SCIENCE BOOKS & FILMS SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER, 1999

Dinosaur: The Arctic Expedition. (Prod.: Robert Dunlap Productions.) Color. 53:35 min. Video:
JH, YA *
Dinosaurs in the Arctic? Too cold for them to live there? Too dark? Apparently not, as this intriguing documentary relates. The video is about the Colville River dinosaur discoveries in Alaska. From the realization of the importance of a drawer full of dinosaur bones uncovered decades ago to the recent fieldwork aimed at recovering more fossils, the video depicts science in action. The Colville River bone bed, discovered by an oil exploration team on the North Slope, is primarily a bed of hadrosaur fossils. The video follows scientists as they live and work in the field, trying to recover as many (macro- and micro-) fossils as possible in a two-week period. As the story of these particular hadrosaurs unfolds, the tale is woven into the matrix of what we know, as well as what we are struggling to learn, about dinosaurs, their lives, their environments, and their extinction. Not a "slick" gimmicky video, this program gives real-life glimpses into the hardships and thrills of fieldwork and the painstaking care scientists put into their efforts to unravel earth's history.--Peter Roop, McKinley School, Appleton, WI

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