Dinosaur Books

I was a child of the 50's in England, and remember singing "Teddy Bear's Picnic" back then. I don't remember seeing a book but sang the song many times as a child. I was thrilled when Green Tiger Press published the book when my son was born in the 80's -- now bought out by Simon & Schuster. I have the original version that came boxed with a cassette tape. I was hoping to buy some for my nieces and nephew's children but updated with a CD. I hope someone gets the word out to the publisher to update it so they can play it in current formats. The song is so lovely, the book is only half of it! In San Diego, the Westgate Hotel periodically does "Teddy Bear's Picnic" teas for children.

Book was packaged properly and was received in great shape and in a timely manor as promised.

I recieved this book as a gift for my son and dont think it will be in our reading rotation. The artwork is disturbing and sort of scarry. If you want to scare your child into not going outside or near the woods then this is the book for you. Otherwise stay away from teddy bear picnic.

nice colorfull illustrations and the song phrases are paired together on a page to allow the reader to allow more time on a single page rather than having to turn pages in the middle of the sentence.

The pictures are enchanting and a source of delightful fascination. They are true to the original written words of the song. There could not be a more perfect marriage of pictures and words. This is truly a treasure to cherish. I wish, however, it was in hardback so it would last longer, as I am sure it will be read to our little granddaughter many times over.

I have to say this was a great read and I recommend it to 5 -7th graders it is a little complicated that's why. It is another great sequel to the book silverwing. I don't understand how it sequels to shade and marina but it was a nice book anyway. There were plenty of details. and I liked the way he described bats human like. Its about a bat who doesn't glide. He flaps and he's shameful. but in the end flapping saves them all

I completely adore this book. It's the best yet in the silverwing "quadrilogy"

I was browsing amazon one day when I decided to search my favorite author's to only be surprised that a third book of my favorite novel trilogy has been out for nearly a year without me knowing. Thanks to amazon I guess.

As always, I received the book quick and in great condition!

Darkwing by Kenneth Oppel is a prehistoric fiction book. It is about a colony of chiropters and the extinction of the feared saurians. Dusk a chiropter who has the ability to fly unlike the other bat like creatures who can only glide.

" They've accepted me." These are the words of a young dinosaur like bat. Who shows he hates being different but does not want to be anyother way. This young bat is Dusk and after reading this whole book it just goes to show you that being a Chiropters is not at easy as you would think but then again their life can be a little like ours.

All he ever wants is to be accepted by his kin named the Chiropters. Unlike most Chiropters Dusk has special skills that one day saves the lifes of many. However being different can be a bad thing when your a Chiropters that have been different in the past are ignored, shunned, killed, even sometimes left by their own family to die. Dusk is just lucky he is the leaders son or whos knows what would happen. Although Dusk has a huge family the main characters from his family you will hear about are his mom and dad, his sister Sylph, and his older brother Auster.

I felt this was a book many people can enjoy. One of the reasons for this is well it fits with a lot of different themes. For example there is killing making it horror. Then theres the always left out Dusk making it sad. Then as a last example there are twistand turns around every corner. The passage I like the best is the one stated before "They've accepted me." this just shows that after all the hard work and punishment he had to go through he was still able to reach his goal.

For those of you that don't know, Kenneth Oppel writes childrens books, including a popular collection about bats including Silverwing. Darkwing is meant to serve as both a standalone book and a prequel to Silverwing, and takes place 65 million years ago as the dinosaurs died out and all sorts of evolutionary wonders were happening, not the least of which was the evolution of the bat from a (relatively made up) similar creature called a chiropter that stars in this book.

The story is relatively simple...Dusk is a chiropter that has odd qualities that make him different from the rest of his clan. Despite that, his father, as leader, keeps Dusk safe and accepted within their community. One night though, the chiropters clan is attacked and they must seek a new home. Many perils face the giant chiropter tribe as they search high and low throughout their homelands for a new place to live, facing the challenges of new predators, unfamiliar territories, and the fact their isolation on their island home has sheltered them from the realities of the evolutionary world...plus Dusk still doesn't fit in with his group, even though his oddness benefits his clan time and time again.

At first I found the book a bit slow...and quite confusing, especially when trying to figure out what a Chiropter is (an explanation occurs at the end of the book, not the beginning). Well the best way to describe it is the predecessor to a bat...they can only glide, not fly for example. Many of the other creatures the bat colony comes across are similarly confusingly named with all sorts of bizarre titles. However, about a third of the way through I actually got quite into the story. Even though it's a kids book and some things were quite predictable, much of the book was quite UNpredictable. It almost played out like a very dramatic, at times gory, at times laughable (there are two scenes where plants are used in a hallucinogenic sense...?) version of a Pixar film about fitting in and finding your way home.

