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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.