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If you're of a certain age, you likely went through a dinosaur phase as a kid, perhaps even dreaming of turning up the bones of stegosauruses, tyrannosauruses, and other famed creatures of the Age of Reptiles. In this affectionate memoir of "a life in the field," paleontologist Michael Novacek writes of his early years entertaining such dreams and of his ongoing education in the ways of the "terrible lizards."
Now curator of paleontology at the American Museum of Natural History, Novacek has traveled the world on the trail of fossils and ancient bones, collecting thousands on thousands of specimens. Often, we gather from his pages, his expeditions have been fraught with danger, whether in the form of some exotic disease or some incautious driver on a faraway road. No matter: for Novacek, the thrill of the hunt is reason enough to shrug off peril, and he shares charming anecdotes drawn from his decades of fieldwork, as well as his understanding of what such research can teach us about the past and present alike.
Armchair travelers and paleontologists in training, to say nothing of readers going through a dinosaur phase of their own, will take much pleasure in Novacek's journeys into his--and the planet's--past. --Gregory McNamee
From Publishers Weekly
Transporting readers to dinosaur excavations across the globe, paleontologist Novacek (Dinosaurs of the Flaming Cliffs) offers a spellbinding natural history of our planet, as well as the equally fascinating story of how he fell into the profession. As a child, Novacek mined for bones in the backyards of Los Angeles, studied the geostrata of the Grand Canyon, discovered a trilobite fossil in a Wisconsin quarry and frequently visited the local La Brea Tar Pits. Though Novacek claims he's no Indiana Jones, he finds himself on the wrong side of a gun more than once whether the gun be held by Mexican drunkards or the Yemeni army. The most rousing passages depict stormy expeditions to Chilean Patagonia in search of fossilized whale vertebrae along an ancient shoreline in the Andes an incredible 10,000 feet above sea level. Novacek's team also discovered rare dinosaur trackways that today appear to scale the vertical walls of deep canyons, and the team accomplished what Charles Darwin set out to do 150 years earlier they collected fossils of giant sloths, armadillos and the peculiar glyptodonts for the study of mammalian vertebrae. Novacek mixes heady science his explanations of Carbon-14 dating, geological development, ancient magnetic forces and paleontological history are clear and dynamic with hard-grit adventure, making for a passionate memoir that readers will find appealing, especially, perhaps, young "dinophiles" in search of a vocation. Illus. Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
Is paleontology important today? This is the question noted paleontologist and American Museum of Natural History curator Novacek poses in his latest book. His experiences in the field support the conclusion that the fossil record provides us with important information related to our evolutionary future and, more significantly, reveals facts related to various mass extinctions in the past. The fossil record also reveals patterns in extinction; recently, a scientific paper put forth the possibility that it may take as long as ten million years to replenish the earth's ecosystems following a mass extinction. Those sobering comments aside, most of Novacek's book reads like an Indiana Jones movie script. His fieldwork has taken him to some of the most politically unstable and dangerous places in the world Yemen, Patagonia, Mongolia which hold some of the most important fossil finds relating to the evolution of mammals and how dinosaurs lived, died, reproduced, and cared for their young. Even routine field trips to Baja and Hell Creek are fraught with hazards relating to extreme temperatures and mishaps with horses and insects. Recommended for public libraries and armchair adventurers everywhere. Gloria Maxwell, Penn Valley Community Coll., Kansas City, MOCopyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
From Booklist
Novacek's mentor warned him that fieldwork in paleontology is "49 percent anticipation, 49 percent recollection, and 2 percent success." Now at the pinnacle of his profession (he is curator at the American Museum of Natural History), Novacek recalls his three decades of expeditions around the world. The author first describes the youthful experiences that inspired him to become a paleontologist, such as discovering a trilobite or working in LA's La Brea Tar Pits. Then Novacek launches into his various expeditions, and because his tone is distinctly self-deprecatory, the narrative projects something of the bumblers-abroad motif, replete with jams Novacek and his mates got into in Baja California, Chile, and Yemen. Interweaving his adventures with explanations of where his finds fit into the geologic past, Novacek has combined the comedic with the informative in this entertaining survey of his career. A delightful read from the author of Dinosaurs of the Flaming Cliffs (1996). Gilbert Taylor
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
From Book News, Inc.
