Heading this way

Just when you thought it was safe to go back to the Cretaceous, Michael Crichton is set to publish his sequel to Jurassic Park, The Lost World (presumably a graceful tribute to Arthur Conan Doyle’s 1912 novel of the same name). Out in September in the US, Knopf intend a print run of two million. Perhaps Robert Bakker will give Crichton a run for his money with Red Raptor (September from Bantam, £12.99, ISBN 0 59303 919 X). Bakker is the palaeontologist most likely to be described as a maverick for his heretical notion that dinosaurs were warm-blooded, lively creatures rather than chilly and sluggish. This debate still rumbles on around the density of bone cells and biophysical arguments.