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Longlist, 2025 Non-Obvious Book Awards
Buried within a lost world, astonishing evidence reveals the behavior of extinct animals, giving us a glimpse at both everyday and epic events. If we look at these discoveries carefully, the untold stories of these magnificent creatures come into view, breathing new life into the prehistoric past.
The Secret Lives of Dinosaurs tells the remarkable tales of ancient animals through some of the most distinctive and unusual fossils ever found, offering an intimate, behind-the-scenes look into the story of life in deep time. Venturing hundreds of millions of years into the past, Dean R. Lomax takes us on a journey through the grand cycle of life, infused with anecdotes from his own adventures and sprinkled with a touch of dinosaur humor.
These fossils tell real-world stories of prehistoric parenting, the quest for survival, and the endless struggle between predator and prey. Unbelievable moments are captured: saber-toothed cats clashing, mega-millipedes mating, dinosaurs swimming. From ammonite eggs to mosasaur mealtimes, and from a pregnant ichthyosaur that chowed down on a bird to the mammal that took down a dinosaur, these behaviors challenge what we thought we knew about the prehistoric world.
This book looks into the private moments of long-extinct creatures as never before, letting us see them not just as fossils in a museum but as living, breathing animals with personalities and emotions. Vivid illustrations by Bob Nicholls bring these incredible stories to life in full color.
— Slash, Guns N’ Roses
Dean R. Lomax is an internationally recognized paleontologist, author, television presenter, and science communicator. A leading authority on ichthyosaurs, he is an honorary research fellow at the University of Manchester and an 1851 Research Fellow at the University of Bristol. He is the author of more than ten books.
Bob Nicholls is a world-renowned natural history artist who specializes in the reconstruction of prehistoric animals, plants, and environments. His illustrations and models have been published in more than forty books and exhibited in museums, universities, and visitor attractions around the world.
Lomax is the author and Nicholls is the illustrator of Locked in Time: Animal Behavior Unearthed in 50 Extraordinary Fossils (Columbia, 2021).
Prologue: Paleo in Perspective
Introduction: The Journey Doesn’t End Here
1. Starting Out
2. Eggs and Babies
3. Family and Friends
4. Moving Along
5. Hide-and-Seek
6. Finding Food
7. Conflict
8. Different Diets
9. Digestion
10. Health and Endgame
11. Stranger Things
Acknowledgments
Further Reading and References
Index