Chris McGowan – Jill Grinberg Literary Management

Chris McGowan

Chris McGowan is an author, educator, and paleontologist who received his PhD from London University. He is the former curator of vertebrate paleontology at the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto and professor of zoology at the University of Toronto and has written over fifteen books of nonfiction for children and adults, including Dinosaur Discovery: Everything You Need to Be a Paleontologist and The Dragon Seekers: How An Extraordinary Circle Of Fossilists Discovered The Dinosaurs And Paved The Way For Darwin. Born in England, he has lived and worked in Canada for over fifty years.

Agent

Jill Grinberg

Dinosaur Discovery: Everything You Need to Be a Paleontologist

Dinosaurs like you’ve never seen them before—in a book packed with more than 25 hands-on experiments.

What do dinosaurs look like from the inside out? Take a journey with renowned paleontologist Chris McGowan as he examines species from Allosaurus to T. Rex! Along with each creature are experiments that kids can do on their own to make sedimentary rock, replicate a fossil, and uncover how we know what we know about dinosaurs, even though they’ve been extinct for millions of years. More than twenty-five hands-on experiments include Breaking Bones, which uses chicken bones to see how fossils were preserved; creating a replica of a feathered Archaeopteryx fossil; and using a turkey neck to dissect a Brachiosaurus’ bone structure. You’ll be a paleontologist in no time!

Praise for Dinosaur Discovery

“A thinking, active alternative for readers who fall between adult nonfiction and all the rhyming dino fare meant for the younger set.” –Kirkus

Publisher

Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers

Publication Date

June 28, 2011

Age Category

Middle Grade

Genre

Nonfiction/Interactive

Rights

JGLM

The Dragon Seekers: How An Extraordinary Circle Of Fossilists Discovered The Dinosaurs And Paved The Way For Darwin

Set in nineteenth-century England, The Dragon Seekers chronicles the amazing discoveries of the first fossilists, whose findings in geology and paleontology led to the discovery of the age of dinosaurs. The intriguing cast of characters includes Mary Anning, a working-class woman who became one of the most successful fossil collectors of all time; Thomas Hawkins, another amateur collector who “improved upon” fossils in order to increase their market value; the eccentric William Buckland, discoverer of the world’s first dinosaur (Megalosaurus), and Richard Owen, an expert anatomist, who synthesized the discoveries of the age and ultimately coined the word “dinosaur” in 1842. Christopher McGowan takes us back to a time when the new sciences of geology and paleontology were as young and vibrant as genetic engineering is today. Through heated public debates on everything from the age of the earth to the notion of extinction, the Dragon Seekers initiated the shift from a biblical to a scientific interpretation of the remote past. In this way, they laid the intellectual groundwork for Darwin’s revolutionary ideas, and launched a global obsession with the Age of Reptiles that continues even today.

Praise for The Dragon Seekers

“McGowan (The Raptor and the Lamb; Dinosaurs, Spitfires, and Sea Dragons) brings his expertise as a zoologist and paleontologist to this decorative summary of the first dinosaur hunters leading up to Darwin. The author, who is senior curator of paleobiology at the Royal Ontario Museum, skillfully distills the debate over origins that occupied the scientists and theologians of the 19th century, and his streamlined history of the Victorian fossilists advances at breakneck speed (bear in mind that bone hunters like Mary Anning, the woman who discovered the first complete dinosaur skeleton, predate Queen Victoria).” –Publishers Weekly

Publisher

Basic Books

Publication Date

April 10, 2001

Age Category

Adult

Genre

Nonfiction/History

Rights

JGLM