The newest addition to the DK Handbooks series, Smithsonian Handbook to Dinosaurs and Other Prehistoric Animals features detailed profiles of 200 dinosaur species, full-color illustrations and photographs showing actual excavation sites.
The book Dinosaurs and Prehistoric Life, by Hazel Richardson, was the most beautiful book I have ever read. It’s stuffed with interesting dinosaur facts, incredibly detailed diagrams about the dinosaurs, well-structured information, and articulate timelines. One specific dinosaur I loved reading about was the Carnotaurus because its arms are so puny, it was hilarious. For such a big and ferocious dinosaur, it was funny to see the wacky proportions. One of the most goofy-looking dinosaurs was the Therizinosaurus because its name means “scythe lizard” and it looks like a 40-year-old zebra chicken. It was also really fascinating to see the many different types of ankylosauruses. It really helped show the beauty and mechanics of evolution. Oh my goodness, I was in heaven when I got to the Cretaceous period because it started with the big carnivores. Overall, I’d give this book 100 out of 5, but since that’s not possible, I’ll give it a 5 out of 5. I would recommend this book to any dinosaur-loving people out there.
I feel like this needed a pronunciation guide for more than the names of the creatures spoken about in this book. I was struggling to understand how family groups would be pronounced personally.
But other than that I enjoyed this book and even though this sells itself on Dinosaurs predominantly there are other eras of life spoken about. Even though it can be a bit samey if you binge read the earlier sections.
And I would say that if you’re a fan of prehistoric life documentaries you may know a lot of this information already as it is, pardon the pun, very bare bones with general information. Guess it can be used as a launching pad for finding more information on what captures your imagination.
It is a big book about Dinosaurs and other prehistoric life. Lots of cool pictures! What isn't to like? (This may or may not be for kids...but who cares.)
My 2 year old loves Dinosaur Train and sings this song with dinosaurs A-Z. When I was a kid, we only learned about maybe 20 dinosaurs, so I got this book to figure out what my daughter knows that I don't. This books has several errors and a couple instances where the images don't exactly match the descriptions, but it was a great starting point for me. Now I want to go find a more recent and more thorough encyclopedia of the Mesozoic and keep going. My little paleontologist enjoys all the extra stuff I can now show her.