Digging dinosaurs was hard, slow work—and it was dangerous.
Earl Douglass was a teenager when he first heard about the Bone Wars—the frenzied race between paleontologists to unearth and classify dinosaur fossils—and he remained fascinated with these prehistoric giants for the rest of his life. As a fossil expert working at the Carnegie Museum in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Douglass had a hunch that the vast untouched rock strata in northeastern Utah just may have been a haven for Jurassic fossil beds. In 1908, he set out to the Uinta Basin to dig and discover. Find me "find me something big," Andrew Carnegie instructed.
Little did Carnegie know exactly how well Douglass would heed those words. Sixteen years and 350 tons of fossils later, Earl Douglass emerged as one of the most prolific and successful dinosaur hunters of his time.
awards and reviews
A Junior Library Guild Selection
Booklist Review: "Excited journal entries from Douglass enliven the informative text, and small sketch book-style drawings of fossils and tools add a scholarly touch. This will push all-new buttons of the dinosaur lovers in your life."
Horn Book Review: "Dramatic illustrations show the harshness and isolation of the land, and spot art sketching some fossil finds, tools, and methods of preservation gives the book the feel of a field manual. In addition, quotations from Douglass's journals are indicative not only of his process but of his reverence for the work."
Kirkus Reviews: "Using a palette of warm sandstone browns and yellows, Ray depicts the skinny, bespectacled Douglass and his co-workers exploring rugged landscapes and then carefully excavating fossils from them. Closed out with a set of context-setting afterwords, a dino-gallery and a map of the modern National Park, it's a tale that doesn't need hype—though the title's two words splashed across and filling an entire opening spread will get young viewers' juices flowing from the get-go."
School Library Journal: (*Starred review) "With its sand-colored pages, the warmth of the palette, and the brown script of the journal notes, this is a vibrant window into the burgeoning world of American paleontology a century ago. A rich find."
illustrations from the book
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