Throughout Dinosaur Summer is a consciousness of the importance of living things, and there is an environmentalist undercurrent to the novel's events: "Lots of plants and small animals here come from the tepuis, particularly from El Grande," the animal trainer Shellabarger said. "Bugs, flowers, orchids—hardwoods— nuts no white man's ever tasted. Worth a hell of a lot more than gold. Someday, somebody's going to see the value."

Although the plot of Dinosaur Summer emphasizes the doings of spectacularly large animals, Peter, the son of the man photographing the dinosaurs' release into the wild, pointedly notes the many interesting small creatures around him as he explores the rain forest of Venezuela: He had seen so many different kinds of insects since the journey began, and at least two dozen varieties of ants, enough for a whole university full of professors to study—yet...