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A review by tbr_the_unconquered
The Tyrannosaur Chronicles: The Biology of the Tyrant Dinosaurs by David Hone
3.0
If popular media is any indication, the Tyrannosaurus rex is a huge celebrity. Movies, merchandise, books and comics focus on this animal and it has been one of the forerunners that introduced what a dinosaur was to the general populace. Keeping all the razzmatazz aside there wasn’t much I knew about the Tyrannosaurs as a family of dinosaurs. Having prided myself to be a dinosaur nut, the biggest revelation to me was that the T-rex is only one among the many species of Tyrannosaurus that roamed the planet. Talk about ignorance !
The subtitle of the book captures it best for the contents cover the biology of the family of theropod dinosaurs in its entirety. The anatomy, possible behavioural patterns, ecosystems that supported this carnivore and also its prey and competition are topics that get covered. While this subject matter appears very interesting at a first glance, the writing style is a tad too academic to support a swift read. David Hone writes in a precise and accurate fashion that edges this book closer to textbook territory than a popular science book. Even with me wanting to understand more about the animal the writing kept me derailed for a big part of the book.
However in defence of the book and also looking at all this objectively this could be the best way to write such a book. These animals are long gone and we will not see them nor hear them again and all that we can do is to tinker around with bones. A lot many of what we know about dinosaurs is based on a few facts, some conjectures, a lot of approximations and ample amounts of guess work. David Hone does not hesitate to call a spade a spade and where he is faced with inadequate data, he makes sure that the reader knows it too. This is contrary to what a lot of popular science articles about dinosaurs admit to since they make definitive assertions about a species where every new fossil find changes things sometimes drastically.
The Tyrannosaur family is a very diverse one ranging from the little Guanlong to the gigantic T-rex and there is a very solid coverage of almost all of these family members here. While the academic approach was a turn off, it was an educating read.
The subtitle of the book captures it best for the contents cover the biology of the family of theropod dinosaurs in its entirety. The anatomy, possible behavioural patterns, ecosystems that supported this carnivore and also its prey and competition are topics that get covered. While this subject matter appears very interesting at a first glance, the writing style is a tad too academic to support a swift read. David Hone writes in a precise and accurate fashion that edges this book closer to textbook territory than a popular science book. Even with me wanting to understand more about the animal the writing kept me derailed for a big part of the book.
However in defence of the book and also looking at all this objectively this could be the best way to write such a book. These animals are long gone and we will not see them nor hear them again and all that we can do is to tinker around with bones. A lot many of what we know about dinosaurs is based on a few facts, some conjectures, a lot of approximations and ample amounts of guess work. David Hone does not hesitate to call a spade a spade and where he is faced with inadequate data, he makes sure that the reader knows it too. This is contrary to what a lot of popular science articles about dinosaurs admit to since they make definitive assertions about a species where every new fossil find changes things sometimes drastically.
The Tyrannosaur family is a very diverse one ranging from the little Guanlong to the gigantic T-rex and there is a very solid coverage of almost all of these family members here. While the academic approach was a turn off, it was an educating read.