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Title: Time Traveler: In Search of Dinosaurs and Other Fossils from Montana to Mongolia by Michael Novacek ISBN: 0-374-52876-4 Publisher: Farrar Straus & Giroux Pub. Date: 15 March, 2003 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $15.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.43 (14 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Thrilling Account of Fossil Hunter
Comment: After reading Dinosaurs of the Flaming Cliffs (Dr. Novacek's vivid account of his Mongolian expeditions), I was eager for more. Happily, Time Traveler does not disappoint and I devoured every page of this exuberant romp through the world of fossil hunting. Follow Novacek around the globe as he escapes a cave full of poisonous snakes, gets dragged over rugged mountains by a skittish horse, attends a rather curious party in the middle of Yemen, and, oh yeah, finds some incredible fossils along the way. His adventures as a paleontologist are sure to inspire anyone, young or old, to travel to the far corners of the globe in search of the past and the present. The illustrations and especially the maps are extremely useful, and always seem to pop up right when you need them. Although the book focuses primarily on Novacek's expeditions, he takes great care describing in layman's terms the scientific ideas behind his pursuits. I would recommend this to anyone with a taste for adventure - especially those who fear there is nothing left to discover on our planet. Time Traveler is sure to excite both armchair and professional explorers alike.
Rating: 4
Summary: The travels began in childhood
Comment: And so does Novacek's book. So right away we know that TIME TRAVELER is not merely a recounting of paleontological studies. They certainly remain as one of the main topics of discussion and the trips to Mongolia, Yemen, and Chile read like adventures rather than scientific expeditions. Interwoven throughout is Novacek's personal story and recollections. There was nothing to indicate that the ten year old who was "more of a Beaver Cleaver type than a young Indiana Jones" would eventually go on to become one of our foremost paleontologists. Novacek recounts a fairly normal, middle-class life, growing up in suburban Los Angeles. His admission that he "liked crawling around in the dirt and mud, turning over rocks, and looking at things through binoculars and microscopes" is however insufficient evidence of a budding scientist. Didn't we all do the same? The difference perhaps is that when the opportunity arose to loose himself in the world of girls and music, Novacek remained enthused with the fossilized world.
His enthusiasm is still there and it's captivating. The thrill he gets from discovery, the joy of the outdoors, and the sense of adventure are all reminiscent of our own simple childhood pleasures. Novacek's willingness to share these feelings with us and the writing style which enhances it, makes this a very refreshing reading experience. It's not all fun and enjoyment however. He tells of illness and infections, insect bites and stings, and injury. Deadly places and dangerous people provided their own challenges.
Science remains the serious subject connecting all the personal stories and travel adventures. As such Novacek delves into current topics in paleontology such as extinctions and loss of biodiversity, continental drift, and dinosaur and mammalian evolution. In the debate about the origins of birds he comes down firmly on the side of a dinosaurian origin. He adds his own support to the view that dinosaurs are not extinct by saying "the survivors were of course birds." On another subject where the majority of recent writers are in agreement (Bjorn Lomborg excepted), Novacek agrees that the loss of biodiversity is a critical issue. Near the end he offers a view that is far from cheerful and refreshing and as such jangles with the joie de vivre which characterized so much of the book. His statement that "paleontology should not be the only biological science in the future - the science of a dead planet" is no doubt informed by a life spent in realities of science.
Rating: 3
Summary: A life in the field...
Comment: Michael Novacek must be a very interesting person, judging from "Time Traveller," which he describes as "a book not about a life, but about a life in the field." Starting from his childhood in California, he relates the story of his start as a young paleontologist (moving from a background as an indifferent student and an unsuccessful rock musician) working in the American West and Baja California. Most of the digs take place in unpleasant locations, fraught with heat, scorpions and dreadful food. As he moves up the academic ladder, the digs become much more exotic and he heads out to Patagonia (where it is cold and windy instead of hot and accidents with horses can happen, but the food is still of varying quality), then to Yemen (where there are not even any interesting fossils to make up for the sheer awfulness of the place), Mongolia and Argentina. It appears that extreme physical fitness is a prerequisite for those wishing to enter this profession.
The major fault of the book is that it appears to be written backwards. The last chapters, focussing on the extremely important discoveries made in the 1990s in Mongolia, are fascinating and move quickly. They appear to come from another, and better, book. When he writes of the importance of palaeontology and the fossil record, his prose is powerful and almost poetic. But the earlier chapters seem to meander, a collection of anecdotes about his childhood, working in the field, a bit of this and a bit of that. One has the impression that Dr. Novacek is a bit of a scatterbrain, unable to focus his attention--Looky! Old rocks! Insectivore jaws! Bikini babes! Look! Fossil fish! Ancient teeth! Yemeni bandits! Look! Picturesque Chileans! That Roy Chapman Andrews-what a guy! Hey, look! We've been in Mongolia for ten years!
The chapter on Yemen is particularly odd. It describes in great detail all the problems involved in working in this near-medieval country, the dangers and the heat, but the only scientific finding is that there is really not much there to interest a paleontologist. Nonetheless, in the next chapter he writes about possibly putting together another expedition to go back, until he is distracted by Mongolia. Is this a thirst for derring-do, in the style of Andrews?
His attempt to write "popular science" often feels clumsy but cannot hide the fact that many of his discoveries are significant and have contributed to many serious scientific debates. I particularly liked his writing about how the Mongolian dinosaurs may have died. Originally accepting the idea that they were buried in soft sand, he carefully describes recent work by geologists that suggests instead that heavy rains resulted in mudslides that caught the animals in the gullies where they lived. It is clearly and elegantly expressed and ultimately helps make this book worth reading. It probably would be a better book with less rock-smashing and more such thoughtful analysis.
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Title: Dinosaurs of the Flaming Cliff by Michael Novacek ISBN: 0385477759 Publisher: Anchor Pub. Date: 18 August, 1997 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
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Title: The Lost Dinosaurs of Egypt by William Nothdurft, Josh Smith ISBN: 0375507957 Publisher: Random House Pub. Date: 24 September, 2002 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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Title: Walking on Eggs : The Astonishing Discovery of Thousands of Dinosaur Eggs in the Badlands of Patagonia by Luis Chiappe, Lowell Dingus ISBN: 0743212118 Publisher: Scribner Pub. Date: 19 June, 2001 List Price(USD): $25.00 |
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Title: Dragon Hunter: Roy Chapman Andrews and the Central Asiatic Expeditions by Charles Gallenkamp, Michael J. Novacek ISBN: 0142000760 Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: 26 March, 2002 List Price(USD): $15.00 |
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Title: Gorgon: Paleontology, Obsession, and the Greatest Catastrophe in Earth's History by Peter Douglas Ward ISBN: 0670030945 Publisher: Viking Press Pub. Date: 15 January, 2004 List Price(USD): $27.95 |
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