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Nature » Dinosaurs & the Prehistoric World

Browse book recommendations:

Nature

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In our section on Dinosaurs and the pre-historic world, Beth Shapiro talks about her best books on de-extinction, or rather extinction, since, as she points out, bringing extinct species back to life is impossible outside of Hollywood.

Tim White, the paleoanthropologist talks about Darwin, the ancestry and origins of man in his best books on prehistory.  Paul Barrett names his best books on dinosaurs and discusses the rich diversity and longevity of the species that come under that name.  The palaeontologist Richard Fortey, discussing his selection of the best books on palaeontology, goes even further back in time and talks about the importance of trilobite fossils in understanding pre-historic geography and of algae and bacteria in creating the conditions on earth that allowed the evolution of oxygen-hungry life forms, like dinosaurs and humans.

    The best books on Extinction and De-Extinction, recommended by Beth Shapiro

  • Read
    The best books on Extinction and De-Extinction - The Diversity of Life by Edward O. Wilson

    1

    The Diversity of Life
    by Edward O. Wilson

  • Read
    The best books on Extinction and De-Extinction - The Cave Bear Story by Björn Kurtén

    2

    The Cave Bear Story
    by Björn Kurtén

  • Read
    The best books on Extinction and De-Extinction - Last Chance to See by Douglas Adams & Mark Carwardine

    3

    Last Chance to See
    by Douglas Adams & Mark Carwardine

  • Read
    The best books on Extinction and De-Extinction - The Making of the Fittest by Sean B Carroll

    4

    The Making of the Fittest
    by Sean B Carroll

  • Read
    The best books on Extinction and De-Extinction - The Sixth Extinction by Elizabeth Kolbert

    5

    The Sixth Extinction
    by Elizabeth Kolbert

The best books on Extinction and De-Extinction, recommended by Beth Shapiro

Evolutionary biologist Beth Shapiro tells us why it’s impossible to clone a mammoth, and why we might want to. She guides us through five inspiring books to get us thinking about extinction and the role genetics could potentially play in maintaining biodiversity.

    The best books on Prehistory, recommended by Tim White

  • Read
    The best books on Prehistory - Voyage of the Beagle by Charles Darwin

    1

    Voyage of the Beagle
    by Charles Darwin

  • Read
    The best books on Prehistory - On the Origin of Species by Charles Darwin

    2

    On the Origin of Species
    by Charles Darwin

  • Read
    The best books on Prehistory - The Journals of Lewis and Clark by Bernard DeVoto (editor)

    3

    The Journals of Lewis and Clark
    by Bernard DeVoto (editor)

  • Read
    The best books on Prehistory - The First Human by Ann Gibbons

    4

    The First Human
    by Ann Gibbons

  • Read
    The best books on Prehistory - Missing Links by John Reader

    5

    Missing Links
    by John Reader

The best books on Prehistory, recommended by Tim White

Paleoanthropologist Tim White tells us about his work investigating the origins of homo sapiens and explains what a 4.4 million-year-old skeleton he found in Africa tells us about our common past.

    The best books on Dinosaurs, recommended by Paul Barrett

  • Read
    The best books on Dinosaurs - The Dinosaur Heresies by Robert Bakker

    1

    The Dinosaur Heresies
    by Robert Bakker

  • Read
    The best books on Dinosaurs - Bone Wars by Tom Rea

    2

    Bone Wars
    by Tom Rea

  • Read
    The best books on Dinosaurs - The Dinosaur Hunters by Deborah Cadbury

    3

    The Dinosaur Hunters
    by Deborah Cadbury

  • Read
    The best books on Dinosaurs - The Complete Dinosaur by James O Farlow and Michael Brett-Surman

    4

    The Complete Dinosaur
    by James O Farlow and Michael Brett-Surman

  • Read
    The best books on Dinosaurs - The Dinosauria (Second Edition) by David B Weishampel, Peter Dodson, and Halszka Osmólska

    5

    The Dinosauria (Second Edition)
    by David B Weishampel, Peter Dodson, and Halszka Osmólska

The best books on Dinosaurs, recommended by Paul Barrett

Palaeontologist and dinosaur specialist Paul Barrett says many of the 1,200 known species of dinosaur were far more complex than we once thought. Some were brightly feathered, many were at least partly warm-blooded

    The best books on Palaeontology, recommended by Richard Fortey

  • Read
    The best books on Palaeontology - Wonderful Life by Stephen Jay Gould

    1

    Wonderful Life
    by Stephen Jay Gould

  • Read
    The best books on Palaeontology - Dinosaurs by Steve Brusatte and Michael Benton

    2

    Dinosaurs
    by Steve Brusatte and Michael Benton

  • Read
    The best books on Palaeontology - Trilobites by H B Whittington

    3

    Trilobites
    by H B Whittington

  • Read
    The best books on Palaeontology - Life on a Young Planet: The First Three Billion Years of Evolution on Earth by Andrew H Knoll

    4

    Life on a Young Planet: The First Three Billion Years of Evolution on Earth
    by Andrew H Knoll

  • Read
    The best books on Palaeontology - Extinction by Douglas H Erwin

    5

    Extinction
    by Douglas H Erwin

The best books on Palaeontology, recommended by Richard Fortey

Palaeontologist Richard Fortey says it took tiny organisms two billion years of work to oxygenate the planet sufficiently for our kind of life, including trilobites, dinosaurs and ourselves, to evolve

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