Time Traveler - by Michael Novacek (Paperback)

About the Book

Book Synopsis

"A superb introduction to paleontology as it really is and how it is done, from fish to dinosaur, bird, and mammal." --Edward O. Wilson

Michael Novacek, a 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. Novacek writes of the alluring perils of fieldwork with affection and discernment, and he illuminates the most exciting issues in paleontology today.

Review Quotes

"[Novacek is] a world-class field scientist. He's also one of paleontology's most effective popularizers, a highly entertaining writer who is just as good at bringing oviraptors, glyptodonts, and other fantastic creatures to life in print as he is at spotting their fragmented remains in a wall of rock." --Jennifer Schuessler, The American Scholar

"An engaging book . . . [Novacek] gives us an excellent sense of the way paleontologists have arrived at their world-shaking conclusions . . . With good humor and generosity . . . he offers genuine insights into the kind of reasoning that has allowed us to know so much about past eras, and he conveys a lively picture of his professional experiences." --David Papineau, The New York Times Book Review

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. He lives in New York City.