THAT'S NO DINO!

A look at some of the physical features that distinguish true dinosaurs from other large, extinct creatures.

Becker tries here to create an unambiguous definition of dinosaur by comparing 11 prehistoric animals to a checklist of (supposed) dinosaur characteristics, but the attempt is likely to leave readers more confused than enlightened. “Dinosaurs had grasping hands,” for instance. Does T. rex? Well, no…but its ancestors did, so thumbs-up. How about Sacisaurus? Thumbs-down—even though no fossil hands have so far been found for that species. Does Quetzalcoatlus make the cut? No, because it had batlike wings, and “most dinosaurs didn’t.” Except, she admits, for that one kind that did. Protorosaurus? No, because it did not live in the Mesozoic Era. The birds of our era? “Dino experts say yes!” To be fair, even said experts can’t come up with a universally accepted definition, and eventually even the author seems to throw up her hands, switching in the last several pages to discussions of bird hips versus reptile hips and remarks about dinosaurs in general. Along with depicting all of the dinos and nondinos in the illustrations with the same creepy, staring eyes, Tremblay muddies the waters even further with a lineup of unlabeled skulls with varying numbers of holes in them in illustration of one of the principles of dinosaur-ness. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

A brave effort, doomed from the start.