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Planet Dinosaur: The Next Generation of Killer Giants
The companion book to the upcoming Discovery Channel television series, Planet Dinosaur is an introduction to the latest and most exciting dinosaur discoveries. The last decade has been particularly fruitful in the study of dinosaurs, with more new species found than were discovered in the preceding 200 years. Many of these discoveries easily eclipse previously known species and are rewriting what we know about dinosaurs. Planet Dinosaur is a global survey of the 30 most thrilling dinosaur species found in recent years. It provides a new global perspective on dinosaurs, revealing which species lived at the same time on different continents and how the Earth looked in each time period. Specimens in China, the Sahara, the Arctic, Antarctica and North America are especially exciting. The deadly predator, Giganotosaurus, outsized T-Rex. Dracorex hogwartsia lived in North America 70 million years ago and resembled a real-life dragon. Comprehensive text describes where the dinosaurs lived, their physical characteristics and their behavior. 120 stunning computer-generated illustrations and graphics render the awe-inspiring creatures in lifelike detail. This is the same technology used in the award-winning TV special Walking with Dinosaurs and in the bestselling book The Complete Guide to Prehistoric Life . A three-part TV special on which Planet Dinosaur is based will air on Discovery Channel in the summer of 2012. Information on the most exciting discoveries of recent years and extraordinary illustrations make Planet Dinosaur essential for anyone interested in dinosaurs.
240 pages, Hardcover
First published March 6, 2012
19 people want to read
About the author
Cavan Scott
845 books436 followersis a freelance comic writer and author. He is best known for his work on a variety of spin-offs from both Doctor Who and Star Wars, as well as comics and novels for Vikings, Pacific Rim, Sherlock Holmes, and Penguins of Madagascar.
Cavan Scott, along with Justina Ireland, Claudia Gray, Daniel Jose Older, and Charles Soule are crafting a new era in the Star Wars publishing world called Star Wars: The High Republic. Cavan's contribution to the era is a comic book series released through Marvel Comics titled Star Wars: The High Republic.
Cavan Scott, along with Justina Ireland, Claudia Gray, Daniel Jose Older, and Charles Soule are crafting a new era in the Star Wars publishing world called Star Wars: The High Republic. Cavan's contribution to the era is a comic book series released through Marvel Comics titled Star Wars: The High Republic.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
June 18, 2025
This makes a better book than doc ( www.amazon.com/review/R3GXLAGLI9FLDJ/... ): 4/5
Short version: If you have to choose between the "Planet Dinosaur" doc (henceforth PD #1) & Cavan's "Planet Dinosaur: The Next Generation of Killer Giants" (henceforth PD #2), I recommend reading PD #2 in conjunction with other, more recent books (E.g. Naish/Barrett's "Dinosaurs: How They Lived and Evolved").
Long version: Read on.
PD #1 (which is decent in its own right) was billed as the new "Walking With Dinosaurs" (which is the 1st natural history doc about dinos). It didn't pan out that way. As a result, people seem to forget how good PD #2 is. More specifically, PD #2 isn't just a very good companion book, but also a very good stand-alone book that tells the story of dinos MUCH better than PD #1. In fact, PD #2 is an even better stand-alone natural history of dinos than most of the WWD books, especially Haines' "Walking with Dinosaurs: A Natural History" (which it's most often compared to). In this review, I list the 3 main reasons why I think PD #2 is that good.
1) Most natural histories of dinos have a chronological or day-in-the-life format. This makes sense given that they're the easiest & best ways to tell the story of dinos, respectively. However, unlike the chronological format that makes WWD feel so epic in both book form & doc form, the day-in-the-life format of PD works MUCH better in book form than doc form. This is because, to paraphrase Ben ( https://extinctmonsters.net/2015/01/1... ), "audiences are predisposed to understand the forward progression of time, so little[...backstory...]is needed." Meanwhile, day-in-the-life requires a lot more backstory to set up the events of the main story & tie them all together. Without said backstory, the main story doesn't make much sense. Part of the problem with PD #1 is that it only has a few sentences of backstory at the beginning of each episode (See the Hurt quote). PD #2 solves this problem with 4 pages of backstory in the Introduction. Also, PD #2 switches up the order of "The New Giants" & "Taking Flight" (I.e. PD #1's "New Giants" & "Feathered Dragons", respectively), making the main story as a whole flow better.*
2) Unlike WWD in general & Haines' book in particular, PD "made the point of showing/stating which bits of evidence have allowed scientists to come to the palaeobiological conclusions that they have" ( https://web.archive.org/web/201912220... ). Furthermore, while Darren Naish was only involved in PD #1 "on an at-the-end-of-the-phone basis", he "had full, unconditional control" to tweak the technical stuff in PD #2 ( https://web.archive.org/web/201511052... ). Thus, PD #2 is more complete, in-depth, & accurate. This is especially apparent in the following ways:
-To paraphrase Albertonykus ( https://albertonykus.blogspot.com/201... ), "One of the less desirable characteristics of [PD #1] is that it's very theropod centric[...]Planet Dinosaur probably should have been called "Planet Theropod"." PD #2 solves this problem with profiles of almost every featured sauropodomorph & ornithiscian (I.e. Argentinosaurus, Paralititan, Ouranosaurus, Chasmosaurus, Edmontosaurus, Camptosaurus, & Stegosaurus).
