Re: COMPLETELY LOST

[scot1556@elmhcx9.elmhurst.edu (Scott Kowalke)]

> 
>     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