I have one of the best jobs in the world: I am a paleontologist who digs up dinosaur bones for a living. I am also the paleontology consultant for the Jurassic World film series, and I teach courses at the University of Edinburgh about Earth history and evolution. I’ve written science books such as The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs and The Rise and Reign of the Mammals. My latest book, The Story of Birds: A New History from Their Dinosaur Origins to the Present, is about the origin and evolution of birds over time. This month I have an article in Scientific American’s May issue about why birds were the only dinosaurs to survive the terrible asteroid-triggered extinction 66 million years ago. People who see the Jurassic World films or read my work often ask how they can learn more about dinosaurs, so here are 10 dinosaur books that I often recommend.
The Dinosaur Heresies: New Theories Unlocking the Mystery of the Dinosaurs and Their Extinction
by Robert Bakker
Zebra Books, 1986
This is one of the most important books on dinosaurs ever written, in terms of its impact on paleontology and on the public consciousness. It’s also one of the most fun. In his 1986 pop science book, Bob Bakker—the hippie-haired, cowboy-hatted paleontologist who was a mainstay on television documentaries for decades—presented his revolutionary ideas that dinosaurs were more active, energetic and birdlike than people thought at the time. Sluggish, tail-dragging, dim-witted behemoths were out, and hot-blooded dinos were in. This book also provided some of the inspiration for the dinosaurs of Jurassic Park.
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Men and Dinosaurs: The Search in Field and Laboratory
by Edwin H. Colbert
E. P. Dutton, 1968
If you want to know about the history of dinosaur paleontology as a discipline, this is the best place to start. For decades, Ned Colbert held court at the American Museum of Natural History as the curator of dinosaurs and other fossil reptiles. His research set the agenda for dinosaur paleontology in the years before Bakker and his contemporaries mounted their revolution. In this book, Colbert tells the story of the ways people came to understand dinosaurs, the major discoveries that moved the field forward and the colorful characters behind the research.
The Last Days of the Dinosaurs: An Asteroid, Extinction, and the Beginning of Our World
by Riley Black
St. Martin’s Press, 2022
When a six-mile-wide asteroid crashed into what is now the Gulf of Mexico, it unleashed fire and brimstone and ended the reign of the dinosaurs. The story of how scientists realized that an asteroid caused the dinosaur extinction was told with warmth and wit by geologist Walter Alvarez—who made the discovery—in his book T. rex and the Crater of Doom. Twenty-five years later science writer Riley Black presented the latest and most engaging glimpse at what it would have been like to experience the carnage. In doing so, Black pioneered a new genre of narrative prehistorical nonfiction.
The Dinosaurs Rediscovered: The Scientific Revolution in Paleontology
by Michael J. Benton
Thames & Hudson, 2019
Few paleontologists have seen as many fossils, written as many books and led as many research projects as Mike Benton of the University of Bristol in England. That is what drew me to study with him as a master’s student. In this book, he presents the facts we truly know about dinosaurs, as well as the evidence and methods behind the theories. Throughout, he argues that although paleontology was once the realm of “stamp collectors” obsessed with collecting fossils, it is now a modern science awash in data and hypothesis testing.
Dinosaurs without Bones: Dinosaur Lives Revealed by Their Trace Fossils
by Anthony Martin
Pegasus Books, 2014
When I think of dinosaur fossils, my mind immediately drifts back to when I was a child, seeing giant skeletons of T. rex and Brachiosaurus in the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago. And indeed, the most celebrated fossils of dinosaurs are bones and claws and teeth. But in this subversively funny book, paleontologist Tony Martin revels in an underrated but important type of dinosaur fossil: the footprints and handprints and other traces they left behind. As somebody who has discovered and studied many dinosaur trackways on the Isle of Skye in Scotland, I loved how this book gave the spotlight to a type of fossil that is often ignored.
Dinosaurs: A Concise Natural History
by David E. Fastovsky and David B. Weishampel
Fourth edition, Cambridge University Press, 2021
In my view, this is the premier dinosaur textbook on the market. Co-written by two leading experts who have both spent considerable time in the field digging fossils and in the classrooms teaching, it tells the story of dinosaur evolution, anatomy and behavior with authority and without becoming bogged down in detail. If you’re looking for something a bit more academic but aren’t yet ready to dive into a Ph.D. on Triceratops cranial osteology, this is the book for you.
The Dinosaur Artist: Obsession, Science, and the Global Quest for Fossils
by Paige Williams
Paperback, Grand Central Publishing, 2019
Ned Colbert told the grandiose tale of how academic scientists—mostly in the U.S., Canada, U.K. and continental Europe—founded the discipline of dinosaur paleontology. First published in 2018, this book by long-time New Yorker writer Paige Williams explores the seedier underbelly of the dinosaur world: the black-market hucksters who illegally collect and auction fossils. It’s a human drama of adventure and adrenaline, but you learn quite a bit about dinosaurs along the way.
Dinosaurs: How They Lived and Evolved
by Darren Naish and Paul Barrett
Smithsonian Books, 2016
This is a dinosaur book for the masses: an up-to-date, fun, fast-paced and richly illustrated look at what dinosaurs were actually like, as real living and evolving animals. Naish and Barrett are leading dinosaur experts based in England, and their decades of experience in the field shine through. When people ask me for an accessible book on dinosaurs for adults who also want to see a lot of awesome imagery, this is the one I recommend.
Uncovering Dinosaur Behavior: What They Did and How We Know
by David Hone
Princeton University Press, 2024
People often ask me—especially after seeing one of the Jurassic World films—what we actually know about how dinosaurs lived and behaved. Did some of them live in groups or hunt in packs? How intelligent were they? How did they see and hear and smell their world? The best summary of what we know about dinosaurs, and how we know it, is this primer by English paleontologist Dave Hone, a specialist on the behavior and biology of extinct species who also has a deep understanding of modern animal behavior.
Why Dinosaurs Matter
by Kenneth Lacovara
Simon & Schuster/TED, 2017
This delightful book is unlike any other on dinosaurs. It is written by a celebrated TED speaker series veteran: New Jersey–based paleontologist Ken Lacovara, whose team discovered the colossal long-necked dinosaur Dreadnoughtus in Argentina. Ken writes like a poet, gushing about his love for dinosaurs and making a stirring argument for why studying dinosaurs means something. He argues that learning about dinosaurs and how they changed over time can give insight into how our world is changing today. If you like this book and its effusive style, also check out Otherlands by paleobiologist Thomas Halliday: it’s not a book about dinosaurs per se, but it covers the entire history of life on Earth in a glorious, lyrical tone.