Overall I really enjoyed myself reading this book. It wasn't challenging once you got past the first part, and just provided a nice easy read! I'm sure lots of kids will be lapping this up, and rightfully so.

This book starts simply, with a man with a happy home life, who walks out the door an d shows us he is a time agent with a kill and retrieve mission. Things don't go as planned:

"A lot of horror stories had circulated back at Nexx Central about what happened to people who misfired on a jump. They ranged from piecemeal reception at a dozen stations strung out across a few centuries to disembodied voices screaming to be let out. Also, there were several rules against it. The alternative was to set up housekeeping here on the beach, with or without dinosaurs, and hope that a rescue mission arrived before I died of heat, thirst, reptiles, boredom, or old age."

He ends up running into a female agent from a different timeline who looks just like the lover he walked out on. They have even more problems:

"A Nexx agent is a hard man to dispose of: hard to kill, hard to immobilize, because he's protected by all the devices of a rather advanced science. But if he can be marooned in the closed loop of an unrealized alternate realitya pseudo-reality from which there can be no outlet to a future which doesn't existthen he's out of action forever."

Stuck at Dinosaur Beach, they try to understand what is going on:

"Don't be foolish. We have to do what we can. Which means examine the facts and plan a logical next step." "Logical: that's a good one, Agent Gayl. When did logic ever have anything to do with Timesweep Ops?"

Then there's the whole androids trying to be the Final Authority of Time thing.

That is by no means the end of it as the story here accelerates and gets more complicated and more strange as it goes.

Really rather cool.

I've been a fan of Keith Laumer since the 1960s. Most of his novels are considered "light" science fiction, but that doesn't begin to describe the strength of the writing. He usually seems not to take his own stories very seriously, but that's just his writing style. I guarantee he labored hard over them. Dinosaur Beach is one of his more serious efforts, and in my opinion his best work. The main character is a time traveler, on a mission to undo a lot of damage done to the timestream by previous time-travelers. The book starts, in typical Laumer fashion, with the main character being warned that he's about to he murdered. He's not impressed with the news, and asks what business the guy has telling someone they were going to die, even if it's true. Things get crazier and crazier, and in the end, make perfect sense. Laumer is a master at creating situations where things get so screwed up that one starts to think no author could make sense out of it, and then he proceeds to make such perfect sense of it that the reader asks himself how he didn't see it coming. And in the meantime, as one tries to unravel the plot, the writing style keeps the reader marvelously entertained, never letting up on the pace and keeping us guessing at every turn. I've read this book several times, and lent it to friends so often that I had to buy it again twice. This is a science fiction classic, and a masterpiece.

This one is pretty much definitive. It will keep your attention. Tersely and well written. Pretty amazing considering how early in Keith Laumer's career this was - a pretty diverse guy in style.

Put this on the shelf next to The Big Time-- together these books say everything interesting there is to say about time travel based warfare. This is one of Laumer's best, with a nice balance between his silly and his serious sides. Highly recommended-- hope it's back in print soon.

This book can be read on many levels. At once it is a love story, a book about time travel, war, the future of mankind and above all, consciousness itself.
Perhaps I am reading too much into this little novel, but it struck me on a very deep level. The last 3 chapters of the book have a poignancy for me which I will never forget, which, upon reading it again, still brings a tear to my eye. It speaks to me of the nature of consciousness itself, which is not destructive, but loving.
To me this is a superbly written classic, a beautiful novel that can be read as just good SF, or as a description of the universal nature of consciousness.
I rank this little book at the very top echelon of the greatest SF of all time; indeed as one of the best works of fiction I've ever read.

Who knew you could pack so much amazing information into 48 pages? There are lots of mummified dinosaurs in this book, including Ciro (a.k.a. Skippy), Willo, Leonardo, and others. The book also introduces some famous dinosaur hunters: Roy Chapman Andrews, Charles Sternberg, Barnum Brown, Luis Chiappe, Dale Russell, Jack Horner, and many more. Lots of photos and full-color illustrations make this a kid's have-to-have holiday gift, available in both hardcover and paperback (for only $7.95!). ISBN 9781581960341

A terrific dinosaur book that any young child would love. The obviously gifted author combines a fascinating text with fabulous illustration. This book is a favorite of mine and my 10 year-old son.

As an elementary school teacher, I've spent years teaching 10-12 year olds about dinosaurs. Milner's Dinosaur Mummies is one of the best books that I've seen for this age group. She's packed in fascinating and current information into a friendly format. The text is written beautifully. It's easy enough for most or these kids to read indepently, while engaging the interest of the most experienced reader.

And the pictures!!! The artwork for this book is worth the price alone.

This is an excellent resource and should be a part of every dinosaur lover's library!

