Dinosaurs

by Michael J. Benton, Steve Brusatte, Stephen Brusatte

Book Overview

Take a journey through the prehistoric world and trace the evolution of the most astonishing creatures ever to have walked the earth. Over 170 superbly detailed computer-generated illustrations... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1848660979
• ISBN13: 9781848660977
• Release Date: September 2010
• Publisher: Quercus Books
• Length: 224 Pages
• Weight: 4.85 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 12.0" x 14.2"

Customer Reviews

Very imaginative incredibly visual up close pictures

My son has collected a number of books on dinosaurs And i must say this is not one of the most informative, however it has a broad brief overview of quite a large range of dinosaurs. The pictures are absolutely true to life and trully inspiring in power and size great format easy to read even easier to understand and interpret. The only disconcerting aspect of this book would have to be it's big size although it would go down well on a coffee table a large coffee table reference book.

I LUV TIS BOOK!!!

This book is exallent!!! It has very vivid and lifelike pictures! This book is so big it could be an end table!(If you ad legs.)Their is however just 1 mistake. The size comparisons. Somtimes it shows the dinos to small or to large. But don't let that putt you off! XOXOXOXO TO THE BOOK!!!

BUY IT IF YOU LIKE DINOSAURS!!!

This book is exallent!!! It has very vivid and lifelike pictures! This book is so big it could be an end table!(If you ad legs.)Their is however just 1 mistake. The size comparisons. Somtimes it shows the dinos to small or to large. But don't let that putt you off! XOXOXOXO TO THE BOOK!!!

Much to enjoy here

This title brings new meaning to the term "coffee table book". It's big; put legs on it and it could almost be one. However I would hesitate to label it as such because this might suggest just another poorly written and illustrated tome recycling the same old 'facts'. This is in fact a high quality book in both content and construction. Dinosaurs is divided into 7 chapters, one for each of the geologic periods that dinosaurs existed as well as the origins and their extinction. There are over 170 taxa usually presented one per page and in four sections with the topmost consisting of a large title, the name's meaning and its pronunciation. Beneath that is several paragraphs of text followed by a large illustration. The bottom-most section of small text covers classification, a map of fossil locations, statistics (habitat, length etc.) and a size comparison using silhouettes of the animal and a human. At times this format varies so that a taxon takes a two page spread or a single page profile with a facing 'portrait' page. Peppered through the dinosaur profiles are double-page spreads giving overviews of dinosaur groups and other key topics. The author is Steve Brusatte, a young but very talented U.S. palaeontologist currently working at the American Museum of Natural History. His text is lively, engaging and up-to-date. Refreshingly Steve does not talk down to his audience though few would be flipping often to the generous glossary provided. Dinosaurs is profusely illustrated by Pixel-[...], a company of 2 and 3D digital artists. They seem to specialise in dinosaurs having produced illustrations for numerous Dorling Kindersley books and the Walking with Dinosaur books that accompanied the BBC television series. Though working within a very tight style brief these illustrations vary somewhat in quality, obviously reflecting the abilities of the different artists used. However they are never less than serviceable, many are very good and some are terrific. It's obvious that some dinosaurs were selected for star treatment and rendered with a high level of detail allowing for larger format pictures and greater magnification. Its big format, striking presentation, large illustrations and quality text make Dinosaurs a leading choice for those seeking a non-technical guide to dinosaurs, particularly for young enthusiasts. The size of this book means it will even have pre-school/kindergarten children oohing and ahhing over its contents. The rest of us will find much to enjoy and we'll get valuable exercise carrying it around.

Inspiring

My boys...were immediately inspired by the fascinatingprojects in this book! However, they are not able to makethe projects independently. I would highly recommend thisbook for parents of kids who are willing to get their handsdirty and for parent of kids who like multi-day projects.We had a blast building a full model Stegasarous and T-rex,but we spent many hours building them.You will need to go to other resources for full detailsabout how/when/where the dinos lived. This is mostly a projectbook and less of a reference book. But the projects are sofun and interesting, it will make you want to learn more.