The Complete Illustrated Encyclopedia of Dinosaurs & Prehistoric Creatures

by Dougal Dixon

Profiles all known dinosaurs and prehistoric creatures, from the Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous eras and beyond. Each main entry has a highly detailed and technically accurate illustration, and a map showing the sites where fossils have been found

Genres: Nonfiction, Science, Dinosaurs, Palaeontology, Animals, Reference, Biology

512 pages, Hardcover

First published November 1, 1988

Reviews

[W.B. · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is my current obsession...The illustrations are splendid.As the title indicates, it's not just dinosaurs...the book comes up into relatively recent times and recently extinct creatures (read a few hundred to a few thousand years). It's interesting to learn that we may just be in an extended interglacial and that another Ice Age may very well be in our future. I must have an updated edition, because some of the references and corrections are amazingly fresh. Lipleurodon, Utahraptor, Eryops...let's just be glad we're not "Walking with Dinosaurs" like these, as the BBC series had it. I like it when the authors chide the BBC docu for its extravagant dramatizations of unsupported habits, like Lipleurodon leaping up onto the land to devour terrestrial dinosaurs. LAND SHARK! Oh, well surprise...crocodilians once existed in land species and wandered through deserts of Australia devouring. You learn interesting things like the fact that New Zealand was never attached to any part of Pangaea (it's a volcanic mass risen from the ocean floor). And that Spielberg's menacing velociraptors were clearly modeled on Deinonychus but they should have been shown as feathered (quill knobs on recently discovered specimens confirm what was already suspected.) And yes, many dinosaurs were warm-blooded to some degree, and some cared for their young. It's fun to see how lucky amateur fossil hunters get to give these creatures some goofy names too. Utahraptor spielburgi? I was disappointed my favorite dinosaur Dracorex Hogwartsia was not included but that's a very recent discovery. Dracorex had the most amazingly dragon-like skull...very baroque with many protuberances...a beautifully medieval-looking creature...Die young and leave a beautiful corpse. Paleontology thanks these dinos and other beasties for doing just that! Here's the "dragon king"...

http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2006/05...

[Lone Wolf · Rating 3 out of 5]

For the most part, this book makes a fascinating and highly informative read. It details extinct animals from a wide variety of groups and time periods - the dinosaurs in particular are excellently represented, with almost every known species featured. Other animal groups appear in lesser numbers, but well-known pterosaurs, plesiosaurs and prehistoric mammals all make an appearance. In addition, lesser-known extinct animals are included, such as early amphibians and the mammal-like reptiles.

However, there are a few glaring errors which cannot be overlooked. For example, the nimravids are described as cats, when they were in fact a completely separate family (Nimravidae, as opposed to Felidae). Two of the prehistoric whales, Rodhocetus and Basilosaurus, are classified in their information boxes as primates, which is obviously incorrect. One sentence reads: "It has been accepted for some time that the dinosaurs evolved from birds" - clearly the words "dinosaurs" and "birds" are the wrong way round here. There are also spelling errors that one would not expect to see in a scientific book such as this - e.g. yolk spelt "yoke".

The problem here is that, once you notice one mistake, you are left wondering how many others you have missed. The end result is that you cannot rely on the information given as being correct. In an educational book such as this every effort should be made to ensure the accuracy of the facts, otherwise those who buy the book in good faith will end up being misinformed - surely the very opposite of the purpose of this kind of publication.

[Sohail · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the best 'encyclopedic' book about prehistoric animals (for the layperson) that I have ever read. It boasts a huge (really huge) collection of land animals, marine creatures, and flying animals, from early amphibians to reptiles, synapsids, dinosaurs, mammals, and birds. I have several similar books (The Illustrated Encyclopedia Of The Prehistoric World, for example), but all of them pale in comparison to this one. Most of the pictures are gorgeous, and the accompanying text is usually very interesting. The species are usually arranged in a chronological order, which makes seeing their evolution quite easy (another big plus).

Highly recommended to anyone interested in prehistoric animals, but more than that, highly recommended to my younger self, because this could have been my childhood's dream book!

Some information is outdated and erroneous, so I hope there will be an updated and revised version of this book (which, hopefully, will include more species as well).

[Andre · Rating 2 out of 5]

In terms of content I would say that the book is recommendable. It says several times how temporary a lot of the information is, how much is speculation and how it may change. So when it states that e.g. its classification for birds and mammals is openly referred to as a workable compromise, it shows the book's honesty.

