My Beloved Brontosaurus: On the Road with Old Bones, New Science, and Our Favorite Dinosaurs

“A delight . . . This may be the one book for catching up on what has become of the dinosaurs you thought you knew from grade school.” —The New York Times

One of Publishers Weekly’s Top Ten Spring Science Books

Dinosaurs, with their awe-inspiring size, terrifying claws and teeth, and otherworldly abilities, occupy a sacred place in our childhoods. They loom over museum halls, thunder through movies, and are a fundamental part of our collective imagination. In My Beloved Brontosaurus, dinosaur fanatic Brian Switek enriches the childlike sense of wonder these amazing creatures instill in us. Investigating the latest discoveries in paleontology, he breathes new life into old bones.

Switek reunites us with these mysterious creatures as he visits desolate excavation sites and hallowed museum vaults, exploring everything from the sex life of Apatosaurus and T. rex’s feather-laden body to just why dinosaurs vanished. (And of course, on his journey, he celebrates the book’s hero, “Brontosaurus”—who suffered a second extinction when we learned he never existed at all—as a symbol of scientific progress.)

With infectious enthusiasm, Switek questions what we’ve long held to be true about these beasts, weaving in stories about his obsession with dinosaurs, which started when he was just knee-high to a Stegosaurus. Endearing, surprising, and essential to our understanding of our own evolution and our place on Earth, My Beloved Brontosaurus “passionately and playfully explores scientists’ evolving perception of the wild, wonderful dinosaur world” (Science).

“Switek geeks out gloriously on everything from the truth about Jurassic Park to the ugliest roadside dinosaurs he has ever seen.” —The Dallas Morning News

“Breezy and engaging.” —Nature

“Fleshes out the monstrous skeletons that we all remember from childhood museum field trips with meaty new findings about their anatomy and behavior.” —Discover

© 2024 Scientific American / Farrar, Straus and Giroux (Ebook): 9781466836761

Release date

Ebook: 2 July 2024