Kenneth Carpenter is the dinosaur paleontologist for the Denver Museum of Natural History. He is author of Eggs, Nests, and Baby Dinosaurs (IUP, 2000), editor of The Armored Dinosaurs (IUP, 2001), and co-editor of Mesozoic Vertebrate Life (with Darren H. Tanke, IUP, 2001). He is also co-editor of Dinosaur Systematics; Dinosaur Eggs and Babies; and The Upper Jurassic Morrison Formation.

The meat-eating dinosaurs, or Theropoda, include some of the fiercest predators that ever lived. Some of the group’s members survive to this day—as birds. The theropod/bird connection has been explored in several recent works, but this book presents 17 papers on a variety of other topics. It is organized into three parts. Part I explores morphological details that are important for understanding theropod systematics. Part II focuses on specific regions of theropod anatomy and biomechanics. Part III examines various lines of evidence that reveal something about theropods as living creatures.