موزه استخوان‌ها: سفر به دنیای گمشده دایناسورها و پرندگان

From China to Patagonia, award-winning science writer Wayne Grady accompanies a team of paleontologists on several digs. Following the work of Phil Currie, a leading vertebrate paleontologist, the author traces the evolutionary link between dinosaurs and birds. Living in tents and experiencing fieldwork as well as the thrill of discovery firsthand, Grady recounts his journey with a storyteller's sense of narrative. "The theory that dinosaurs have evolved into birds has sent science writer Wayne Grady on a globetrotting fossil hunt with brush and pick in hand. In The Bone Museum, Grady follows vertebrate paleontologist Phil Currie, one of the world's leading proponents of the bird-dinosaur connection, on a journey in search of answers to the question: Is there life after extinction?" "Living in tents and experiencing the drudgery of fieldwork as well as the thrill of discovery, Grady recounts his journeys with great detail, clarity, and a storyteller's sense of narrative. Through frustrations, blisters, blinding wind storms, rain and mud, to the ultimate glimpse of bone, his tales offer a compelling blend of adventurous travel and intellectual quest."--Jacket In 1996, a group of Chinese farmers discovered fossils whose skeletons looked like small dinosaurs outlined with feathers. To paleontologist Phil Currie, this finding suggested that the controversial theory that dinosaurs evolved into birds might be true. In The Bone Museum, Wayne Grady recounts his travels with Currie on major digs. Conveying both the environmental challenges and the adrenaline rush of discovery, Grady's tales are a compelling blend of adventure and intellectual quest Cover 1 Acknowledgements 6 Table of Contents 8 1 Phil Currie's Christmas Turkey 14 2 Lost Worlds 40 3 To the Rio Negro 68 4 Theropod Heaven 86 5 Desert Rain 114 6 Overburden 130 7 Beyond the Dusty Universe 150 8 The Living Screen 174 9 The Call of the Wakon Bird 192 10 A Day at the Bone Museum 216 11 Dry Island 238 12 The Fossil Song 264 13 Ghost Birds 284 Index 296 TO THOSE WHO TRAVEL, all routes are circuitous.