Bones Rock!

Real life has never been so much fun!

This expanded second edition of the best how-to book in paleontology for enthusiasts of all ages is filled with photos and first-hand experience about “everything dinosaurs”—from what to wear when you’re looking for fossils, to what to do when you get them home, to how to formulate hypotheses and “think like a scientist.”

With case studies, detailed examples, and inspirational stories, both newbies and experienced collectors will find facts and helpful tips, links to volunteer digs, ideas for study, a comprehensive reading list—and a STEM-compliant Teachers’ / Independent Study Guide. For younger readers, the authors also include real stories of real kids who have made significant discoveries in a science that has room for amateurs, students, and professionals.

This book is a must-have for anyone—children and young adults who are just learning to love fossils, science students and teachers, grownups who take kids out fossil-hunting as a reason to go exploring themselves, or parents and grandparents who read dinosaur books with the next generation of scientists. Lace up your boots, and let’s go!

Pete Larson started collecting fossils when he was just four, and eventually built the largest private fossil company in the world, Black Hills Institute of Geologic Research (BHI). BHI became arguably the world’s leader in the field collection and preparation of dinosaur skeletons, with the most successful T. rex hunters in history, unearthing more T. rex than any other organization in the world.

Pete also made headlines when the team excavated the world’s two most complete, significant, and famous T. rex skeletons, in 1990 and 1992. “Sue” and “Stan” would plunge him down an unexpected rabbit hole—into a topsy-turvy, Alice in Wonderland world. Welcome to Pete’s whimsical world of dinosaurs, as told by paleontology’s biggest champion.

Kristin first visited Pete's dig sites when she was in school; all these decades later, she's known for her long-standing research in paleontology. In fact, she and Pete both participated in Todd Douglas Miller’s 2014 Emmy Award^®-winning documentary, Dinosaur 13—which was inspired by Rex Appeal, another book they co-authored.

She has a publishing company called Rockin' Dog Studio; writes her own feature and television screenplays; writes documentary scripts for MacGillivray Freeman Films, the world’s largest producer of giant-screen documentary films; and provides consulting services for other creative types.