RE: Dinosaurs in a Haystack...

["Jaime A. Headden" <qilongia@yahoo.com>]

Dr. Tom Holtz wrote:

<My best recommendation: read them simply for
enjoyment.  You will certainly pick up a lot of useful
information in doing so (as well as a lot of
trivia...), and Gould is a great writer.
 
  These essays are written for enjoyment, not as a
textbook.

  Additionally, although most (all?) of us on the list
are dinosaur-obsessed, it is important to remember
that there is much more to paleontology than
dinosaurs, and much more to evolutionary biology than
paleontology.  Essays like Gould's are a useful way of
being introduced to these other topics.>

  This is all so true, and I have, for some
inexplicable reasons, found myself drawn into the
world of mammalian and early vertebrate paleontology,
including the early tetrapods/amniotes group, like
*Panderichthys* and *Eucritta*. Gould is a great read,
and I have found much of his essays, though few of any
dinosaur subject, and many actually about the Ediacara
fauna, to be throuroughly engaging and entertaining.


=====
Jaime "James" A. Headden

"Come the path that leads us to our fortune."

Qilong---is temporarily out of service.
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