"Lots of plants and small animals here come from the tepuis, particularly from El Grande," 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."

Throughout Dinosaur Summer is a consciousness of the importance of living things, and there is an environmentalist undercurrent to the novel's events.

Although the plot emphasizes the activities of spectacularly large animals, Peter 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 of professors to studyyet to him, and the people who wrote about the plateau, El Grande had always been a land of dinosaurs and other...