April 16, 2026

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10 best dinosaur books, according to a paleontologist

Steve Brusatte, author of The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs and The Story of Birds, recommends 10 dinosaur books to dig into

By Steve Brusatte edited by Brianne Kane

Volanthevist/Getty Images

I have one of the best jobs in the world: I am a paleontologist who digs up dinosaur bones for a living. I am also the paleontology consultant for the Jurassic World film series, and I teach courses at the University of Edinburgh about Earth history and evolution. I’ve written science books such as The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs and The Rise and Reign of the Mammals. My latest book, The Story of Birds: A New History from Their Dinosaur Origins to the Present, is about the origin and evolution of birds over time. This month I have an article in Scientific American’s May issue about why birds were the only dinosaurs to survive the terrible asteroid-triggered extinction 66 million years ago. People who see the Jurassic World films or read my work often ask how they can learn more about dinosaurs, so here are 10 dinosaur books that I often recommend.

The Dinosaur Heresies: New Theories Unlocking the Mystery of the Dinosaurs and Their Extinction

by Robert Bakker

Zebra Books, 1986

This is one of the most important books on dinosaurs ever written, in terms of its impact on paleontology and on the public consciousness. It’s also one of the most fun. In his 1986 pop science book, Bob Bakker—the hippie-haired, cowboy-hatted paleontologist who was a mainstay on television documentaries for decades—presented his revolutionary ideas that dinosaurs were more active, energetic and birdlike than people thought at the time. Sluggish, tail-dragging, dim-witted behemoths were out, and hot-blooded dinos were in. This book also provided some of the inspiration for the dinosaurs of Jurassic Park.

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Men and Dinosaurs: The Search in Field and Laboratory

by Edwin H. Colbert

E. P. Dutton, 1968

If you want to know about the history of dinosaur paleontology as a discipline, this is the best place to start. For decades, Ned Colbert held court at the American Museum of Natural History as the curator of dinosaurs and other fossil reptiles. His research set the agenda for dinosaur paleontology in the years before Bakker and his contemporaries mounted their revolution. In this book, Colbert tells the story of the ways people came to understand dinosaurs, the major discoveries that moved the field forward and the colorful characters behind the research.

The Last Days of the Dinosaurs: An Asteroid, Extinction, and the Beginning of Our World

by Riley Black

St. Martin’s Press, 2022

When a six-mile-wide asteroid crashed into what is now the Gulf of Mexico, it unleashed fire and brimstone and ended the reign of the dinosaurs. The story of how scientists realized that an asteroid caused the dinosaur extinction was told with warmth and wit by geologist Walter Alvarez—who made the discovery—in his book T. rex and the Crater of Doom. Twenty-five years later science writer Riley Black presented the latest and most engaging glimpse at what it would have been like to experience the carnage. In doing so, Black pioneered a new genre of narrative prehistorical nonfiction.

The Dinosaurs Rediscovered: The Scientific Revolution in Paleontology

by Michael J. Benton

Thames & Hudson, 2019

Few paleontologists have seen as many fossils, written as many books and led as many research projects as Mike Benton of the University of Bristol in England. That is what drew me to study with him as a master’s student. In this book, he presents the facts we truly know about dinosaurs, as well as the evidence and methods behind the theories. Throughout, he argues that although paleontology was once the realm of “stamp collectors” obsessed with collecting fossils, it is now a modern science awash in data and hypothesis testing.

Dinosaurs without Bones: Dinosaur Lives Revealed by Their Trace Fossils

by Anthony Martin

Pegasus Books, 2014

When I think of dinosaur fossils, my mind immediately drifts back to when I was a child, seeing giant skeletons of T. rex and Brachiosaurus in the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago. And indeed, the most celebrated fossils of dinosaurs are bones and claws and teeth. But in this subversively funny book, paleontologist Tony Martin revels in an underrated but important type of dinosaur fossil: the footprints and handprints and other traces they left behind. As somebody who has discovered and studied many dinosaur trackways on the Isle of Skye in Scotland, I loved how this book