I picked up this book because it was a Junior Library Guild Selection - very impressive - and it received a "Recommended" ranking from the National Science Teachers Association, a highly respected group that does not give out "Recommended" rankings lightly. I have never been steered wrong by the JLG, and I am not disappointed in the least this time, either.

My daughter and I really enjoyed reading this book together, and when she took it to class to share, her classmates enjoyed it, too. Halls' writing style makes a complicated subject easy for kids to comprehend and her profiles of some of the world's leading paleontologists are sure to inspire interest in paleontology as a career field - look, these are real live scientists! Not a movie, not fiction, but real people working in the field.

I'm so glad Halls chose a woman scientist to profile, too. Dr. Karen Chin's interest in dinosaur poop had my daughter laughing (she got really tickled at the description of a T-rex as the "poop-etrator" of a particular pile of coprolites), but even so, the other day I saw her taking especially careful notice of the dog's leavings in the back yard as she was cleaning it up. (Looking for bone fragments?) Gross, maybe, but hey, I know the characterization of Dr. Chin as a "girl who loves digging up dinosaur poop" made an impact. Maybe my girl has visions of herself as a scientist, too.

I loved all the aside bits that explained how the various scientific fields are interelated, too, like the part on the tectonic plates shifting and how this pushes layers of dinosaur bone-bearing rock to the surface to be found by modern-day bone hunters. I like how Halls explained the difference between archaeology and paleontology, too, and how human mummies and dinosaur mummies are different.

I like how Rick Spears' art is a nice balance to the very detailed scientific photos. I imagine there are a lot of ten- and eleven-year-olds out there emulating is kid-friendly, non-painterly style right now in creating their own dinosaur portraits.

Inspiration on a lot of levels here.

This book is absolutely packed with information. Halls has a gift for reaching out to her target audience and presenting this information in a way that will engage them at once and allow them to readily understand it.

She's a dinosaur lover herself, as proven in the warm and inviting introduction that features a photo of her on an actual dinosaur dig, and it shows in the passionate way she writes this book. I learned something new on every page.

I think young dino-lovers will really enjoy this book.

I bought this book for my son, who is a big dinosaur fan. I have to say we were disappointed that there were so many mistakes in the book. Children's science books should be accurate. My son also said that many of the websites didn't work and the people weren't where the book said they were. Since I went by the professional reviews, I don't think anyone read the book very carefully before recommending it.

It was an OK read, however, I would have liked more stories about her job instead of her.

This book has very accurate illustrations. It is very helpful for people who are interested in fossils, and everything that has to do with collecting them. It is easy to understand, and interesting to read over and over.

Frank Garcia pierces the veil of paleontology and brings you right down to the surface of your own dig.

This book is the best fossil reference book for the casual collector as well as a great addition to any science or teacher's library where geology and-or paleontology are included.

Written in a very down-to-earth style, the book walks you step-by-step through the basics of why fossils exist, where you will find them, how to properly (and safely) collect them and what to do when you get them home or back to the classroom.

Any family that includes fossil-hunting in their vacation, home-school or travel plans should pack this book along for the added benefit of the wide range of fossils identified within.

Any teacher who brings students to potential fossil or geology sites on field trips should include readings from this book BEFORE heading out as well as keeping it handy while in the field.

There's enough packed into this book that every school library science section should include this volume if budgets restrict purchases.

It's a great gift for the budding fossil collector and an excellent addition to a serious collector's library.

The soft, but protected cover, makes it safe to handle in the field.

Take my advice - purchase two: one for the field and one for the desk or prep table.

Discovering Fossils: How to etc
by Frank A. Garcia

Frank Garcia is not what anyone could call a conventional hide bound paleontologist. Garcia writes with the flair of an impromptu comedian and when it comes to paleontology he has a child like wonder of the natural world that is very infectious. While this work is a fairly basic guide to fossil collecting it covers several different areas and numerous types of fossils that are relatively common. If your planning an outing with your family and kids, (or in my case grandkids), and you & they have an interest in the hobby, this is an excellent, informative guide. Many relatively easy to find types of fossils are shown. The last thing Mom or Dad need is to take the kids collecting and not find anything. This book covers all the basics, has tips for new collectors and is entertaining besides.
I don't know if Frank still does site trips any more but if he does, I highly recommend going on one. You will learn more about practical paleontology in two days with Frank Garcia than you will sitting in a class room for a semester. Whether its spotting a rare valuable sharks tooth at 20 yards in Bone Valley or while moving at a dead run pointing out a 4/5's buried saber cat skull in Nebraska, Frank has bionic eyes. A word of caution, never, ever let him show you a mastodon.

In Frith,
Spence The Elder

"Sic gorgiamus allos subjectatos nunc"
M. Addams

A very good guide book to get started in collecting fossils. Great advice on equipment, locations and methods for collecting. The illustrations of typical specimens are extremely helpful in identifying finds. Mr Garcia writes with a great wit and a genuine love of science. His matter of fact story telling coupled with the excitement of discovery makes it obvious that to him, science is a verb.

