RE: Request for some help.

["Thomas R. Holtz, Jr." <th81@umail.umd.edu>]

At 01:21 PM 7/6/99 -0500, Cynthia Ruiz McKee wrote:
>The book, The Collector, is a contemporary novel/thriller (with a touch
>of sci-fi), but has a couple of chapters which will deal with
>prehistoric time.  Since I want to get my facts straight (after all I do
>write reference books).  I've been all over the Internet

EEEKKK!!

Okay, there are some good dinosaur sites out there (the compilers of whom
are on this list :-), but remember that the 'net is not peer-reviewed and a
LOT of bad/spurious information is out there.

>and have found
>some great sites, but it's taking a lot of time to find what I need.
>The e-mail I've received from the list has given me a couple of thoughts
>about possibilities for the chapters.
>
>Can anyone either provide a list or suggest a Website which will provide
>a list of what large dinosaurs occurred in what time period?
>
>Which dinosaurs existed at the same time?
>
>What was the flora and fauna of the varies eras?

Okay, the best I can do for you is suggest some of the latest reference books:

Farlow, J. O. & M. K. Brett-Surman (eds.) 1997. The Complete Dinosaur.
Indiana University Press.  now in paperback!
  This book has got a LOT of what you are looking for.  It reviews the flora
and fauna of various times, gives an overview of the major groups of
dinosaurs, and even lists (on pp. 648-649) the time (to the Epoch level) and
place (to the continent level) of the most completely known dinosaurs as of
c. 1996.

Currie, P. J. & K. Padian (eds.) 1997. Encyclopedia of Dinosaurs. Academic
Press.
  Truly an encyclopedia of dinosaurs (unlike many books of that name): in
other words, a collection of short articles in alphabetical order.  Although
it doesn't cover the contemporaneous plants and other animals of the time,
it does have more precise descriptions of which dinosaurs are found in which
stratigraphic units for many of the more productive formations.

And an oldie but a good:
Weishampel, D. B., P. Dodson & H. Osmolska (eds.) 1990. The Dinosauria.
University of California Press.
  The bible of dinosaur research, unfortunately out of date in some parts.
Gives more detail than you'd probably ever need on the occurances of
dinosaurs in different formations, among a lot of other stuff.  Much more
techincal than the other two books.

Back to work...

                        Thomas R. Holtz, Jr.
                        Vertebrate Paleontologist
Deptartment of Geology                  Director, Earth, Life & Time Program
University of Maryland                  College Park Scholars
College Park, MD  20742       
Webpage: http://www.geol.umd.edu        Phone:301-405-4084
Email:tholtz@geol.umd.edu               Fax:  301-314-9661