-In PD #1, Microraptor & Sinornithosaurus are depicted as being splay-legged & venomous, respectively. Surprise surprise, said depictions are based on debunked BANDit claims (BAND = Birds Are Not Dinosaurs). Anyway, PD #2 solves this problem with critiques of said depictions, concluding that 1) "it was simply impossible for Microraptor to adopt this posture" (For more info: https://web.archive.org/web/201505160... ), & 2) "the idea that Sinornithosaurus might have delivered a venomous bite was never well supported and the majority of dinosaur experts regarded it as poorly founded right from the start" (For more info: https://web.archive.org/web/201406220... ).
3) Unlike WWD (which has CG dinos on real backgrounds), PD has CG dinos within CG backgrounds. To quote Dinosaur Guy ( https://whendinosaursruledthemind.wor... ), "You may think this would make the series look cheap, but I think it benefits from this in several ways. First of all, this allows many more species of dinosaurs to be featured[...]Secondly, this allows them to create period accurate dinosaur landscapes. Any modern area they would like to film in would never be 100% accurate to the actual Mesozoic (the Mesozoic had very little to no grass, yet you would never know from most dino docs, which feature vast grasslands all the time). Thirdly, this allows the dinosaurs to flow seamlessly in their environment. In most dinosaur documentaries, you can tell where the camera footage begins and where the CG begins, and can be distracting to some. But here, the dinosaurs actually look like they belong to the environment." 1 of my only problems is that some of the CG is a bit off (E.g. To quote Naish, "the animals didn’t run well, they sometimes looked a bit… well, rubbery, and temporal fenestrae and so on often looked way too ‘hollow’").**
*"The New Giants" is 1st. Thus, the main story begins with non-bird dinos being born & ends with them dying. Also, "Taking Flight" is penultimate. Thus, its short story of 2 Gigantoraptor mating leads more directly into the last chapter's short story of them nesting.
**My other problem is some inaccurate/contradictory text (E.g. On page 42, it's claimed that 40 ft = 12.2 m in the sidebar & 10m in the main text) & weird/inconsistent writing (E.g. Not all of the profiles list the species epithet; Of those that do, not all of them translate it).
Quoting Hurt (who narrated PD #1): "We're living through THE golden age of dinosaur discoveries. All over the world, a whole new generation of dinosaurs has been revealed. From the biggest giants...and the deadliest killers...to the weird and wonderful. From the Arctic to Africa. From South America to Asia. In just the last few years, we have uncovered the most extraordinary fossils, exquisitely preserved and tantalisingly intact. Combined with the latest imaging technology, we have been able to probe deeper and reveal more than ever before. It gives us our first truly global view of these incredible animals."
Short version: If you have to choose between the "Planet Dinosaur" doc (henceforth PD #1) & Cavan's "Planet Dinosaur: The Next Generation of Killer Giants" (henceforth PD #2), I recommend reading PD #2 in conjunction with other, more recent books (E.g. Naish/Barrett's "Dinosaurs: How They Lived and Evolved").
Long version: Read on.
PD #1 (which is decent in its own right) was billed as the new "Walking With Dinosaurs" (which is the 1st natural history doc about dinos). It didn't pan out that way. As a result, people seem to forget how good PD #2 is. More specifically, PD #2 isn't just a very good companion book, but also a very good stand-alone book that tells the story of dinos MUCH better than PD #1. In fact, PD #2 is an even better stand-alone natural history of dinos than most of the WWD books, especially Haines' "Walking with Dinosaurs: A Natural History" (which it's most often compared to). In this review, I list the 3 main reasons why I think PD #2 is that good.
1) Most natural histories of dinos have a chronological or day-in-the-life format. This makes sense given that they're the easiest & best ways to tell the story of dinos, respectively. However, unlike the chronological format that makes WWD feel so epic in both book form & doc form, the day-in-the-life format of PD works MUCH better in book form than doc form. This is because, to paraphrase Ben ( https://extinctmonsters.net/2015/01/1... ), "audiences are predisposed to understand the forward progression of time, so little[...backstory...]is needed." Meanwhile, day-in-the-life requires a lot more backstory to set up the events of the main story & tie them all together. Without said backstory, the main story doesn't make much sense. Part of the problem with PD #1 is that it only has a few sentences of backstory at the beginning of each episode (See the Hurt quote). PD #2 solves this problem with 4 pages of backstory in the Introduction. Also, PD #2 switches up the order of "The New Giants" & "Taking Flight" (I.e. PD #1's "New Giants" & "Feathered Dragons", respectively), making the main story as a whole flow better.*
2) Unlike WWD in general & Haines' book in particular, PD "made the point of showing/stating which bits of evidence have allowed scientists to come to the palaeobiological conclusions that they have" ( https://web.archive.org/web/201912220... ). Furthermore, while Darren Naish was only involved in PD #1 "on an at-the-end-of-the-phone basis", he "had full, unconditional control" to tweak the technical stuff in PD #2 ( https://web.archive.org/web/201511052... ). Thus, PD #2 is more complete, in-depth, & accurate. This is especially apparent in the following ways:
-To paraphrase Albertonykus ( https://albertonykus.blogspot.com/201... ), "One of the less desirable characteristics of [PD #1] is that it's very theropod centric[...]Planet Dinosaur probably should have been called "Planet Theropod"." PD #2 solves this problem with profiles of almost every featured sauropodomorph & ornithiscian (I.e. Argentinosaurus, Paralititan, Ouranosaurus, Chasmosaurus, Edmontosaurus, Camptosaurus, & Stegosaurus).