The Horned Dinosaurs written by Peter Dodsonis a book that concerns itself strictly to a group of dinosauria known as the Ceratopsia of which Triceatops is but one of many.

The book is comprehensive in nature and has many illustrations scattered throughout to help the reader, as the author pieces together the fossil evidence. As a child many of us dreamed of dinosaurs and even had toys fashioned after dinosaurs, but the author has actually found and is studing the dinosaurs for real.

Triceratops was one of my favorites as a child. It could take on a T.rex and win with its three long horns, one on the nose and two horns on the brow and a crown of bone like a halo arond the head. Well, after reading this book, there are many different horn combinations and number of horns in the group of dinosaurs names Ceratopsia. Five horns, long and short horns, different crown arrangements, all were dangerous. Following the book you'll find out that the environment was dangerous and the Ceratopsia evolved with the level of dangers so did the bone structure.

Puzzles present themselves as fossil remains of a once very proud group of dinosaurs. The author explains some of them as posture, gait and compares them with the fossil record, footprints, but I'm not convinced that the author is correct. This book takes us all over the world where dinosaur digs are found, Mongolia, Alberta, Canada. The adventure in this book is trying to figure out after the discovery what these animals were like.

Clues range from not only the impressive armor in the skulls, but the actual deconstruction of the skeletal remains to nests/eggs and diet and tooth structure. All in all, this book is presented for general readers and specialists, but with the easy going narrative its not hard to be engrossed in this book.

Ceratopsians, or horned dinosaurs, have always been of particular interest to me. This book is a wealth of info about the group. It breaks the group into two distinct sub-groups: centrosaurs and chasmosaurs. These groups were informally called short-frilled and long-frilled ceratopsians. Centrosaurs are characterized by large nasal horns and small or nonexistant brow horns while chasmosaurs are characterized by short nasal horns and longer brow horns. This means that Triceratops, which I can remember being classified in the short-frilled group correctly belongs in the chasmosaur group. The book also explains work being done on statistical analysis of the known finds with an eye to determining which species are valid and which are just individual variation. However, in many instances I was left uncertain about which species were kept and which were incorporated into the remaining species.
In addition to the physiological and evolutionary material, the author includes a good deal of information on how and when the species were discovered. He uses this to set the stage for the analysis work which is the meat of his book.
There was one major problem I had with the book. That is the conclusion he draws that ceratopsians had front legs that were splayed out to the side, much like an alligator's. This is a debate that has gone on for some time. In my opinion, an animal that has splayed out front legs and fully erect rear legs could not exist. One only has to look at living animals to see that there is no animal with legs like that and no other animal in the fossil record has legs like this either. The only animals I know of that have limbs that are set up for different methods of locomotion are birds. And no one is suggesting that ceratopsians flew.
All in all a solid book, but his conclusions could have been more clearly stated.

The Horned Dinosaurs written by Peter Dodsonis a book that concerns itself strictly to a group of dinosauria known as the Ceratopsia of which Triceatops is but one of many.

The book is comprehensive in nature and has many illustrations scattered throughout to help the reader, as the author pieces together the fossil evidence. As a child many of us dreamed of dinosaurs and even had toys fashioned after dinosaurs, but the author has actually found and is studing the dinosaurs for real.

Triceratops was one of my favorites as a child. It could take on a T.rex and win with its three long horns, one on the nose and two horns on the brow and a crown of bone like a halo around the head. Well, after reading this book, there are many different horn combinations and number of horns in the group of dinosaurs names Ceratopsia. Five horns, long and short horns, different crown arrangements, all were dangerous. Following the book you'll find out that the environment was dangerous and the Ceratopsia evolved with the level of dangers so did the bone structure.

Puzzles present themselves as fossil remains of a once very proud group of dinosaurs. The author explains some of them as posture, gait and compares them with the fossil record, footprints, but I'm not convinced that the author is correct. This book takes us all over the world where dinosaur digs are found, Mongolia, Alberta, Canada. The adventure in this book is trying to figure out after the discovery what these animals were like.

Clues range from not only the impressive armor in the skulls, but the actual deconstruction of the skeletal remains to nests/eggs and diet and tooth structure. All in all, this book is presented for general readers and specialists, but with the easy going narrative its not hard to be engrossed in this book.

Dodson's prose is a delight. One rarely finds a scientist who is also a good writer, capable of conveying the complex ideas of geology and biology (as well as history) in a manner that is both informative and exquisitely entertaining. No dry text here. THE HORNED DINOSAURS provides an up-to-date survey of the known ceratopsians, from familiar taxa like Triceratops and Chasmosaurus, to newer, less well-known forms such as Udanoceratops and Einiosaurus. Wayne D. Barlowe provides a series of beautiful color plates. It's a shame similar volumes are not available for other groups of dinosaurs, such as hadrosaurs and ankylosaurs, books useful to both laymen and paleontologists.

