A new book
by Dr. David Hone called The Tyrannosaur Chronicles is now out. He reports here, “Although there is no more famous and recognisable dinosaur than Tyrannosaurus, the public perception of the animal is often greatly at odds with the science. The major image people have of them is the iconic jeep chasing scene in the film Jurassic Park. However, because they are among the best-studied of all dinosaurs, we can say that the tyrannosaurs almost certainly had feathers and may have fought and even ate each other.”
I have not read the book yet, but I’ll note a possible problem gleaned from quote pulled from a review.
Kirkus Reviews reports: “While correctly surmising that tyrannosaurs and other dinosaurs were carnivores, scientists erroneously assumed that they were some kind of previously unknown “giant land reptile.” Subsequent fossil discoveries in polar regions ruled out this possibility since coldblooded reptiles could not survive such extreme cold weather.”
I hope this is a misquote or I’m misreading this. It’s not news that tyrannosaurs and dinosaurs have been and will always be giant land reptiles. They nest in the clade Reptilia, no matter how cold-adapted they might have been. Hone might be going back, back in time to the first English discoveries from 50 years earlier, like Iguanodon and Megalosaurus, the first dinosaurs, which were named terrible lizards, and originally titled, “British Fossil Reptiles.”
And I hate to judge a book by its cover, but…
That small crested dinosaurs in the lower left corner is Guanlong, an ancestor not of tyrannosaurs, but of allosaurs in the large reptile tree. No word yet if Hone included the verified ancestors of tyrannosaurs, Zhenyuanlong, Tianyuraptor and Fukuiraptor. On that note, GotScience.org evidently quotes Hone when it reports, “Early tyrannosaurs had crests used for sexual display and social rank.”
Book and academic publishing is fraught with such risk and danger. Once you print it, you can’t retract or revise it. Sympathetically, I know from experience the things I would have changed about my early papers now, but was less experienced then.
I hear that Hone discusses feathers and such.
Amazon Reviews are universally positive:
- Dinosaurs are endlessly fascinating, and the massive, blood-thirsty tyrannosaurs are most popular (and scary) of the lot! Here, renowned dinosaur expert David Hone reveals their story, and how we know what we know about these most amazing of ancient reptiles. — Professor Mike Benton, University of Bristol
- Tyrannosaurs are probably the world’s favourite dinosaurs. But what do we really know about this group? David Hone reviews the biology, history, evolution, and behaviour of the tyrant kings – an excellent read, containing the very latest in our understanding of Tyrannosaurus rex and its closest relatives. — Dr Tom Holtz, University of Maryland
- Without doubt, the best book on tyrannosaurs I’ve ever read. This is an awesome dinosaur book. — Professor Xu Xing, Chinese Academy of Sciences
Do not be confused with this website:
http://traumador.blogspot.com which earlier featured ‘Traumador the tyrannosaur in the Tyrannosaurus Chronicles’ which can be silly and serious all on the same blog, explained here as:
“The Tyrannosaur Chronicles is a blog written by Traumador the Tyrannosaur about his many exploits.Traumador is a tyrannosaurid who hatched from an egg that magically survived the K/Pg Extinction Event and was discovered in Alberta by Craig, an aspiring paleontologist (and the mastermind behind the blog in real life). He eventually gets a job at the Royal Tyrell Museum and things get interesting from there.
From past experience,
such as when Hone attempted to compare the two hypotheses of pterosaur origins by dropping one, or when Hone attempted to show that Dmorphodon had a mandibular fenestra, or when Hone supported the deep chord bat wing model for pterosaur wings, or when Hone flipped the wingtips of Bellubrunnus, we might be wary about what Dr. Hone puts out there. But I don’t think you can go very wrong with tyrannosaurs, the most studied dinosaur. And the reviews speak high praise.