Albertosaurus: Death of a Predator

Steve Pitt is a Toronto-based freelance writer and an award-winning journalist. He has written many young adult and children's books, including Day of the Flying Fox: The True Story of World War II Pilot Charley Fox.

Many eons ago, a young female albertosaur (a carnivorous dinosaur
related to the tyrannosaur) met an untimely end on the bank of an
ancient forest river. Seventy-five million years later, a man walking
through a desert valley noticed a dark rock sticking out of the ground.
The man, Dr. Philip Currie, one of the most famous palaeontologists in
the world, recognized the rock as a dinosaur fossil. At the time of
discovery, he did not know he had just discovered one of the most
complete tyrannosaur skeletons ever found. Part of this book is about
how Dr. Currie and his assistants recovered this amazing skeleton

from the Dinosaur Provincial Park in Alberta. Another part focuses on
what Dr. Currie learned about the skeleton as he examined each bone for
evidence of battle or sickness. A final part offers a fictional account
of what kind of world supported this massive young carnivore. Though the
albertosaur was at the top of the Cretaceous food chain, life was not
easy. Even millions of years after her death, scientists could see
evidence of the battle wounds that brought this mighty beast down.

Keiran does a fine job alternating between fiction and nonfiction as
she traces the work of Dr. Currie. Dozens of photos, sketches, and even
humorous cartoons support the text. Highly recommended.