_____________________________________________
Triceratops and family, as related by Penn paleontologist Peter Dodson, who is a clear and engaging writer. Have a look at the cover-scan at Amazon -- a preview of Wayne Barlowe's wonderful color plates. I bogged down in the anatomy lessons -- the occipital condyle dimensions seem important, but MEGO. The interior art is very nice. And I really like such tidbits as learning that William Buckland, who wrote the first formal dinosaur fossil-description in 1824, kept a pet bear in his house at Oxford. So there may be more here about old horned-face than you want to know, but you owe it to yourself, at least, to look at the wonderful Barlowe plates and read about the fieldwork. For a dino-dilettante like myself, the highlights of dino-books are the color plates, and I would certainly buy a nice, big "best-of" color dino-book. My nominations for artists would include Wayne Barlowe, Carel van Kampen (Dinosaurs of Utah), Doug Henderson (Dawn of the Dinosaurs), and others. If such a book exists, I haven't seen it. Have you? Publishers, take note....

Happy reading--
Pete Tillman
Consulting Geologist, Tucson & Santa Fe (USA)

A result of Award winning photojournalist Louie Psihoyos' three-year field trip to the world's major dinosaur fossil sites, this oversized book, written with frequent collaborator John Knoebber, is a well-organized, energetic, stimulating, amusing and gorgeously illustrated trek through prehistory.

Accompanied by the bones of famous fossil hunter Edward Drinker Cope (you'll just have to read the book), Psihoyos visits the world's prominent paleontologists, lends a hand when asked and lets them talk for themselves.

The book is organized loosely by time periods, beginning with an introduction to the history of dinosaur hunting and concluding, cleverly, with opinionated statements from all the scientists on "What killed the dinosaurs?"

In between are colorful visits to major museums and field sites, lively discussions of the theories of warm-bloodedness, dinosaur physiology and evolution and the evidence to be found in tracks, scat and site environments.

Psihoyos' crisp, humorous style is reminiscent of the best of personal journalism - an irreverence for academic stodginess and a participatory flair - mixed with a deep respect for expertise and avid curiosity. His photographs are complemented by paintings and maps showing fossil sites.

This is a wonderful book for amateur paleontologists and those who just like dinosaurs. The authors visit all the famous locales, where the big finds were made (you know the names--the Badlands, Mongolia), and talk to those who are currently working in the field. You learn some of the interesting stories from behind the scenes. Beautifully photographed as well. Accompanied by the skull of Edward Drinker Cope ("the Man" when it comes to North american paleontologists, along with his nemesis, O.C. Marsh), this is the ultimate dinosaur roadtrip. Maybe it will come back into print soon, with the ever present interest and appetite for dinosaurs and dinosauria.

Librarians--while this was published as an adult book, Amazon's suggestion of YA is right on--glossy photos, some irreverant humour, nice layout with just enough white space, and a subject that is always in demand somewhere make it just right for a YA non fiction collection.

I enjoyed the informative, humorous writing and beautiful photography of this book so much that I have included it in my course designed for teachers. Good work, authors!

This book is an original, combining the stories of discoverers, hard science, and masterful photography. It is a true feast, leavened by odd humor and genuine love of the subject. For example, there is a section on coprolites - petrified dino scat - that goes into what they are revealing about the ecology of the dino era. In addition, it features a lovely photo of a smiling scientist, as she preside over her coprolites like a baker advertising her wares: it is funny, informative, artististic. The stories in it are also fascinating, telling of their quirky personalities, inexplicable talents, and fanatical drive.

Reading it helped me to re-live my childhood love of these great and mysterious beasts as well as to update my knowledge on the state of the art today. Now I am introducing my children to them through this book.

Highly recommended.

Psihoyos, a photographer for National Geographic, has written a tremendous book about dinosaurs as we understand them today. Central to the book, of course, are Psihoyos' terrific photographs: Of fossils in museums, of individuals in their workplaces, of the beautiful landscapes to which paleontologists travel to search for bones, and of the bones themselves in varying states of discovery and repair. All by itself, this book gives you a deep respect for what really good photographers can accomplish with their craft.

Psihoyos also turns out to be a lively and witty writer, and the book provides a good general background on what we understand of dinosaurs and how they lived, as well as a history of dinosaur hunters dating back to the mid-19th century. I've been a casual "fan" of dinosaurs since childhood, and much of what's related here was completely unknown to me. Psihoyos outlines several of the controversies in the history of dinosaur digging, including the discovery of the reptile-bird archaeopterix, and the wars between the two great bone hunters of the late 19th century.

