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Re: COMPLETELY LOST
>
> Hello,
>
> Well...um...I don't suppose I could trouble anyone to send me
> a letter, describing in layman's terms, the descussion about theropod
> relationships to birds(eg: the "...vs. T-rex" posts). I do understand
> some of it, but most of the terms I have never seen before in my life.
> Victem of pop-culture dino-books&*$#@!! some short deffinitions of
> some of the major terms (eg:maniraptorian) would be helpful as well.
> Hey, I gotta' start learning someplace...
>
> Also, could anyone tell me how I could get my hands on
> the/any paper(s) describing _Irritator_ and _Utahraptor_? I don't
> know what use this has for the rest of the list so feel free to
> respond to me personally...
>
> Thanx,
> Cory Gross
> Alberta Palaeontological Society
> MRC Earth Sciences Society
> gros4891@adc.mtroyal.ab.ca
>
Well, I'm a novice myself, and while a lot of this stuff goes over my head, its
a lot like learning, say, french by living in France for a while; you'll start
getting the hang of the lingo. In response to your question, Paul Sereno told
me that some good books to check out are _Norman's Dinosaur Encyclopedia_, and
for a more technical source, try _The Dinosauria_. The latter is a very large,
imposing book with lots of nifty bone illustrations, however, there seems to be
some griping here as to how accurate they are. I checked my library's copy out
for a while, but I never really got into reading it. A few other books that I'd
personally recommend are: _Discovering Dinosaurs_ this one answers a lot of
basic questions and is the companion book for the American Museum of Natural
History's new cladistic-based dinosaur exhibit and _The Dinosaur Heresies_ by
Robert (whoops!)
Bakker, he does a good job at describing his theories without a lot of
convaluted (sp?) language, when he enters into a situation where he must use
such words, he usually explains them along the way.
Hope that helps,
R. Scott Kowalke