Brian J. Ford - Too Big to Walk

Contents Cover Title Page Copyright Preface Chapter 1: Dinosaurs and the Ancients Chapter 2: Emerging from the Shadows Chapter 3: The Public Eruption Chapter 4: Great American Discoveries Chapter 5: Drifting Continents Chapter 6: Reptile Dysfunction Chapter 7: How Microbes Made the World Chapter 8: Wading with Dinosaurs Chapter 9: Copulating Colossus Chapter 10: Truth Will Out Chapter 11: The Life and Death of Dinosaurs Notes Picture Section Index About the Author About the Publisher

William Collins

An imprint of HarperCollins Publishers

1 London Bridge Street

London SE1 9GF

WilliamCollinsBooks.com

This eBook first published in Great Britain by William Collins in 2018

Text © Brian J. Ford 2018

Photographs © Individual copyright holders

Cover image © Natural History Museum, London/Science Photo Library

Brian J. Ford asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

While every eff ort has been made to trace the owners of copyright material reproduced herein, the publishers will be glad to rectify any omissions in future editions.

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins.

Source ISBN: 9780008218935

Ebook Edition © May 2018 ISBN: 9780008218911

Version: 2019-05-17

Cover

Title Page Contents Cover Title Page Copyright Preface Chapter 1: Dinosaurs and the Ancients Chapter 2: Emerging from the Shadows Chapter 3: The Public Eruption Chapter 4: Great American Discoveries Chapter 5: Drifting Continents Chapter 6: Reptile Dysfunction Chapter 7: How Microbes Made the World Chapter 8: Wading with Dinosaurs Chapter 9: Copulating Colossus Chapter 10: Truth Will Out Chapter 11: The Life and Death of Dinosaurs Notes Picture Section Index About the Author About the Publisher

Copyright Copyright Contents Cover Title Page Copyright Preface Chapter 1: Dinosaurs and the Ancients Chapter 2: Emerging from the Shadows Chapter 3: The Public Eruption Chapter 4: Great American Discoveries Chapter 5: Drifting Continents Chapter 6: Reptile Dysfunction Chapter 7: How Microbes Made the World Chapter 8: Wading with Dinosaurs Chapter 9: Copulating Colossus Chapter 10: Truth Will Out Chapter 11: The Life and Death of Dinosaurs Notes Picture Section Index About the Author About the Publisher William Collins An imprint of HarperCollins Publishers 1 London Bridge Street London SE1 9GF WilliamCollinsBooks.com This eBook first published in Great Britain by William Collins in 2018 Text © Brian J. Ford 2018 Photographs © Individual copyright holders Cover image © Natural History Museum, London/Science Photo Library Brian J. Ford asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library While every eff ort has been made to trace the owners of copyright material reproduced herein, the publishers will be glad to rectify any omissions in future editions. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins. Source ISBN: 9780008218935 Ebook Edition © May 2018 ISBN: 9780008218911 Version: 2019-05-17

Preface

Chapter 1: Dinosaurs and the Ancients

Chapter 2: Emerging from the Shadows

Chapter 3: The Public Eruption

Chapter 4: Great American Discoveries

Chapter 5: Drifting Continents

Chapter 6: Reptile Dysfunction

Chapter 7: How Microbes Made the World

Chapter 8: Wading with Dinosaurs

Chapter 9: Copulating Colossus

Chapter 10: Truth Will Out

Chapter 11: The Life and Death of Dinosaurs

Notes

Picture Section

Index

About the Author

About the Publisher

This is the updated, second edition of a book I didn’t want to publish. For decades I deliberated on the giant dinosaurs, pondering as the palæontologists unveiled their findings, and it was obvious that they were getting dinosaurs wrong. I waited for the truth to dawn, but it didn’t happen. The scientific evidence is now clear – the way dinosaurs are explained is incorrect. So this book has a bold and irreverent aim, for it sets out to demolish our present-day orthodoxies and to create a radical new view of how dinosaurs developed and the way they lived their lives. I am also launching a startling theory which shows how we have misunderstood the Cretaceous period, that great era when the gigantic dinosaurs held sway. Our current understanding is fundamentally misconstrued: the environment was different; the climate was different; the landscape was different. Dinosaurs were different. Everything we know about the age of the dinosaurs is misconceived, and producing this book has been the only way to revolutionize this entire scientific discipline. It has been a colossal undertaking.

We are going to travel back in time to see how the development of our planet was determined, how fossils were discovered, and how science started to understand evolution and the way the world became the way it is. As we set out on this extraordinary journey, I would like to thank the many dinosaur specialists around the world who have assisted with advice. Truly, I’d like to very much; but I cannot. None of them helped – instead, every dinosaur expert has attacked this new theory whenever it has appeared (or tried to). Those palæontologists around the world are so very antagonistic to every word within, that you may have pebbles thrown at your windows if one of them spies this book in your room. This iconoclastic review has been the target of bitter hostility and the most vitriolic insults, though my inquiries into dinosaurs were never intended to be about controversy, but simply about debating how those massive monsters evolved and how they lived their remarkable lives.

There is clearly a requirement for a detailed explanation of dinosaur research. As Larry Witham has pointed out: ‘It is bad news to science museums when four in ten Americans believe humans lived with dinosaurs.’ 1There is certainly a need for a survey of the whole field, dating back to prehistory, looking at the pioneers and the early discoveries, and following how opinions have changed over the years.