Some books are just fun. Others teach you something new. ***Dino Hazard: Hidden Reality***does both so well that you cannot separate the science from the story.
Written by Brazilian paleontologist Tito Aureliano – professor, researcher, and science communicator behind one of the largest independent paleontology channels on YouTube – this novel puts cutting-edge science at the center of a high-stakes adventure. It is the opening book of the ***Dino Hazard***franchise, which already includes comics, collectibles, and a video game, reaching readers in more than 40 countries.
When a forgotten nineteenth-century diary is found in an abandoned asylum, paleontologist Giovanna Antunes is sent to investigate a bizarre discovery on a remote island in equatorial Brazil: a complete carnivorous dinosaur skeleton with a fossilized human skeleton inside it. On arrival, her mentor has already vanished. As the team tries to flee by boat, a blinding light engulfs them. They wake up surrounded by creatures that should be extinct – in Cretaceous Brazil, 100 million years in the past.
What sets ***Hidden Reality***apart from other time-travel stories is not just the prehistoric setting, but the careful science behind every creature. Every dinosaur, plant, and ancient animal is based on real South American species and the latest paleontological discoveries, building a world that is both imaginative and evidence-based.
At its heart, this is a survival story where brains matter more than brawn. Giovanna is not a stereotypical action hero: she is a scientist whose main weapons are observation, species identification, ecosystem reconstruction, and evidence-based decisions when lives are at stake. The novel explores what it truly means to think like a scientist when your own survival depends on it.
***Hidden Reality***also opens a window into a side of Earth's past most readers never see: prehistoric South America, home to some of the most extraordinary creatures that ever lived. The fossils are real. The science is real. The danger never lets up.
"If you like dinosaurs, adventure, and sci-fi, you'll love this time-travel tale written by a real-life dinosaur hunter!"
(Steve Brusatte, University of Edinburgh paleontologist, author of 'The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs', and scientific consultant of the 'Jurassic World' franchise)