What however is a big flaw of the book is the artwork. At the start of the book there was some pretty good artwork and there was some more later on, however in other cases the artwork was decent at best and especially the mammal section had no decent artwork. It made me wonder how many artists worked for this book.

[Robert Brents · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow! So much has been discovered since I was in 5th grade (which itself occurred during prehistoric times)! This is so comprehensive as to be almost overwhelming. Descriptions of over 1,000 dinosaurs and other prehistoric beasties from the Age of Amphibians through early hominids. Lots of categories and species new to me; my favorites: the Dromaeosaurids. Another book I've been all the way through but will undoubtedly return to again and again.

[Pablo Rodríguez · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was my very first science book; I read it with 4 or 5 years, when the dinosaurs were fancy!

[Maureen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very useful for organising your dinosaurs.

[Sara Hartline · Rating 5 out of 5]

A joy to read for children and adults alike! The artistic renderings are beautiful. It's packed with information from beginning to end but is never overwhelming.

[artemis · Rating 5 out of 5]

love the amount of info even if some of it is wrong (as the author mentions, by the time this is published undoubtedly some of this will be false, some updated and some new fossils will be found) but didn't care much for the last two sections but that's just since the mammals don't interest me as much. also -.5 star because of the monkeys and reminding me we evolved from them because i hate monkeys

[Hayley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely spectacular resource book and not just on dinosaurs! Who would have thought this would have been so fascinating? The illustrations were excellent as was all the information. A book to be delved into time and time again and shows the evolution pre to post dinosaurs.

[Basilius · Rating 3 out of 5]

DINOSAURS ARE AWESOME

[Lauren · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was interesting to see all of the dinosaurs. The book actually covers the animals that came a little before the dinosaurs & goes through hominids.

[Jude Taylor · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved it so much and it was spectacular!!!!!!!!!!!!!🦖🦕🦖🦕🦖🦕🦖🦕🦖

[Aidan EP · Rating 5 out of 5]

My favourite Dinosaur book; the illustrations are sublime and it is altogether very comprehensive. Really awesome stuff.

[Martinus Haurissa · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best dinosaur books I've ever read! Especially if you're into realistic illustrations! Recommended for anyone claiming to be dinosaur lover!

[Jessica Hu · Rating 5 out of 5]

my childhood

[Tomek · Rating 4 out of 5]

i like nostaliga books and also this book has soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo many prehistoric animals! (There is more than 800 animals)

[Michael Reilly · Rating 4 out of 5]

This substantial book is a great resource, providing a wealth of interesting facts about the fascinating creatures from Earth’s past (and present era). Neatly presented and attractively illustrated by numerous talented artists, Dougal Dixon once again shows how to compile a useful reference that can be enjoyed by all.

Brief creature details (typically 2 per page with site maps, plus sidebars explaining broader research and facts about the group) form the bulk of its content, supported by lengthier introductions covering topics such as evolution, anatomy, fossilisation, environments and extinction.

I gained plenty of concise knowledge from reading this compact encyclopaedia, and would certainly recommend it for anyone keen to explore this subject.

[Zoe · Rating 5 out of 5]

We return to this time and time again. Clear info, super illustrations. Only very slight problem is that the indexing could have been better - when an animal has several entries, the main entry is not highlighted (eg through italics), so it can take you several lookups to find the lead article on the animal in question. But don't let that put you off. This is a great book, which works well for interested children as well as adutls.

[Jimmy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fairly nice overview of the various dinosaur genera, along with several genera of other land and marine reptiles. Each entry (about a half page each, with a few full page entries) includes an illustration, a brief description of the genus, and an infobox showing the location of the finds, meaning of the name, etc.

However, the amount of evolutionary garbage strewn throughout the book can be overwhelming at times, such as featuring several examples of "feathered" dinosaurs.

[Travis]

I haven't actually read this book in anything resembling its entirety, but I wanted to keep a record of it as a potentially useful book in the future. Mainly I like it for illustrations. Unfortunately, though I love dinosaurs, my main interest is in all of the weird ancient mammals, but the vast majority of the book is given over to dinosaurs.

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting, not read about Dinosaurs since I was a child

[Heather · Rating 3 out of 5]

My daughter was mesmerized by this book. All the creatures were very cool. I was surprised since I got this for my young son.

[Amy Emerson · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book has excellent illustrations and though lacking more general information, it gives an amazing pictorial view of evolution because it breaks down each time period.

[Oliver Knagg · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is my favourite non fiction book. It is very scientific and useful in its organisation. It is slightly out of date.

[PottWab Regional Library]

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