In 1999, a teenager named Tyler Larson discovered a “dinosaur mummy” by chance on his family’s property in North Dakota. The hadrosaur, named “Dakota,” was nearly complete and had preserved much of its bone, soft tissues, tendons and ligaments. Soft-tissue fossils are an extraordinary find; “Dakota” was 67 million years old, yet it retained about two inches of skin and even contents in its gut. Paleontologists can use these specimens to better inform their understanding of the dinosaur’s movements, habits and appearance. Dr. Phillip Lars Manning, a paleontologist from the University of Manchester, was called on to lead the team tasked with excavating “Dakota,” and in “Grave Secrets,” he recounts the details of his work, the history of soft-tissue fossil discoveries since the 19th century, and also explains how “Dakota” has altered the study of hadrosaurs.

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DINOSAUROLOGY

The Search for a Lost World

By Raleigh Rimes

30 pp. Candlewick Press. (2013)

This imagined account of a 1907 “expedition into the unknown” follows Percy Fawcett and his young assistant, Raleigh Rimes, as they set off in search of the lost island of Yannapalus in South America. There, they discover that dinosaurs still roam the Earth. Presented as a journal of his adventures, “Dinosaurology” includes mini-biographies of both real and imagined paleontologists, as well as detailed illustrations and even samples of dinosaur specimens. “Dinosaurology” is sure to excite young readers as they set off on their archaeological adventure.

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TIME TRAVELER

In Search of Dinosaurs and Other Fossils From Montana to Mongolia

By Michael Novacek

368 pp. Farrar, Straux & Giroux (2002)

This engaging book is part memoir and part insight into the working life of a modern paleontologist. Michael Novacek, a senior curator at the American Museum of Natural History, writes of his early curiosity toward fossils and geology. He describes his adventures excavating fossils across the world — from Montana to the Andes to Yemen — and also explains how paleontologists arrive at their conclusions. In “Time Traveler,” Novacek shows that one needn’t wait for time travel machines to understand the past; In fact, there are clues all over the earth’s surface.