Review by Choice Review
Paleontology, especially vertebrate paleontology, receives rich and well-deserved coverage by the media. Most reports are accounts of new discoveries, particularly of dinosaurs and often of finds in countries remote from the US. In the last few years, biographies have appeared of some of the individuals who developed paleontology through initial collection, providing descriptions, and early interpretations of behavior and biology of extinct animals. Mantell, one of the founding fathers of vertebrate paleontology, an Englishman who lived early in the 19th century, described the second recognized dinosaur as well as several other new ones, and provided the first strong evidence that these were terrestrial. Although a practicing physician, he found time to work closely with some of the emerging scientists of his day such as Lyell and Darwin. Besides his work on dinosaurs, he presented many critical studies on all kinds of fossils and published a principal volume on this fauna. Dean's thorough, occasionally exhausting, fascinating biography includes correspondence, publications, and other sources by contemporaries of Mantell, with clashes of scientific competition, friendships, and animosities, to show how the understanding of numerous animals discovered in the early 19th century was affected by overall knowledge of life of the past. Good history and a good read. Upper-division undergraduates through professionals. D. Bardack University of Illinois at Chicago
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review
