John Pickrell – författare

From the outback of Australia to the Gobi Desert of Mongolia and the savanna of Madagascar, the award-winning science writer and dinosaur enthusiast John Pickrell embarks on a world tour of new finds, meeting the fossil hunters who work at the frontier of discovery. He reveals the dwarf dinosaurs unearthed by an eccentric Transylvanian baron; an aquatic, crocodile-snouted carnivore bigger than T. rex that once lurked in North African waterways; a Chinese dinosaur with wings like a bat; and a Patagonian sauropod so enormous it weighed more than two commercial jet airliners. Other surprising discoveries hail from Alaska, Siberia, Canada, Burma, and South Africa. Why did dinosaurs grow so huge? How did they spread across the world? Did they all have feathers? What do sauropods have in common with 1950s vacuum cleaners? The stuff of adventure movies and scientific revolutions, Weird Dinosaurs examines the latest breakthroughs and new technologies that are radically transforming our understanding of the distant past.Pickrell opens a vivid portal to a brand-new age of fossil discovery, in which fossil hunters are routinely redefining what we know and how we think about prehistory's most iconic and fascinating creatures.

In the early months of 2020, the world’s attention was riveted on Australia, where the nation’s iconic wildlife fought forsurvival in the face of unprecedented wildfires. Images of koalas drinking from firefighters’ water bottles went viral andbecame the global face of a catastrophe that would kill as many as three billion animals. Known as the Black Summer, thefire season was responsible for more wildlife deaths and near-extinctions than any other single event in Australianhistory. Flames of Extinction, written by a journalist at the heart of this news coverage, is the first book to tell the stories ofAustralia’s record-setting fires, focusing on the wild animals and plants that will be forever changed.As news of the fires spread around the world, journalist John Pickrell was inundated with requests for articles about thedanger to Australia’s wildlife. The picture seemed grim, from charred koalas to flames that burned so hot not even animalskeletons remained. But Pickrell’s reporting exposed a larger picture of hope. Flames of Extinction tells the story of thescientists, wildlife rehabilitators, and community members who came together to save wildlife and protect them in thefuture.As climate change intensifies and devastating wildfires become more commonplace, Australia’s Black Summer offers apoignant warning to the rest of the world. Through evocative and urgent storytelling, Flames of Extinction puts readers onthe ground to witness the aftermath of one of Australia’s greatest tragedies and inside the inspiring effort to save lives.

Dinosaurs didn’t die out when an asteroid hit Earth 66 million years ago. Get ready to unthink what you thought you knew and journey into the deep, dark depths of the Jurassic.The discovery of the first feathered dinosaur in China in 1996 sent shockwaves through the world of palaeontology. Were the feathers part of a complex mating ritual? A stepping-stone in the evolution of flight? And just how closely related is T. Rex to a chicken? In Flying Dinosaurs award-winning journalist John Pickrell reveals how dinosaurs developed flight and became the birds in our backyards. He delves into the latest discoveries in China, the US, Europe and Australia and goes beyond the science to uncover a thriving black market in fossils, infighting between ego-driven dinosaur hunters, and the controversial plan to use a chicken to bring dinosaurs back from the dead.

Foreword by UNSW Scientia Professor Michelle Simmons. This popular yearly anthology gives a snapshot of the very best science writing Australia has to offer, including everything from the most esoteric philosophical questions about ourselves and the universe, through to practical questions about the environment in which we live. Now in its eighth year, The Best Australian Science Writing 2018 draws on the knowledge and insight of Australia’s brightest authors, journalists and scientists to challenge perceptions of the world we think we know. This year’s selection includes the best of Australia’s science writing talent: Jo Chandler, Andrew Leigh, Michael Slezak, Elizabeth Finkel, Bianca Nogrady, Ashley Hay, Joel Werner, Margaret Wertheim and many more.

Over Australia’s 2019–20 Black Summer bushfire season, scientists estimate that more than three billion native animals were killed or displaced. Many species – koalas, the regent honeyeater, glossy black cockatoo, the platypus – are inching towards extinction at the hands of mega-blazes and the changing climate behind them. In Flames of Extinction, award-winning science writer John Pickrell investigates the effects of the 2019–2020 bushfires on Australian wildlife and ecosystems. Journeying across the firegrounds, Pickrell explores the stories of creatures that escaped the flames, the wildlife workers who rescued them, and the conservationists, land managers, Aboriginal rangers, ecologists and firefighters on the front line of the climate catastrophe. He also reveals the radical new conservation methods being trialled to save as many species as possible from the very precipice of extinction.