Along the way he also caught a few big breaks, such as discovering that there was no "type specimen" (defining example) for homo sapiens (humans), as well as getting caught up in the Tyrannosaur Sue controversy which resulted in lawsuits and jail time for some of those involved.

Anyone with any amount of interest in dinosaurs - from casual to deep - should find this book entertaining, and maybe even enlightening. For the pictures alone, it's a steal.

... through 65 million years of "punctuated" mammalian evolution, based on the vast fossil record of greater Europe. If you don't have something of a fresh background in archaeological zoology, if concepts like "clades" and "radiations" are unfamiliar, if you've never been able to keep the Eocene separate from the "epicene", you'll never get past the first 5 million years. There are hundreds, possibly thousands, of words used freely in this book that are not part of our everyday vocabulary; on ONE random page, (56), I find: microchoerid, adapid, dimorphism, creodont, hypercarnivorous, sectorial, cursorial, digitigrade, miacid, canid, ursid, amphicyonid, paleothere, lophiodontid, and brachydont. And that doesn't include the italicized Genus/species names! Now many readers will be able to handle these terms, based on recognition of their Latin/Greek roots, but the onslaught of specialized vocabulary continues for 281 large pages. If you think I'm trying to scare you, you're right. I don't want you to waste your money.

Nevertheless, this is a profoundly interesting and significant study of evolution within a delimited geography, revealing better than anything else I've read the random and contingent relationship between Darwin's "descent with modification" and the "catastrophic" events of the environment. By observing the waves of equilibrium and extinction/replacement in relation to changes in sea level, opening/closing of land-bridges due to continental drift, and huge shifts of climate, one can understand "evolution" over vast epochs of time far more credibly. The latter subject - climate change - makes this book more pertinent at present than mere intellectual curiosity. Climate change has been real. It has resulted in massive extinctions... and massive evolution of new forms, "endless forms most beautiful." By studying the climate changes of the past, we do have some chance of predicting the impact of the rapid climate change now occurring (with or without the uninformed consent of the McPalin crowd) and hedging our bets about our own chances as a species. I'm delighted, personally, by the realization that global warming will stimulate the evolution of wonderful new species, even new genera, within a few thousand years, but I'm unlikely to be around to see them.

The difficulty of the text is partly relieved by excellent illustrations, including very clear drawings of key fossils and plausible re-imagining of the mammals they came from. In pictures and in words, you'll encounter a parade of preposterous critters - far more and far stranger than Noah's Ark could possibly have carried - all of which thrived and multiplied in some niche in the ever-changing environment of Europe. Among them, by the way, were monkeys, baboons, hominids, Homo erectus, Homo antecessor, Homo neanderthalis, and Homo sapiens -- all supplanted, alas, by Homo not-so-sapiens-after-all.

I must confess feeling a bit unfair about giving this book bad press. First, as the other reviewers have mentioned, the illustrations are breathtaking (and yes, buy "The Big Cats and Their Fossil Relatives" as well). You don't have to be an evolution buff to enjoy Mauricio Antón's vivid drawings of monster pig entelodons, bizarrely pronged paleomerycids or huge-headed giant creodont predators. Another reviewer mentioned machairodonts; my personal favorites are the gorilla/horse-crossbreed-like chalicotheres.
Second, the task of covering 65 myr of mammalian succession in a reader-friendly way is just about impossible; after all, we are talking about hundreds of genera known only by their latin names (and most paleontologists are oddly adverse to giving cool names like "Tyrannosaurus", sometimes they rather go for stuff like "Brachydiceratherium", "Paracynohyaenodon" or even "Parachleuastochoerus"). The book succeeds in compiling all of this chaos, and it contains an immense, invaluable amount of information. It is all in all a unique and beautiful work on an extremely interesting topic and heartily recommmended on those grounds alone.

However: Despite its popular format the text is unforgiving in its demands on the reader. Clearly one has to have a fair comprehension of geological epochs, but also quite specialized bio-jargon like "sclerophyllous", "fossorial" or "selenodont". Maybe I'm the dummy here, but sometimes I've been quite puzzled as to who exactly the intended audience is. Are there really anybody out there who on one hand can visualize "bunodont" teeth, but on the other needs explanations of terms like "artiodactyl" or "felid"? Please guys, this could have been so infinitely much better if you'd just included:

- A glossary
- Maps (it's hard to visualize the rapidly changing European geography from descriptions alone)
- Phylogenetic trees (even if one would need non-European clades to fill in the gaps)

It would also be great to have:

- Time lines
- Illustrations of salient anatomical characteristics (like the difference between Creodonta and Carnivora)

So when I choose to cut down my rating to a meagre three stars, it's more a cry to the authors to create a second edition than to actually deter buyers. Buy this book. If you know the jargon, great; if not, read it with a dictionary and a notebook. Enjoy.


