predation

Book review – Spinosaur Tales: The Biology and Ecology of the Spinosaurs

9-minute read
keywords: dinosaurs, evolutionary biology, paleontology

When I reviewed Witton’s King Tyrant earlier this year, I mentioned not minding if we get more books that give a detailed overview of specific dinosaur groups. Almost as if in answer to that wish, Spinosaur Tales was announced. These fish-eating and sail-backed (well, some of them) predatory dinosaurs are as enigmatic as they are controversial, and writing a book about them means navigating both fragmentary remains and strongly held opinions. So, who better to tackle this challenge than two of the best names in the business? Riffing on the title of Hone’s previous book with Bloomsbury Sigma, The Tyrannosaur Chronicles, this thoughtful book brings together palaeontologists Dave Hone and Mark P. Witton to discuss everything we do and do not know about spinosaurs.

Spinosaur Tales (more…)

Book review – The Tyrannosaur Chronicles: The Biology of the Tyrant Dinosaurs

8-minute read
keywords: dinosaurs, evolutionary biology, paleontology

I am not quite done with predatory dinosaurs yet. With the publication of Mark Witton’s much-anticipated King Tyrant just now, I turn towards that most famous of theropods. I do so, however, by taking a detour via palaeontologist David Hone’s 2016 book The Tyrannosaur Chronicles, which provides an accessible introduction to the 100-million-year history of the family that would ultimately spawn Tyrannosaurus rex. Along the way, there are shades of mythbusting that would foreshadow his later books.

The Tyrannosaur Chronicles (more…)

Book review – The Princeton Field Guide to Predatory Dinosaurs

10-minute read
keywords: evolutionary biology, paleontology

Independent palaeontologist and palaeoartist Gregory S. Paul is well-known for his scientifically informed diagrams of dinosaur skeletons. Over the course of four decades, he has perfected this style of infographic, showing white bones laid out on the black silhouette of a body. After writing and illustrating three editions of The Princeton Field Guide to Dinosaurs and two companion volumes on pterosaurs and extinct marine reptiles, I was ready to congratulate him on a job well done. He has collated arguably the largest collection of skeletal reconstructions of extinct Mesozoic reptiles in print. Imagine my surprise, then, when Princeton published this book on predatory dinosaurs only six months after the most recent iteration of the dinosaur guide. But… hang on. Does that mean that the dinosaur guide is not as complete as claimed? Have there been that many developments that a separate book is already warranted? I am confused by this book: time for an in-depth comparison.

The Princeton Field Guide to Predatory Dinosaurs (more…)

Book review – Uncovering Dinosaur Behavior: What They Did and How We Know

7-minute read
keywords: ethology, paleontology

I have written previously that deducing behaviour of extinct animals from fossils millions of years old might seem science fiction, but is very much science fact. That said, in his previous book, English palaeontologist David Hone pointed out that dinosaur behaviour is the one area where we see the greatest disconnect between what we know and what people think we know. His new book Uncovering Dinosaur Behavior is a sobering reality check for the lay reader, but I suspect that even palaeontologists might come away wondering whether there is anything we know for sure. Concise, well-structured, and beautifully illustrated by palaeoartist Gabriel Ugueto, this is a superb book that transcends “merely” being a good popular science work by also addressing professional palaeontologists.

Uncovering Dinosaur Behavior (more…)

Book review – Playing Possum: How Animals Understand Death

7-minute read
keywords: ethology, philosophy, psychology

The Virginia opossum is one of nature’s glorious weirdos. This North American marsupial will play dead when feeling threatened: she will fall over paralysed, eyes and mouth wide open, turn her tongue blue, drop her body temperature and heart rate, and, for good measure, drool, pee, poop, and excrete a foul-smelling green goo from her anal glands, all at the same time. “Playing” dead rather undersells it. Having just reviewed How Animals Grieve, this is the second of a two-part review exploring how animals experience and understand death, a topic studied by comparative thanatology. This young discipline sits somewhere at the intersection of ethology and comparative psychology, though associate professor Susana Monsó is instead a philosopher. With Playing Possum, she has written an exceedingly interesting book that is as accessible to a general audience as it is relevant to specialists. In the process, she convincingly argues that an understanding of death is likely very widespread in nature, but also that comparative thanatology has a whole lot of growing up to do.

Playing Possum (more…)

Book review – The Ant Collective: Inside the World of an Ant Colony

6-minute read
keywords: entomology

This is the first of a trio of reviews in which I take a brief detour into ants and collective behaviour more generally. Next up are entomologist Deborah M. Gordon’s 2010 book Ant Encounters and her recent The Ecology of Collective Behavior, but first The Ant Collective. This one grabbed my attention as soon as it was announced. Not a comic or graphic novel, but an A4-format book about ant colonies that is chock-a-block with infographics? Yes, please! Showcasing the best of what science illustration can be and combining it with a genuine outsider’s interest in entomology, The Ant Collective makes for a wonderful graphical introduction that will appeal to a very broad audience of all ages.

The Ant Collective (more…)

Book review – Great Adaptations: Star-Nosed Moles, Electric Eels and Other Tales of Evolution’s Mysteries Solved

7-minute read
keywords: evolutionary biology, zoology

One has to wonder whether the horror writer H.P. Lovecraft had the star-nosed mole in mind when he created the Cthulhu Mythos. Fortunately for us mortals, this little mammal is harmless—though it is not without some extraordinary powers of its own. I first came across the work of biologist Kenneth Catania in the recently reviewed Sentient and had to dig deeper. Great Adaptations is a personal and entertaining account of his almost five-decade career investigating the biological mysteries of the star-nosed mole and other creatures.

Great Adaptations (more…)

Book review – The Zoologist’s Guide to the Galaxy: What Animals on Earth Reveal about Aliens – and Ourselves

6-minute read

Can we predict what aliens will look like? On some level, no, which has given science fiction writers the liberty to let their imagination run wild. On another level, yes, writes zoologist Arik Kershenbaum. But we need to stop focusing on form and start focusing on function. There are universal laws of biology that help us understand why life is the way it is, and they are the subject of this book. If you are concerned that consideration of life’s most fundamental properties will make for a dense read, don’t panic, The Zoologist’s Guide to the Galaxy is a spine-tingling dive into astrobiology that I could not put down.

The Zoologist's Guide to the Galaxy slanted (more…)

Book review – Spider Webs: Behavior, Function, and Evolution

8-minute read

You would think that after centuries of studying spider webs we have a pretty good grasp of them. Yet a thorough, book-length review of their construction, function, and evolution has been missing. Emeritus Professor William Eberhard has taken on that colossal task, based on his nearly 50 years of observing spiders and their webs. Some works go on to define their discipline. Spider Webs has all the trappings of becoming the arachnological benchmark for many years to come.

Spider Webs (more…)