I am reading Cretaceous Dawn by Graziani and Graziani. An interesting tale, blending physics, time travel, geology, and paleontology.

of (science) fiction with a "geological" basis, since the science is so often badly done. I've often wondered, do scientists in other fields find the same to be true of their own bailiwicks?

Seems to me that the physics hard scifi is often written by physicists, but every Tom, Dick, and Harriet thinks s/he knows enough about geology to propound on it. One need only look at the claims that increased offshore drilling can have a near-term effect on gasoline prices to see how stupid that belief is...

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rex

Of the scientific fields, in this book, paleontology is prominent, followed by physics, and geology a distant third. There is not enough geology expounded for it to look weak or strong.

The proto-Rockies are described as Appalachian-like, without any of today's soaring craginess.

Hello, I just came across this discussion. I'm involved with the publisher of "Cretaceous Dawn." I love this discussion, and the obvious knowledge of those posting. I can definitely appreciate the leeryness, too. So many books are portrayed as being "good science" and are decidedly not. "Cretaceous Dawn," I'm happy to say, is an exception; the authors are not only both novelists, but are both scientists/professors. One is an oceanographer, and although the little bit of geology is not emphasized in the book, it does come out of the author's own expertise. The same is true for the early mammalian evolution, in which the other author is expert. The paleontology (which is not geology) can also be trusted; it was, additionally, reviewed by a vert. paleontology professor who does her research in the Hell Creek fossil bed (around which the book is based), and the curator at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science, a Cretaceous plant expert. Believe me, all this was vetted before the book could be portrayed as accurate science. There's a good review, by the way, in Natural History's July/August issue.
Despite all that: keep the skepticism for such books! Our society is increasingly mixing up fiction and reality, with no vetting of the real expertise of authority figures.

is now posted on Epinions.

Yes, well, there are drugs that can make you bigger.

Which is what happened to the dinosaurs. In a hotly contested arms race the herbivores and carnivores took steroids until they finally collapsed under their own weight and went extinct.

Let us learn from our history and never repeat the mistakes they made.

-Andy

Hmph: and here I thought this was "The Real Reason the Dinosaurs Went Extinct" (at least according to Larson, G. [ca. 1981])

You're both right; they smoked their steroids.