Synopses & Reviews
Here is the ultimate book for dinosaur lovers--a complete identification guide featuring 600 dinosaurs, written by a leading expert and stunningly illustrated. A comprehensive introduction explains the evolution of earth's geology and the development of animal and plant life within it, culminating in the arrival of the dinosaurs on earth. It explains the classification of dinosaurs and how they developed over the Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous eras, from the smallest sea creature to the largest land-dwelling dinosaurs. Fascinating anatomical drawings demonstrate the skeletal make up of the different dinosaurs--sauropods, theropods, ornithopods, and armored dinosaurs--and explain how they functioned, moved and lived. An analysis of fossils has provided theories about what dinosaurs ate, fossil footprints explain how they socialized, moving in herds or in solitary isolation, and the discovery of dinosaur eggs provides theories about how dinosaurs formed colonies, migrating to different areas to rear their young. The different habitats where dinosaurs are thought to have lived are all depicted, from deserts to lagoons, lakes, mountains, swamps and plains, together with fossil evidence that helps to explain their presence in each site. Finally the role of the dinosaur hunters is explained, with a glimpse at how fossils are excavated, and where the most important fossil sites are in the world. The main section of the book is an encyclopedia of more than 600 dinosaurs. Each entry contains a description, according to the latest thinking, of how the dinosaur would have looked, its dimensions and mass, how much fossil evidence there is, the sites where it has been found, and the time whenit lived. A map shows where in the modern world the relevant fossils have been found. More than 350 of the dinosaurs are illustrated with a beautiful but also technically accurate full-color watercolor artwork.