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The Simon Schuster Encyclopedia of Dinosaurs and Prehistoric Creatures: A Visual Who's Who of Prehistoric Life | 
 enlarge | Authors: Barry Cox, Colin Harrison, R.j.g. Savage, Brian Gardiner, Douglas Palmer
Publisher: Simon Schuster
Category: Book
List Price: $40.00
Buy Used: $4.54
You Save: $35.46 (89%)
New (1) Used (15) from $4.54
Rating:  5 reviews
Sales Rank: 513056
Media: Hardcover
Edition: Rev Upd Su
Pages: 312
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 3.4
Dimensions (in): 11.9 x 9.1 x 1.2
ISBN: 0684864118
Dewey Decimal Number: 566.03
EAN: 9780684864112
ASIN: 0684864118
Publication Date: October 5, 1999
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: Former library book. Stickers, stamps, andmylar cover.Moderate to heavy wear.Ships daily.
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| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
P An unmatched reference work distinguished by its erudition and beauty, IThe Simon Schuster Encyclopedia of Dinosaurs and Prehistoric Creatures/I is an illustrated who's who of prehistoric life, a Baedeker of more than 500 million years of evolution on Earth. P With entries for more than 600 species, each arranged in its evolutionary sequence, the book presents a panorama of enormous diversity, from predatory dinosaurs to primitive amphibians, from giant armored fish to woolly mammoths, saber-tooth tigers and dire wolves. Each entry features a specially commissioned full-color painting prepared according to the best research of today in close collaboration with world-renowned paleontologists. The records of the rocks -- fossil bones, teeth, skin, hair and even footprints and nests -- have been combined with knowledge of the anatomy and behavior of present-day descendants to arrive at informed judgments about posture, color and other aspects of appearance. P Lively and informative "biographies" of the creatures accompany these remarkable illustrations: how they moved, what they ate, where they ranged and the habitats and ecological niches they occupied. Comparisons are made wherever possible with familiar living animals, highlighting both the contrasts and similarities. Also included are articles on subjects such as the time scale of evolution, fossil formation and interpretation and convergent evolution. P Truly a magnificent sourcebook, IThe Simon Schuster Encyclopedia of Dinosaurs and Prehistoric Creatures/I is both a triumph of scholarship and a work of art. It will stand as the best and most accurate presentation of the prehistoric animal world available.
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| Customer Reviews:
 An engrossing and informative volume for laymen or experts February 8, 2005
Alexander M. Moir (Jacksonville, FL)
6 out of 7 found this review helpful
This volume is the best one I've found on prehistoric creatures. Having always been fascinated by them, I wanted as an adult to find something to broaden the base I'd built as a kid obsessed with Tyrannosaurus and trilobites. Though I'm far from a paleontologist or even a biologist (my own training is in anthropology and linguistics) I find this book a pleasure to browse and consult. br / br /Beginning with the earliest worm-like organisms and evolving through the early fish, amphibians and armored sea creatures, the book continues on up through dinosaurs, Pleistocene megafauna and finally simians and hominids. The desciptions are brief but seem informative, but it is the quality of the artwork that I value most. I never tire of looking at the colorful depictions of the denizens of Devonian swamps, Ordovician seas and Jurassic forests. br / br /So, while I cannot pretend to be an authority, and though I certainly must defer some credibility and ask that you look at my review in conjunction with those of my fellow critics who disagree, I offer my personal recommendation on this book to any person interested in prehistoric life and what it must have been like.
 Engaging at first, but then the flaws ... July 3, 2000
Maine Writer (Maine, USA)
15 out of 19 found this review helpful
This book looked great at first, but then, on closer inspection, the drawings are second-rate, the information is thin, and the inaccuracies mount. Yet, there are no real alternatives that seek to comprehensively catalogue ancient life. I'd still buy it, but my enthusiasm has waned.
On the second thought... February 23, 2000
Shadowfire
24 out of 31 found this review helpful
Several months after acquiring the book I leaf through it and wonder how I could have given it such a high rating as I did. It has flaws throughout! p- The book appears to have a drastic shortage of species to list - it is only half as thick as Simon and Schuster's Encyclopedia of Animals - despite the fact that on numerous occasions they list but one or two species from a thirty-species family;p- The art is severely degraded from the above mentioned encyclopedia of animals. While I can see the puzzlement concerning the colors of the creatures' hides, there is no excuse for the the sloppy drawings of several of the animals! If you make a conjecture, please, be sure to follow through! On several of the animals the hair cover fails to obey the laws of physics, and most of the amphibians look like a horrid joke.p- The information is sketchy at best - on numerous occasions special biological mechanisms are mentioned (like a new jaw bone arrangement for the fishes, and the skull structures of the early land animals), yet are never explained in function. Almost all species are captioned with the basics like weight and dimensions followed with senseless filler.p- The between-section class summarizations and the cladistic graphs are also very, very basic. While I understand that the book was not intended for specialists, even the basic layman will find the charts a bit dumbed down.pThis book is flashy and artful, but lacking, lacking a great lot.
An incredible work December 27, 1999
Shadowfire
3 out of 5 found this review helpful
I have always longed for such a book. Probably it's a grave mistake on my part to make that the firt sentense of a review, but still. I daresay, anyone who has ever been in the very least intereste in paleontology has always longed for this sort of tome. The authors have satisfied both our love of visuals ( pictures are abundant - they accompiny every entry, in full blazing color by very trustworthy artists, generally sure to catch anyone's eye) and our love of the unknown ( this is the first non-specialist book that I have seen that goes beyond the everyday banal creatures like the pachycephalosaurus and the pterosaurids). This book is sheer pleasure while doing any sort of research, even for the specialists who need solid information. Perhaps there isn't quite enough data with every entry ( due to page limits), but the information that is included is accurate and up-to-date. This is a very good book.
Fascinating pictures and fascinating text ! November 10, 1999
VAHIDA Behzad (RUEIL MALMAISON France)
3 out of 4 found this review helpful
I have been looked for such a book for a long time, and now I have it. Reading this book is delightful, as it gives you plenty of informations about prehistoric animals in a very attractive manner. You have very nice pictures of all animals, with a short explanation giving all essential data about them (size, anatomic singularities, food habits, ...). In addition, extremely interesting introducing sections give you a vision of each branch of animals, together with explanations on the evolutionary process concerning them.pThis very up-to-date pictorial guide to now disappeared animals is a treasure for anybody interested in evolution and diversification of life. It gives you enough matter to become a specialist in this domain ! If you want to have one book on dinosaurs and other prehistoric animals, make it be this one.
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