Institution of WashingtonSubjects: PaleontologyJuvenile Nonfiction / Animals / Dinosaurs ... Read more

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Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free.This is an OCR edition with typos.Excerpt from book:1t tney extended to the limestones. The cinnabar may have been precipitated from solution by reduction of pressure and temperature in its upward course, or through chemical action by oxidation of the H,S gases and the reactions of the alkaline salts in warm, diluted solutions. The native mercury is probably the result of the chemical activity of acid waters upon the cinnabar.Gerth remarks that he could not observe an immediate connection between the mineralization and the countless intrusions of andesitic and basaltic rocks that occur in the neighborhood. It is another example, he says, of the fact that mineral solutions in porous sandstones spread irregularly over wide extent and their source is difficult to point out.Mercury deposits the world over constitute a fairly compact type. They are almost always associated with volcanic rocks of Tertiary or Recent age. They were formed near the surface, and hot springs are frequent in many quicksilver districts. A scant association of minerals is a further characteristic. From the preceding account it is clear that the Huancavelica deposits conform to these traits. The mineralization took place subsequent to the extrusion of the igneous rocks, as the latter have themselves been mineralized. Their age is probably Miocene. Hence the mineralization is not older than Miocene and may be younger. Whether the present warm springs at Huancavelica come from the same source as the solutions that deposited the mercury is a question concerning which there is no definite evidence. Those waters do not now deposit mercury at their vents. It is entirely within the realm of probability, however, that they represent the last phase of the cycle of volcanic activity, of which the beginning is represented by the volcanic rocks of the district, and o... ... Read more

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The gorgons ruled the world of animals long before there was any age of dinosaurs.They were the T. Rex of their day until an environmental cataclysm 250 million years ago annihilated them—along with 90 percent of all plant and animal species on the planet—in an event so terrible even the extinction of the dinosaurs pales in comparison. For more than a decade, Peter Ward and his colleagues have been searching in South Africa’s Karoo Desert for clues to this world: What were these animals like? How did they live and, more important, how did they die?

In Gorgon, Ward examines the strange fate of this little known prehistoric animal and its contemporaries, the ancestors of the turtle, the crocodile, the lizard, and eventually dinosaurs. He offers provocative theories on these mass extinctions and confronts the startling implications they hold for us. Are we vulnerable to a similar catastrophe? Are we nearing the end of human domination in the earth’s cycle of destruction and rebirth? Gorgon is also a thrilling travelogue of Ward’s long, remarkable journey of discovery and a real-life adventure deep into Earth’s history.Amazon.com Review
In Gorgon, geologist Peter Ward turns his attention reluctantly away from the asteroid collision that killed all the dinosaurs and instead focuses on a much older extinction event. As it turns out, the Permian extinction of 250 million years ago dwarfs the dino's 65-million-year-old Cretaceous-Tertiary armageddon. Ward's book is not a dry accounting of the fossil discoveries leading to this conclusion, but rather an intimate, first-person account of some of his triumphs and disappointments as a scientist. He draws a nice parallel between the Permian extinction and his own rather abrupt in research focus, revealing the agonizing steps he had to take to educate himself about a set of prehistoric creatures about which he knew almost nothing. These were the Gorgons, carnivorous reptiles whose ecological dominance preceded that of the more pop-culture-ready dinosaurs.

They would have had huge heads with very large, saberlike teeth, large lizard eyes, no visible ears, and perhaps a mixture of reptilian scales and tufts of mammalian hair.... The Gorgons ruled a world of animals that were but one short evolutionary step away from being mammals.

With characteristic enthusiasm, Ward transports readers with him to South Africa's Karoo desert, where he participated in field expeditions seeking fossils of these fearsome creatures. He suffers routine tick patrols, puff-adder avoidance lessons, stultifying thirst, and the everyday humiliations of being the new guy on a field team. Besides telling a fascinating paleological story, Gorgon lets readers feel a bone-hunter's passion and pain. --Therese Littleton ... Read more

Customer Reviews (27)

Nice and easy reading
Nice account of the hunt for fossils in the Karoo desert in south africa in the search of an explanation for the Permian/Triassic extinction. Combining down to earth paleontology, some explanations on the Permian/Triassic extinction, a description of the political transition in south Africa and a humble account of personal experience as a paleontolog the books makes an easy and nice reading.

So-so
Science books are pretty much susceptible to their times, and the early 2006 discovery of a huge crater in Antarctic Wilkes Land, which may have been four to five times the size of the K-T Impactor, seems to have given great credence to the belief that it was the primary, if not sole, cause of the P-T extinction event. Furthermore, unlike the K-T Impactor, there is growing evidence that the P-T Impactor may have actually broken the continent of Australia off from Antarctica, and led to the breakup of the ancient supercontinent of Gondwanaland. Given this turn of events, it might seem that Ward's book should be simply tossed on the heap of outdated science books, for he is not a great essayist in the manner of a Stephen Jay Gould, whose often wrong posits on evolution did not kybosh his ability to effectively communicate ideas, nor is Ward anywhere in a class with the magisterial Loren Eiseley, whose `hidden personal essay' format preceded Gould's, and whose work is one of the great English language prose corpuses of the last century, even if his decades old ideas on evolution are several generations removed from relevance.