PS Top reviewer John Matlock "Gunny" has written almost 4000 reviews on all kinds of books, seemingly all of which are awarded five-star ratings. According to his profile he reviewed 6 other books the same day as MSaH. Just ignore commercial reviewers, folks.

This text is the best guide to Mammoths, Sabertooths and hominds. It provides in-depth information on any species that lived in Europe from the Eocene epoch to the Pleistocene. It also covers mammals from other contients that affected the Europeon fauna. For example, from Africa came the Gomphotheres, Dinotheres and Hominoid (and many more). I enjoyed the part of the book that covers the extinct Big Cats, especially Machairodus giganteus (My favourite of all). For those who want to buy this book should also try reading The Big Cats and their fossil relatives...another excellent book.

This is a fairly short, one volume introduction to sixty-five million years of life in Europe. Most of the interest, most of the books on evolutionary history seem to concentrate on the era of the dinosaurs. But when the comet hit, they were gone. Mammals took over the econogical niche previously held by the dinosaurs.

We seem to feel that the mammals jumped full blown into what we see today. This book details the history of how the mammals came to take over the top of the pyramid. At the beginning there was only the small almost rodent like mammals that had existed alongside the dinosaurs. The book begins here, but points out that there is relatively little record from that time. The mammals were small and difficult to find in fossil form. From here the book goes on to the evolution of humans during only the last couple of million years.

Well written and easy to read, the book covers a little known era. You will find though, an awful lot of new (and big) words to describe the various animals.

"Mammoths, Sabertooths, and Hominids" describes the evolution of mammals in Europe over the past 65 million years, an immense stretch of time that this humble reader still struggles to comprehend. The author describes in detail the creatures that once lived in Europe, from the small and archaic, e.g. multituberculates, to the large and more modern, e.g. mammoths. Some mention is also made of non-mammals such as the killer birds and crocodiles. The book is lavishly illustrated with several full color plates in the center and numerous black-and-white sketches throughout the text. Mauricio Anton's pictures alone make the book worth owning for any prehistoric mammal enthusiast. The downside to this work, and why I only rate the book 4 stars, is that it's rather tough to read for someone who's not well-versed in the jargon of biology and paleontology. A glossary would have been really helpful. A hefty bibliography is supplied for those who wish to immerse themselves in the scholarly literature. I must admit that I had to start over a couple of times to grasp the material. This book isn't quite the readable account of mammalian evolution I was hoping for, having just recently been inspired to learn more about the subject by "Walking with Prehistoric Beasts". Students and grad-students in the field will certainly enjoy it, however.

The Three Little Dinosaurs by Jim Harris is a great take on the Three Little Pigs story. Baby dinosaurs replace the pigs and the wolf is a hungry T-Rex that won't stop stalking the little pigs. The illustrations are the best I've seen in a kid's book - my favorite so far. While the story follows the tried and true Three Little Pigs fable, it has a great twist on the ending.

My 5yr old loves this book. Well, he loves dinosaurs and we saw this story and had to get it. We both laugh everytime we read it.

A TRex, rather than the big bad wolf, thinks he is going to make cheeseburgers out of the three little dinosuars. Each gets away even though the TRex refers to them as piggies! It's a hoot; clever story and funny illustrations.

... My 4 year old son LOVES this book, and is dreading the return to the library. Maybe the jokes and dialogue aren't up to par for some adults, but my husband and I also both loved the book. (Which is good, since we've read it at least once a day, if not more, for the past 2 weeks!) And the illustrations are hilarious - we picked up the book at the library because the dinos looked like the ones from "The 10 Little Dinosaurs" which we already own and love. We will be buying this book for our home collection!

I've read and reviewed most of the basic tellings of "The Three Little Pigs", as well as most of the variants. Here's my take on it.

This variant has a great premise of dinosaurs instead of pigs. It sticks with the plot enough to be familiar, but adds plenty of intriguing new twists. However, it just isn't very well carried out. The dialogue is inane, and it contains many attempted jokes that just aren't funny. For example, the T. Rex continually calls the dinos "pigs", which is out of place to the extent that I thought it was a typo the first time. The artist is obviously very talented (see the candy bar on page 2) but the pictures are really too cartoony, and the scale keeps changing. How big is the T.Rex compared to the young dinosaurs? It's too bad Harris couldn't have spent more time on this story and developed a better done version.

As a soon to be teacher, this will definately be a book found on my classroom shelf. The artwork is great, the characters are witty, and it brings the Three Little Pigs up to today's lifestyle in sarcasm and in the pictures. I recommend this to anyone.

