Dinosaur Country: Unearthing the Badlands' Prehistoric Past

Janet Arnett is the former campus manager of adult education at Ontario’s Georgian College. She is the author of Antiques and Collectibles: Starting Small, The Grange at Knock, and 673 Ways to Save Money.

The author tells us she finds her subject magical, although that appreciation doesn’t start to show until approximately chapter four. The impression given by the first chapters is that Gross has tried to disguise her non-scientist status by sounding pseudoscientific. Her style in these early chapters would choke a Tyrannosaurus Rex. When she moves on to describing specific dinosaur types, an improvement sets in. While the style remains far from good, at least it passes the point of inflicting pain. Unfortunately — for good material follows — only devoted dinosaur fans will stick with the book to that point.

The area covered is the Badlands along the Red Deer River in Alberta, including the Dinosaur Provincial Park. Over 500 specimens of dinosaurs have been recovered there — approximately 70 per cent of all North American finds — and these now populate top musuems throughout the world.

The work contains excellent information on the various types of dinosaurs, their habitat, life styles, fossilization, and restoration as museum exhibits. Gross recounts the history and politics of “bone hunting” from the Indian period to the present, and she includes a chapter on the establishment of the Provincial Park.

The book has excellent illustrations (black-and-white drawings and photos), and the introductory sections are weighty with geological facts, charts, and Latin. Obviously we’re meant to be impressed. The index is far from complete but adequate for most purposes.

Gross knows her subject and has organized it well. Scrap the first three chapters and the remainder is a good presentation on an intriguing subject.