-In PD #1, Microraptor & Sinornithosaurus are depicted as being splay-legged & venomous, respectively. Surprise surprise, said depictions are based on debunked BANDit claims (BAND = Birds Are Not Dinosaurs). Anyway, PD #2 solves this problem with critiques of said depictions, concluding that 1) "it was simply impossible for Microraptor to adopt this posture" (For more info: https://web.archive.org/web/201505160... ), & 2) "the idea that Sinornithosaurus might have delivered a venomous bite was never well supported and the majority of dinosaur experts regarded it as poorly founded right from the start" (For more info: https://web.archive.org/web/201406220... ).
3) Unlike WWD (which has CG dinos on real backgrounds), PD has CG dinos within CG backgrounds. To quote Dinosaur Guy ( https://whendinosaursruledthemind.wor... ), "You may think this would make the series look cheap, but I think it benefits from this in several ways. First of all, this allows many more species of dinosaurs to be featured[...]Secondly, this allows them to create period accurate dinosaur landscapes. Any modern area they would like to film in would never be 100% accurate to the actual Mesozoic (the Mesozoic had very little to no grass, yet you would never know from most dino docs, which feature vast grasslands all the time). Thirdly, this allows the dinosaurs to flow seamlessly in their environment. In most dinosaur documentaries, you can tell where the camera footage begins and where the CG begins, and can be distracting to some. But here, the dinosaurs actually look like they belong to the environment." 1 of my only problems is that some of the CG is a bit off (E.g. To quote Naish, "the animals didn’t run well, they sometimes looked a bit… well, rubbery, and temporal fenestrae and so on often looked way too ‘hollow’").**
*"The New Giants" is 1st. Thus, the main story begins with non-bird dinos being born & ends with them dying. Also, "Taking Flight" is penultimate. Thus, its short story of 2 Gigantoraptor mating leads more directly into the last chapter's short story of them nesting.
**My other problem is some inaccurate/contradictory text (E.g. On page 42, it's claimed that 40 ft = 12.2 m in the sidebar & 10m in the main text) & weird/inconsistent writing (E.g. Not all of the profiles list the species epithet; Of those that do, not all of them translate it).
Quoting Hurt (who narrated PD #1): "We're living through THE golden age of dinosaur discoveries. All over the world, a whole new generation of dinosaurs has been revealed. From the biggest giants...and the deadliest killers...to the weird and wonderful. From the Arctic to Africa. From South America to Asia. In just the last few years, we have uncovered the most extraordinary fossils, exquisitely preserved and tantalisingly intact. Combined with the latest imaging technology, we have been able to probe deeper and reveal more than ever before. It gives us our first truly global view of these incredible animals."
March 16, 2018
I thought that this book was exquisitely helpful. I never actually watched the television program that's supposed to go along with the book, but I thought it was good anyway. Informational and in-depth, as well. I loved hearing about the studies the paleontologists did and the theories and hypotheses they formed. (Really makes you wish you were a paleontologist.) It's also nice to get a page or two with facts on multiple species. Some of the notions raised were definitely valid and more than interesting. Who would have thought a Majungasaurus or even T. Rex could have been a cannibal? Truly fascinating. I also enjoyed reading about the reason the dinosaurs are gone. (Side note: Astronomy is awesome.) So, it was a good book. I would definitely recommend this book to aspiring paleontologists.
June 2, 2013
Beautifully illustrated images and a detailed walkthrough historical changes. This information text is a wonderful resource to introduce the differences in fiction and non-fiction books. With a small contents pages, interested pictures and detailed text about the book, children are enthralled with the life of the dinosaurs.
The book walks you through the timeline and the changes over time. The book ends with the evolved animals who are ancestors of the dinosaurs. I feel this text is very good for KS2 children as the text is very detailed and would be too difficult for children younger than this.
The book walks you through the timeline and the changes over time. The book ends with the evolved animals who are ancestors of the dinosaurs. I feel this text is very good for KS2 children as the text is very detailed and would be too difficult for children younger than this.
June 16, 2012
This was fun. Great illustrations and a text that those 10 years and up who are fascinated by dinosaurs would enjoy. Can't say it will satisfy because the text doesn't add much to the video that was produced but there are a couple of creatures that I am afraid will haunt my dreams.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews