Dinosaurs

by Carl Mehling

Features more than 300 dinosaurs and prehistoric animals from the Permian to the Quaternary period. Fact boxes contain information on fossil location, diet, weight, length, height, and meaning of name. Locator maps show where fossils have been discovered. Includes over 450 color illustrations and photographs.

Genres: Dinosaurs, Science, Nonfiction

448 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2002

Reviews

[Julia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very cool and informative book.
I’m certainly glad that most of these beasts aren’t around today.
Others though.. would indeed be interesting to see first hand.

[Rachel Holtzclaw · Rating 5 out of 5]

hi, it's me, your local dinosaur book reader, here to review yet another dinosaur book!

so this isn't my first rodeo, obviously, and i had a lot of other dinosaur encyclopedia-like books to compare this one to, and i think this might just be my favorite one i've read yet! i felt like just the right amount of information was given for each animal, the other prehistoric animals featured were just mixed in, yet classified apart (which i appreciated!), and a lot of the facts are ones that will stick with me and emerge at the strangest times, i think. in books like these, a lot of times i find myself zoning out and getting glassy-eyed, but that didn't happen a whole lot here!!!

anyway, if you read just one dinosaur encyclopedia, i recommend this one!

[Adnan Ilyas · Rating 1 out of 5]

This was the first dinosaur encyclopedia I bought since I was a kid, back in ~ 1997. And you know what? Buying this book was a big mistake.

Why?

Well, that book I got in 1997 was called the Humongous Book of Dinosaurs and it just so happens that it has the EXACT. SAME. ART. as this book. Google it; you can see for yourself.

It’s not just that the art is recycled stuff from 20+ years ago. The dinosaurs included are also limited to that time frame. The first feathered dinosaur was discovered in 1996. Is it in this book? Nope. Are any dinosaurs since 1996 included in the book? Also No. The last 20 years have been the greatest in the history of dinosaur paleontology, with dozens of new species named every year. And none of it is in this book, even though it was published in 2018.

Even many of the entries are out of date. I mean, this book thinks Seismosaurus is a valid species. The Nintendo video game series Animal Crossing got the facts right on that one way back in 2013. Animal Crossing!

Look, encyclopedias should not parrot the same information as they did 20 years ago; they should not recycle the same art. They need to be held to a higher standard. Don’t get this book.

[Ron · Rating 2 out of 5]

Very comprehensive in terms of the number of species covered and presented more or less chronologically, but many of the illustrations are distorted with a over-dramatic 3D effect that makes it difficult to get a proper image of the creature. In many of the "How big was it?" comparisions to a human figure, the creatures are oversize and/or distorted so comparisons are useless. Some of the listed stats are questionable. A 17-19 foot long Smilodon? Other sources put it at 10-12 feet, about the size of a Siberian tiger. The timeline along the bottom of each page is not useful--there are no divisions into Triassic, Jurassic, Cretaceous periods. In fact, these terms are hardly mentioned in the whole book. Jurassic and Cretaceous species are ill-defined on this timeline and readers will have a tough time sorting which species were contemporary. Descriptive text is minimal. Kids will like the colorful and often gory images but many of the facts are questionable. There are many better and more accurate dinosaur books for kids and adults.

[Kayla Cyr · Rating 4 out of 5]

Similar to a field guide for dinosaurs . It offers a quick description of many different animals but doesn’t provide a lot of detail on each. Great information though , especially if you are new to the field !

[Jimmy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good brief reference for many dinosaurs and a small selection of other extinct animals. Some of the illustrations (such as one for Baryonyx) look rather weird, while several of the "How big is it?" pictures don't do much good, since they show the animal hunched over (rather than standing up) or as an overhead shot, such as the one for Becklespinax.

[Matthew · Rating 3 out of 5]

While it does cover a wide range of species not normally seen in this type of book the paleoart for this book is deplorable. Wildly colored with absurdly 'dynamic' poses made many of the animals look like Pokemon with Macrocephaly.

[Erikat · Rating 5 out of 5]

GREAT BOOK.

[Genevieve · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very well researched and well written encyclopedia of prehistoric animals and dinosaurs.