An Uneasy Combination - Travelogue and Dinosaur/Geology Science

books:

	• Cruisin' the Fossil Freeway: An Epoch Tale of a Scientist and an Artist on the Ultimate 5,000-Mile Paleo Road ... Kirk Johnson Fulcrum Publishing, 2007 - 208 pages average customer review:based on 11 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Great book!

Kirk Johnson of the Denver Museum of Natural History and his traveling companion, artist Ray Troll, take us on a goofy whirlwind tour of fossil sites in the West that is funny and also informative. Kirk Johnson explains a lot of geological concepts along the way, while weaving in great anecdotes and entertaining sketches of the whacky characters who live and work at many of the sites they visit. Ray Troll's art, as always, is great and often quite surreal, and there's lots of it on every page. Highly recommended!

Caution! Paleo Fever is Catching

Caution! Paleo fever is catching. I already had a light dose of it before reading the book. Not many people carry around a small chunk of dinosaur rib in their purse just for the heck of it. (It makes a hilarious conversation piece at security check points. Most screeners don't want anything more to do with the purse after finding the bone.)

Now, after reading the book, I have a full blown case, and am itching to get back on the road. This book strikes just the right balance between hard information and just plain fun.

We went to Montana last summer and met several people who were at least as interesting as the bones - with strange tales of discovery and survival. Guess what! after reading the book, I now know that there is a whole world of fossils and people just waiting to be discovered.

This book answers a lot of questions that I had - i.e. what on earth is a concretion? Before reading the book, I could recognize one, but couldn't define what it was. Now I know more about what they are and how they form.

The book delivers a steady drip of valid scientific information that you almost don't realize that you are getting. (The author is a curator at the Denver Museum.)

The book will also tell you how to recognize and find dinosaur tracks at 65 miles an hour. - I won't give away the secret,but, I'll give you a hint: it involves birthday cake and ants.

Be warned! If you read this book, you will be left screaming for a ROAD TRIP in the great old American tradition.

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Fun for paleofreaks

For anyone who lives in the Western US and loves fossils, this is a wonderful adventure. Kirk Johnson is knowledgeable and knows how to have fun. Ray Troll's illustrations are cheerful and bright and just psychedelic enough to captivate people of all ages. Most fossil/paleo books are dry, but this one rocks!

Geology Illustrated

The book was listed in Science News, which is a weekly publication with current news in the world of Science. My spouse, who is a Registered Professional Geologist, asked me to purchase it for her. At first glance she thought it was a children's book, however; in reading further realized the book was intended for adults. Her rating is that the publication was very good, both well written and illustrated. This rating means a lot because it is from someone who must have at least a zillion books on Geology and also has a Masters Degree in the subject.

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An Uneasy Combination - Travelogue and Dinosaur/Geology Science

This book is a rather uneasy mixture of science (geology and paleontology) and travelogue as the author, Kirk Johnson, and the illustrator, Ray Troll, spend time travelling through Colorado, Montana, Utah, Wyoming and elsewhere visiting well-known fossil sites, observing the geology, and digging up more than a few fossils of their own. The stories are fun and interesting, the photos are great, and the illustrations are wonderful.

But somehow the whole is less than the sum of the parts. There wasn't enough specific information about the geology or paleontology to really let you learn about these things. You certainly couldn't take this book with you into the field and find the appropriate fossil sites, identify the geological layers, or identify a fossil. I will say, however, that Dr. Johnson gives the best explanation I've ever read for how to spot dinosaur tracks while driving at 65 mph down the highway.

I found it increasingly irritating as I read the book that the author repeatedly noted that paleontologists use GPS coordinates to find good sites, but then he doesn't give any of these coordinates - even for commercial or public sites. Vague directions are indicated for some sites, but no detailed maps or driving instructions. Also missing is a list of suggested books for further reading. This is most trying, because reading the book makes you want to take a field trip or at least read some more about this great stuff.

Ray Troll's illustration are lots of fun and deserve to be on t-shirts everywhere that people care about fossils and dinosaurs (and cheeseburgers).

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reviews: page 1, 2, 3

Cruisin' the Fossil Freeway follows the zany travels of a paleontologist and an artist as they drive across the American West in search of fossils. Throughout their journey, they encounter "paleonerds" like themselves, men and women dedicated to finding everything from suburban T. rexes to killer Eocene pigs to ancient fossilized forests. Much of their travels are spent in remote places few people visit, where they discover small-town museums packed with paleontological treasures, rock quarries that have yielded hundreds of fossilized bones, and the remains of ancient seashores tracked with the footprints of dinosaurs. What soon becomes evident is that fossils are everywhere; it only takes knowing what to look for to find them--even at 65 miles per hour.

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