AFTER THE DINOSAURS: THE AGE OF MAMMALS finally takes the focus off the dinosaur and into the next era: an age where Earth was inhabited by an array of strange creatures, from huge hornless rhinos to an elephant-like hoofed mammal. Family trees of evolutionary species and discussions of evidence blends with an analysis of climate change and other environmental influences on the age of mammals for college-level audiences and collections strong in science history.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch

For life on the land, it was simply a resetting of the clock. A great rock arrived on Earth to precipitate - or complete - a massive extinction. Successfully dominating the planet for over 120 million years, the hordes of saurians were expunged. The sea-side plains and woodlands they had inhabited were now empty. Not entirely devoid of life, however, for sharp-eyed creatures who had been around as long as those dinosaurs peered out from hiding places, observing the emptiness. They quickly began to occupy it for themselves. In so doing, they founded an immense diversity of lineages, one of which ultimately led to ourselves.

Donald Prothero, who has contributed much to our knowledge of fossils, the scientific process and mammalian evolution, offers here a work of great scope. Tracking the changes in life over 65 million years is no small task, and he copes with the challenge well. In this work, he lists the forms of mammal life, some of the sea life along the shore and in the deep, and the environment shifts in general. Those environment shifts were great prompts to changes in life and he explains as much as is known about what caused the Earth to warm from the end of the Cretaceous through the Eocene when temperatures went into decline.

Although North America receives what seems an inordinate amount of attention, that is due to geophysical conditions here through the Cenozoic and to the rich fossil trove it has produced. That doesn't prevent the author from addressing the rest of the planet, which he does in extensive detail. The interaction of life between Europe, Asia and North America is nearly continuous during the period. Africa remained close, but detached, as was the case with South America for many millennia. Australia was increasingly isolated over time, while India was making a mad dash to link with Asia. All these geologic shifts had major repercussions on climate, as well as plant and animal life. It is those great interactions which form the underlying theme of this book. Climate change institutes other change, much of it severe and long-lasting. Prothero's message is clear, if subtly presented: human induced climate change is already underway, and we'd best prepare to learn to cope with the changes that will follow.

As with all Prothero's books, this one is richly illustrated. It presents informative photographs of working digs and museum specimens, artwork of skeletal reconstructions filled in with flesh and fur. There are explanatory diagrams showing the relationships of various fossil species and the significant changes occurring over time. There are some jarring images, such as the sabre-toothed cats, who at first glance seem unlikely to survive with the extended dentition they carried about. Yet, they persisted successfully for nearly two million years. Huge, flightless predatory birds inhabited South America instead of the sabre-toothed cats. Prothero's diagram [p. 225] of these creatures' size compared with a human, should give anybody watching a passing robin a bit of pause. Today those creatures are docile seed or insect eaters, but not long ago they would have been pleased to feast on you.

Finally, of course, Prothero must bring in the most ecologically successful species of them all. The hominids and their many precursor species in Africa. Throughout this segment, he explains how climate was a prompt for many of our accomplishments as a new species. He puts the rise of proto-humans in context with events and conditions over the rest of the planet. The Ice Ages is given detailed attention with what is known of the Neanderthal subspecies living through the early stages. In all this is an excellent book for anybody who cares to learn the background of our lineage and that of our mammalian cousins. [stephen a. haines - Ottawa, Canada]

The book traces history of life after the dinosaurs, with focus on the changing climate and environments, showing life changed in the sea, in the air and on the land. Sea life seem to explain a lot about what was happening both in the waters and on dry land. The only reason I took a star was that the author, in order to keep the pages down to 316 had to smooth out a lot of the history, taking away the details that many people may wish to know, like how the animals lived, loved and died. But if you are looking for a general time line of life just after the death of the dinosaurs and ending in the 21st Century that traces the development of mammals, this is the book for you, new or used.

Owing to the undeniable "glamour" of dinosaurs, mammalian evolution is a sort of neglected stepchild in literature about the unfolding pageant of life. This book is a most worthy step in removing that status.

As with his other works, Dr. Prothero's present text is well organized and easily read, although some prior familiarity with evolution and anatomy is desireable. The very fine graphics and drawn pictures accompany the text rather precisely, and reference to them is made much easier than is the case where one must search elsewhere to to find meaningful illustrations.

Dr. Prothero's research and compilation is outstanding, particularly with respect to lesser known epochs of the Cenozoic Era. As a result of reading this book, I have gained a much greater, clearer understanding of mammalian development as a whole, over the Earth, and not just in one geographical province. This book should be required reading for anyone interested in the development of life, and is an utter necessity to anyone truly into the development of mammals.

I have unhesitatingly given this work a five-star appellation, and would have gone higher had I been able. It will provide the reader with endless hours of enjoyable reading and reams of pertinent information. Just don't loan it out to anyone with a similar interest.

An excellent exposition of the climatic and geophysical conditions that prevailed during the cenozoic. A bit thin on enumerating individual animal groups, but the author never intended to make an exhaustive listing of animal life.