Yet, here is where idiot luck comes in. While Ward is no prose stylist, and one almost feels he is a primitivist or idiot savant banging away at keyboards, he made one very smart decision in writing this book, or, at least, a fortuitous one, which was to make this book less about `hard science', and more about the soft stuff in between. Gorgon focuses far more on the personalities of scientists, the desires for relevance, the politics of the South African lands where the Karoo Desert digs that constitute this book's Ground Zero take place, and his own personal family ups and downs. Thus, what was a squooshy weakness before the Antarctic discovery, becomes the book's saving grace after it....Last year, I read a much more well written book called Snowball Earth, by Gabrielle Walker, which was everything this book wanted to be. It provided a provocative theory of an almost wholly glaciated earth a half billion years before this ancient impact, and it did so in a lively, engaging style that presented both its theory and personalities in an engaging, well-written style. This book, unfortunately, barely touches upon its own titular subject, which is really the reason most layfolk would buy it. We get too little of the gorgonopsians and too much of filler. This book won't be of much use in a decade or two, and Ward does not have a great future in science writing the way Walker does, but this book did give more than a few moments of pleasure in its slow meandering, which again recapitulated its ideas about drying Permian rivers, and will leave at least a few dried beds within that will occasionally urge me to rethink its lost waters. If this goes against my usual criteria for recommending a book, so be it. If a man can't be willfully dissonant, on rare occasions, does his usual consistency have any virtue? As for Mr. Ward, he can thank me at a later date.

Barely readable
The age of the creatures that predated the dinosaurs--the protomammals and their ilk--is a fascinating and little-known chapter in the history of life on earth, and I was interested in learning more about these creatures. So I bought this book.

I shouldn't have.

Not only did I learn nothing, the book is truly painful to read. Ward's style swings from jaw-poppingly boring "what I did on my summer vacation" accounts rendered in grindingly banal prose to incomprehensible science jargon, sometimes in the same paragraph.

Along the way, he manages to get in some cheap shots at colleagues, congratulate himself for having solved the mystery of the dinosaurs' extinction--and, oh, by the way, having figured out what killed the Gorgons and their kin, too--and indulge in a bit of handwringing over apartheid in South Africa, where he did his digging.

Which is laudable, certainly, but what it has to do with paleontology is beyond me.

But most perturbing is that at no point does the reader learn anything of substance about the creatures themselves. Nope, nothing. Zip. Nada. Bubkes. Don't believe me? Take a look at the index. The actual Gorgons--the gorgonopsids--the creatures for whom the book is named--appear on--wait for it--11 pages. Out of 288 pages, they merit mention on 11.

The interested layperson would do a heck of a lot better to read Robert Bakker's "The Dinosaur Heresies," which is far more accessible, far better written, far more significant, and far less smug. And by the way, you'll also learn more about the protomammals in Bakker's book than you will in "Gorgon."

If I want badly written and indulgent memoirs, I'll read the New Yorker. Since I'm still interested in learning more about the Gorgons, I guess I'll keep looking.

Now I want to be a geologist
I ordered this book used but it came in perfect condition. I had been reading a library copy but it was two weeks overdue. This book has captured my intrest like no other non-fiction book ever has. I want to be a geologist or a paleontolgist now!

Monsters of the Permian
By now, almost everyone must be familiar with the discovery of the iridium concentrations at the K-T (Cretaceous-Tertiary) boundary, and the Chicxulub impact crater, first reported in 1981, that appears to exactly the right age and the right size to have terminated most of the life on Earth, sixty-five million years ago.The author of "Gorgon" began his career with field work on the proof of the quick and terrible extinction at the K-T boundary--the death knell of the dinosaurs.

However, Dr. Ward found himself more and more intrigued by an even great extinction event that occurred 250 million years ago at the boundary of the Permian and the Triassic (P/T).Was it caused by another comet or meteor strike?Did the elimination of 95 % of Earth's marine life and 70% of all land species proceed as quickly as at the K-T termination, or did it take place in pulses over a much longer period of time?

According to the author (and others), there is no credible, unambiguous evidence for an impact as is the case for the K-T extinction.What is more likely is that massive greenhouse gas emissions reduced oxygen availability, ultimately resulting in the collapse of marine ecosystems, and most of the land-based systems as well.This was possibly caused by volcanic eruptions on the supercontinent of Pangea, in what is now Siberia (the Siberian Traps).

In the final chapter of his book, "Resolution," the author puts forth two interesting observation-based theories:(1) the abundance of oxidized, reddish rock in the Triassic beds above the P/T boundary (about 50 million years worth) implies "...the oxygen in our atmosphere plunged to very low levels as it became tied up in the rocks...so low, in fact, that any poor human...would very quickly suffer from altitude sickness, even at sea level."; (2) on land at least, the near extinction of animals that didn't use oxygen efficiently, including most but not all of the mammal-like reptiles that dominated the Permian."Heat [greenhouse effect] and asphyxiation [were] the two agents of the long mysterious mass extinction."

Except for the last chapter, "Gorgon" is light on theory and heavy on field work and proof-of-concept.Here is how geologists, paleontologists, and other scientists interact in the field, braving the heat of South Africa's Karoo Desert, the omnipresent ticks, flies, and puff adders, and the digestive challenges of bad water and mystery-meat pizza.Dr. Ward takes his readers not only on a trip through the lost world of the Permian, but also through an African culture that seems to be on the brink of chaos.He is a sensitive and at times acerbic observer of both present and deep past."Gorgon" is a compelling, thoroughly readable story.
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