Dinosaurs of the Flaming Cliff by Michael Novacek

If dinosaurs are of interest to you this is an excellent book. Novacek also writes of all aspects of dinosaur skeleton hunting and for the most part you feel like you are there with him and his crew. But most interesting, and not the usual fare, Novacek writes about interpretation of dinosaur finds over the many decades of fossil hunting and brings you right up to the present. Lots of information, well written and the excitement of fossil hunting - what more could you want?

excellent

Like the author I grew up reading All About Dinosaurs. This is a great read and retells the story of Roy Chapman Andrews as well as the compelling story of the authors own expedition to the flaming cliffs of the Gobi desert. A good arm chair read with enough science to keep you focused.

Being an avid dinosaur fan and having done a lot of reading on the subject, I was delighted to learn about some new discoveries.

Growing up in New York with the American Museum, I was an early dino fan. I made my parents get all the dinosaur books I could find, and they all had three pictures in common. The first was a poor Brontosaur being killed by an Allosaur (preferably squashing said Allosaur in it's death throes). The second was a Tyrranosaur and Triceratops locked in combat through eternity (said Triceratops preferably avenging the death of an innocent duckbill at the jaws of said Tyrranosaur). And the third was always a Protoceratops defending it's eggs from a vicious Oviraptor - the third in the unholy carnivorous dinosaur trinity, because we had never heard of Velociraptor/Utahraptor.
This was only twenty years ago, and recent discoveries have turned this whole third scenario on it's head.
The American Museum's expeditions to Mongolia have changed everything we know about Oviraptor. This one is a must for all dinosaur fans, taking us through what the expedition has learned about Mongolian dinosaurs since the seventies and describing the harrowing conditions that the expedition had to face.

Michael Novacek's Dinosaurs Of The Flaming Cliffs is an excellent introduction to paleontological fieldwork and expeditions AND to the science of paleontology. The chapters alternate between the trials and tribulations of each new field season and the basics of geology, paleontology, and evolutionary theory. There is the occasional minor error [which I cannot relocate and since I just read a copy of the hardback, I cannot say if those errors have been corrected in the paperback], but these do not distract from the overall excellence of the book. This book predates the confirmation of the discovery of the end of the Cretaceous impact crater in the Yucatan, so the discussion on the mass extinction at the end of the Cretaceous will seem a little out of date to the knowledgable reader. I look forward to reading Time Traveler, Novaceks newest book. I highly recommend Dinosaurs of the Flaming Cliffs to any fan of paleontology.

.....Only once in a great while does a book appear which makes a great leap forward in our understanding of paleontology and the per-history of the planet, and dinosaurs in particular. Such a book is "Dinosaurs of the Flaming Cliffs." It is an account of the American Museum of Natural History/Mongolian expeditions to the Gobi desert in 1990-95, a place first explored by Roy Chapman Andrews of the AMNH in the 1920s, where the first scientifically studied dinosaur eggs were discovered.
.....Dr. Michael J. Novacek, the expedition leader and Sr. Vice President and Provost of Science for the Museum, gives us a riveting first-person account of these explorations, alternating with detailed chapters on the paleontological discoveries which they made. Moving from collections of bones to an appraisal of how the animals (reptiles and mammals) lived and died, he gives us a new understanding, based on discoveries still being analyzed, of the implications to existing life on the planet, including homo sapiens. Including in his analysis all of biology as well as geology, Novacek giges us pause to consider what will survive on earth after a similar passage of time. All this without leaving out the human element: 1990s Mitsubishis are just as prone to getting stuck in the mud or sand as were 1920s Dodges!
.....The expeditions start at the Flaming Cliffs in Mongolia's Gobi Desert, where the Andrews/Granger expeditions made their most important finds, and go on to desert locations, mountains and canyons such as the Nemegt Valley, with names like Tugrugeen Shireh, Kheerman Tsav, and Ukhaa Tolgod. This last location they called Xanadu, after Kubla Khan's famous "pleasure dome," because it was such a treasure trove of new discoveries. And they were not only dinosaurs, but often tiny mammals, our true ancestors.
.....Dr. Novacek presents us with the greatest assemblage of new paleontology discoveries currently available to the average reader, beautifully and amply illustrated by Ed Heck of the Museum staff.
.....No one interested in paleontology and dinosaurs can afford not to read this book. Nor can anyone interested in the course of life on planet earth. Dr. Novacek and his colleagues' work is still going on.
.....This book is highly recommended for everyone from high school to old age. Public libraries should have it in their science collections. And don't neglect "Time Traveler," a later book also by Dr. Novacek.
.....We can only hope that explorers like this will keep on going (to use Roy Chapman Andrews' phrase) to "the ends of the earth," and come back to tell us about it!

Two books in one: a look at the Cretaceous inhabitants of the Gobi, and an adventure narrative of the archaeological teams that study them. Read this to get a feeling of what it's like to be a field archaeologist in one of the most remote desert areas in the world.