Stepping back into deep time.

We have been planning some adventures to fossil and opal country this year, so have been dipping back into some dino books. Never outgrew a fascination with the beasts of the past, so this week’s book snap is a selection of just some of the dino books I have acquired.

I have particularly enjoyed John Pickrell’s books: Flying Dinosaurs; How fearsome reptiles became birds and Weird Dinosaurs; The strange new fossils challenging everything we thought we knew. Pickrell is an award winning science journalist and editor for Australian Geographic. His books make for accessible and exciting reads, as he summarises the new evidence that has emerged from recent discoveries, especially the remarkable discoveries that have come out of China in recent years. He also looks at evidence from everywhere on planet earth and of particular interest to me at the moment is a chapter in Weird Dinosaurs on Lightning Ridge.

I think this is going to be the year of the dinosaur or the year of the fossil for us. I have a couple of trips planned, one quiet soon to the western NSW region of Lightning Ridge, home of the black opal and of more interest to me opalised fossils. Our second trip which will be around June will be to western QLD and the town of Winton also famous for opals and a few other things but the main attraction is the Australian Age of Dinosaurs museum in Winton. So this week’s book snap is just an excuse to feature a couple of really good books on Dino’s.

Really looking forward to the brief adventure we have planned, a chance to visit some very different country, and hopefully a chance to soak in an artesian thermal pool, although I have heard the pool at Lightning ridge is a bit on the hot side.