When it comes to the study of Mongolian dinosaurs, Roy Chapman Andrews often gets all the glory when discussing the historical perspective. However, it might be that Polish paleontologist Zofia Kielan-Jaworowska deserves as much if not more fame for her part in popularizing the dinosaurs of the Gobi Desert. That discrepency is just what today’s book aims to tackle!
Written by Dr. Nick Crumpton & illustrated by Ola Płocińska, Dinosaur Desert is a children’s book that documents the life and times of Zofia Kielan-Jaworowska, and the Polish-Mongolian expeditions she led. While She Found Fossils had a page on Zofia, this book goes into far greater detail. Starting with her early life as a girl in Nazi-occupied Poland, we learn about her participation in the Polish resistance, and her subsequent university studies in the ruins of Warsaw, with classes taking place in whatever buildings remained standing (often professors’ apartments).
The bulk of the book however concerns the Polish-Mongolian Expeditions of the 1970s, from the planning, to the people, to the paleontological discoveries. I particularly appreciated that the book took the time to mention the other members of the expeditions by name; it’s always nice to see people get credit for the work they did.
Dinosaurs found by Zofia’s team include Tarbosaurus, Saichania, Deinocheirus, Gallimimus, and more. Perhaps her most famous discovery, though, is the spectacular “Fighting Dinosaurs” specimen, preserving a Velociraptor & Protoceratops apparently locked in combat at the moment of death.
The book also makes sure to show that dinosaurs weren’t the only things Zofia’s team discovered. They also nearly doubled the number of known mammal skulls from the Cretaceous, with the discovery of multituberculate mammals like Kennalestes, Nemegtbataar, Chulsanbataar, Taeniolabis, Kryptobataar, and Catopsbataar. This significantly improved our understanding of mammal diversity in the Mesozoic Era.
The illustrations are pleasant to look at, and they treat their subjects well. As is often the case, the feathered dinosaurs could be better, but overall the illustrations do a great job of servicing the story.
Dinosaur Desert is a much-appreciated celebration of an important but often-overlooked figure of paleontology, and will hopefully bring Zofia Kielan-Jaworowska some more of the wider attention she deserves. I am pleased to give this book a hearty Dino Dad Stomp of Approval!
Dino Dad Reviews 