Disclaimer: machine translated by DeepL which may contain errors.
"Exploring the World of Dinosaur"
Tatsuya Hirasawa, Associate Professor, Department of Earth and Planetary Science
| Kaiji Kobayashi (Editor) "Dinosaurology" |
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The University of Tokyo Press (2025) |
Every summer, dinosaur skeletons are exhibited at various museums and event venues, attracting large numbers of children and adults alike. The content of the exhibits varies considerably from one event to the next, with exhibits including not only familiar dinosaurs that have been in illustrated books for a long time, but also dinosaurs whose names we have never heard before, and explanations of aspects of dinosaur ecology that we did not know about at all. This reflects not only the high diversity of dinosaurs, but also the ever-advancing research on dinosaurs. The development of various analytical techniques has enabled us to understand the bodies, ecology, and evolution of dinosaurs known only as fossils, as well as things that were previously a complete mystery (e.g., body color!). ), which were previously a complete mystery, can now be elucidated through the development of a variety of analytical techniques.
In the past, the only textbooks available for undergraduate and graduate students in such research fields were books published in the United States and the United Kingdom and their translations. When I was a student, I studied from such books. However, unlike those days (20 years ago) when the only dinosaur researcher in Japan was Dr. Makoto Manabe, there are now a number of researchers in Japan conducting world-class dinosaur research. This book is the first "purely domestic" textbook that comprehensively covers various topics in dinosaur research, written by 13 up-and-coming researchers among them. The volume is as informative and specialized as a textbook written in English, and is highly recommended not only for students, but also for the general public and teachers.
(Related Lectures: Evolution of Earth Life, Paleontology (Faculty of Science))