Paleontologist Novacek (American Museum of Natural History, New York) again proves himself to be an appealing writer with a reflective and accessible style. In this blend of memoir, adventure story, and science reporting, he talks about his own beginnings as a "dinosaur dreamer" during childhood in Los Angeles. He then covers political battles that shaped various expeditions across the globe; the pressing issues of paleontology; concepts like evolution, continental drift, mass extinctions, and scientific method; and the tediums and thrills of life in the field. He is also the author of Dinosaurs of the Flaming Cliffs (1996).Copyright © 2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR
Review
"This memoir is a superb introduction to paleontology as it really is and how it is done, from fish to dinosaur, bird, and mammal. Novacek, world leader in the discipline, has brilliantly woven its substance into accounts of his own field adventures across three continents and 400 million years. Read it, and give it to a teenager you'd like to see go into science."
—Edward O. Wilson, University Research Professor, Harvard University
"Time Traveler is first-rate. The vibrant field of paleontology has been reinvigorated in recent years by the energy of Mike Novacek and his colleagues, and his beautifully written account of their work makes for fascinating reading."
—Peter H. Raven, director of the Missouri Botanical Garden
Review
"This memoir is a superb introduction to paleontology as it really is and how it is done, from fish to dinosaur, bird, and mammal. Novacek, world leader in the discipline, has brilliantly woven its substance into accounts of his own field adventures across three continents and 400 million years. Read it, and give it to a teenager you'd like to see go into science."
—Edward O. Wilson, University Research Professor, Harvard University
"Time Traveler is first-rate. The vibrant field of paleontology has been reinvigorated in recent years by the energy of Mike Novacek and his colleagues, and his beautifully written account of their work makes for fascinating reading."
—Peter H. Raven, director of the Missouri Botanical Garden
Review
"This memoir is a superb introduction to paleontology as it really is and how it is done, from fish to dinosaur, bird, and mammal. Novacek, world leader in the discipline, has brilliantly woven its substance into accounts of his own field adventures across three continents and 400 million years. Read it, and give it to a teenager you'd like to see go into science."
—Edward O. Wilson, University Research Professor, Harvard University
"Time Traveler is first-rate. The vibrant field of paleontology has been reinvigorated in recent years by the energy of Mike Novacek and his colleagues, and his beautifully written account of their work makes for fascinating reading."
—Peter H. Raven, director of the Missouri Botanical Garden
Book Description
Hunting for fossils with a preeminent guide and teacher
Michael Novacek, a world-renowned paleontologist who has discovered important fossils on virtually every continent, is an authority on patterns of evolution and on the relationships among extinct and extant organisms. Time Traveler is his captivating account of how his boyhood enthusiasm for dinosaurs became a lifelong commitment to vanguard science. He takes us with him as he discovers fossils in his own backyard in Los Angeles, then goes looking for them in the high Andes, the black volcanic mountains of Yemen, and the incredibly rich fossil badlands of the Gobi desert.
Wherever Novacek goes he searches for still undiscovered evidence of what life was like on Earth millions of years ago. Along the way he has almost drowned, been stung by deadly scorpions, been held at gunpoint by a renegade army, and nearly choked in raging dust storms. Fieldwork is very demanding in a host of unusual, dramatic, sometimes hilarious ways, and Novacek writes of its alluring perils with affection and discernment. But Time Traveler also makes sense of many complex themes - about dinosaur evolution, continental drift, mass extinctions, new methods for understanding ancient environments, and the evolutionary secrets of DNA in fossil organisms. It is also an enthralling adventure story.
Download Description
A world-reknowned paleontologist illuminates some of the most exciting issues in current paleontology while teaching us how to understand our global ecosystem and its future prospects.
About the Author
Michael Novacek is Curator of Paleontology, as well as Senior Vice President and Provost of Science at the American Museum of Natural History. His last book, Dinosaurs of the Flaming Cliffs (1996), was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year.
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