Locked in Time: what fossils preserve about behaviour

Locked in Time: Animal Behavior Unearthed in 50 Extraordinary Fossils by Dean R. Lomax uses exceptional fossils to ask what prehistoric animals were doing while alive. Published by Columbia University Press in 2021, the book is arranged around behavior rather than a march through geological periods. Its examples range from animals preserved in apparent moments of action to traces that reveal how they moved, fed, nested or interacted with their surroundings.

The format gives the reader a series of compact investigations. Each begins with a fossil and the question it raises, then considers how its position, preservation and geological context support an interpretation. Paleoartist Bob Nicholls provides reconstructions that help readers imagine the scene. Those images clarify an interpretation; they are not additional fossil evidence and should be read alongside the explanation of what was actually preserved.

Fossils as records of action

Most fossils preserve parts of an organism, not a complete account of its life. A bone can reveal anatomy and sometimes disease, but it rarely records a single behaviour by itself. The unusual specimens gathered by Lomax are valuable because they preserve animals, traces or associations in ways that suggest a moment of activity. A dinosaur found over eggs, for example, can support discussion of nesting and parental behaviour when the position and surrounding sediment fit that reading.

Other examples are less direct. A small fossil found in the body region of a larger animal may represent prey or the last meal, but researchers need to consider whether the objects were truly inside the body and whether later movement could have brought them together. The book encourages readers to distinguish what the specimen shows from the story used to explain it. That habit is especially important when a fossil is dramatic enough to invite an immediate conclusion.

Courting, nesting and communities

Some of the book’s most memorable scenes concern reproduction and social life. Fossils of animals preserved together can record close association, while nests and eggs preserve clues about where offspring developed and how an adult may have been positioned. Jurassic insects caught together during mating offer a different kind of snapshot. These finds can make behaviour unusually visible, yet a group fossil does not automatically prove that its members formed a permanent family or lived together for an extended time.

That distinction is part of the pleasure of the book. The evidence gives researchers a starting point, then comparison with living animals and other fossils helps define plausible explanations. A brooding posture may resemble the behaviour of birds, but the inference still depends on the fossil’s anatomy and setting. Readers see both the excitement of finding a rare behavioural clue and the care needed before turning it into a general rule about an entire species.

Movement and making a home

Tracks, burrows and other traces preserve activity that bones cannot show directly. A footprint records where an animal placed its foot on a particular surface; a sequence of tracks can reveal direction and spacing. Burrows show that an animal excavated or occupied a space, and their form may help identify how it moved through sediment. Such traces are evidence of behaviour in a broad sense, but they do not always identify the maker or prove why it acted as it did.

Lomax uses examples from across the history of life, including burrowing mammals and other animals outside the dinosaur story. This wider scope keeps the book from implying that remarkable behaviour is unique to dinosaurs. It also lets readers compare different kinds of evidence. A trackway, a nest and a fossil preserved in a den each record a different part of life, with distinct strengths and uncertainties.

Fighting, biting and feeding

Fossils that preserve combat or feeding can feel like scenes frozen at their most intense. Two animals locked together may preserve direct evidence of an encounter, while tooth marks on bone can show that another animal bit it. A fossilized stomach or gut region may preserve the remains of prey. These details can support an account of interaction, but they do not by themselves reveal every movement, motive or outcome that preceded burial.

Evidence of disease adds another layer. The publisher highlights a Tyrannosaurus rex fossil associated with parasites, illustrating how a specimen can reveal more than the animal’s external form. A pathology can be seen in bone, but its cause may require comparison and careful diagnosis. The same principle applies to feeding marks: researchers compare shape, placement and preservation before assigning them to a particular kind of bite or scavenging event.

Why context matters

Exceptional fossils are not a random sample of ancient life. Some environments preserve soft tissues or fine traces much better than others. Small animals, particular body parts and organisms buried quickly may be overrepresented in certain deposits. The book’s striking examples therefore tell us what can happen to survive, not how often every behaviour occurred throughout a species or ecosystem.

Taphonomy – the processes of decay, transport, burial and fossilization – helps explain why a scene was preserved. A skeleton may have shifted after death; a current may have rearranged bones; scavenging can alter a carcass before burial. These processes do not make the fossil useless. They give researchers a way to test how much of the apparent scene belongs to the animal’s life and how much was created after death.

Illustrations and scientific reconstruction

Nicholls’s artwork gives the book a strong visual identity. Reconstructions turn bones, tracks and sedimentary details into scenes that a reader can understand at a glance. Their role is interpretive: they show a plausible version of an event based on the text and the specimen. When the fossil leaves room for more than one possibility, an illustration necessarily chooses how to fill the gaps.

This makes the art a useful partner to the narrative rather than a substitute for it. Readers can enjoy the image while asking which details are preserved, which are inferred and which have been supplied to make the scene legible. That distinction echoes the book’s central idea: fossils are records of once-living organisms, but reconstructing a moment requires both evidence and a clear account of uncertainty.

Who may enjoy it

Locked in Time suits readers who like individual fossil stories and scientific detective work. Its thematic chapters can be read in short sessions, and the range of organisms gives it broader appeal than a dinosaur-only survey. The mix of accessible prose and careful interpretation also makes it a useful choice for readers who want dramatic examples without treating every dramatic reconstruction as settled fact.

Those seeking a complete guide to dinosaur classification or a systematic catalogue of species should choose a different kind of book. Lomax’s subject is the occasional fossil that preserves a clue to behaviour. The Dinosaur books collection includes wider guides for readers who want to set these snapshots within the larger history of dinosaur life.

Verdict

Lomax combines accessible storytelling with a welcome attention to preservation and inference. The fossils can suggest nesting, feeding, courtship, combat, movement and disease, but each claim has to be matched to what the specimen can actually show. Nicholls’s illustrations make the scenes memorable, while the text provides the distinctions needed to read them responsibly. The book’s strongest message is that fossils are not inert objects: they can preserve parts of a life story, if their context is allowed to speak as clearly as their drama.