OSTROM, John H. (author's own copy)

Osteology of Deinonychus antirrhopus, an Unusual Therapod from the Lower Cretaceous of Montana

(New Haven CT: Yale University, 1969)

THE AUTHOR'S WORKING COPY OF A PALAEONTOLOGICAL CLASSIC

174 x 251mm, softcover; pp. 165. Published as Bulletin 30 of the Peabody Museum of Natural History, Yale University, July 1969.

The author’s own working copy of this foundational text in the ‘dinosaur renaissance’, which saw a complete revision of our understanding of dinosaurs, transforming them in both scientific and popular understanding from plodding swamp-dwelling beasts into agile, possibly warm-blooded predators. Deinonychus, specifically, created an evolutionary ‘link’ between land-dwelling dinosaurs, Archaeopteryx, and birds, and is in fact the dinosaur presented as the ‘Velociraptor’ in Michael Crichton’s Jurassic Park. Ostrom’s discovery of Deinonychus has been described as ‘the single most important discovery – perhaps in the recent history of all dinosaurs’ (Fastovsky and Weishampel, The Evolution and Extinction of the Dinosaurs).

This copy contains Ostrom’s notes on subsequent specimens of Deinonychus, particularly the Harvard University specimen discovered by Steven Orzack in 1974 (MCZ 4371), which caused Ostrom to revise his description of the genus. Ostrom has added the location of the find to the map at the begininng of the volume, and interpolated MCZ 4371’s measurements throughout. The volume also contains many minor textual corrections (particularly significant, as this volume was never reissued).

Other attractive annotations include a speculative addition to the cladistic diagram near the end of the volume, adding Saurornitholestes to the evolutionary tree of Dromaeosauridae; also a note of the name and contact details of the ‘current rancher at the site’ – the latter dated 1995, three years after Ostrom’s retirement, showing his continued interest in Deinonychus.

John H. Ostrom (1928–2005) is considered one of the most important palaeontologists of the twentieth century. He spent his entire career at Yale University, and focused on field sites in Wyoming and Montana. His earliest studies of the craniometry of Hadrosaurs prefigured his later work, as he speculated that the Hadrosaur’s environment was dry conifer forests, rather than swampy ground. The discovery of Deinonychus in 1964 transformed his career, leading to a large number of technical and popular publications, and further research into the evolution of birds, culminating in his 1976 paper ‘Archaeopteryx and the evolution of birds’, seen as the definitive statement of an idea that goes all the way back to T.H. Huxley’s speculative work in the 1860s.

Fair to good condition: extensively used, as noted, with Ostrom’s tape repair to the spine, and marginalia throughout. Not signed by Ostrom, but the provenance is concrete and the handwriting is Ostrom’s throughout.