DINOSAURS, SPITFIRES & SEA DRAGONS by...

DINOSAURS, SPITFIRES & SEA DRAGONS by Christopher MacGowan (Harvard University Press: $14.95, illustrated). Big, strange and extinct, dinosaurs continue to fascinate readers of all ages. Christopher MacGowan’s intelligent, readable book corrects many popular misconceptions that have arisen in recent years. He dismisses the illustrations of apatosaurus (a.k.a. brontosaurus) rearing up on its hind legs: Raising the creature’s head that high would require a staggering increase in blood pressure, just to keep it from fainting. Every basic dinosaur book says that the long tails counterbalanced the head and forequarters of bipedal animals; MacGowan recalls that when he assembled the bones of the duck-billed dinosaur lambeosaurus he discovered that “the skeleton was so well-balanced that the touch of a finger was enough to make it rock up and down.” Entertaining reading for science-minded adults--and parents who need to keep up with a budding paleontologist.