Book Description

Book Description

Introduction by Dr. Paul Sereno.

Imagine a crocodile almost as long as Tyrannosaurus rex and just as fierce! That’s SuperCroc, the giant Sarcosuchus fossil discovered by Paul Sereno, a National Geographic explorer-in-residence.

Crocodiles and their ancestors are some of the most successful animals that ever lived. At the time of T. rex, crocs ranged in size from 2 feet to over 40 feet long. They lived on land, in swamps, and in the sea. Some, like SuperCroc, were fierce predators. Some were heavily armoredplant eaters. And when all of the dinosaurs (except birds) became extinct, the crocs lived on, becoming the crocodiles, alligators, and gharials of today.

Combining fantastic art and photography with vivid descriptions, Chris Sloan draws young readers into the latest discoveries about the lives of these amazing animals.

Reviews (2)

Enhanced with superbly presented photography
Supercroc And The Origin Of Crocodiles by Christopher Sloan (Senior Editor for Art, National Geographic magazine) is a nonfiction children's picturebook about ancient, gigantic crocodiles of millions of years ago, and their modern-day descendants. Enhanced with superbly presented photography, color illustrations, and amazing facts about these ancient reptiles, Supercroc is an exciting and highly educational read for children ages 8 through 12.

Supercroc is Super!
You are really going to enjoy National Geographic Supercroc and the Origin of Crocodiles. This hardcover with dustjacket new book is written by National Geo's art director Christopher Sloan (Feathered Dinosaurs) with an introduction by Dr. Paul Sereno, discoverer of Sarcosuchus. This beautiful book is packed with photos plus numerous paintings and illustrations from none other than world famous paleo artists Mark Hallett, Doug Henderson, John Sibbick, and National Geographic's talented new wunderkind: Raul Martin. The informative text describes for readers of all ages topics such as the definition of a crocodile, the world of Sereno's "Supercroc" Sarcosuchus and its fossil discovery, a prehistoric history of crocs and their cousins and the differences and similarities they share. You'll be amazed at the variety, from lizard sized saurians to giant Sarcosuchus who fed on dinosaurs. The final chapter titled "The Last Extinction?" discusses how crocs have survived 200 million years but now are seriously threatened by man. A fantastic full color work for all ages. ... Read more

Book Description

Illus. in full color. Meet the cutest (and biggest!) babies of all time in

the first nonfiction Step 1. The hatching of eggs, the habits, and the

hazards faced by prehistoric toddlers are all here in this accurate, accessible

look at a perennially popular subject. "An appealing title that should be popular with dinosaur enthusiasts."--School Library Journal.
... Read more

Book Description

Come jaw-to-jaw with an amazing array of awe-inspiring prehistoric reptiles and other incredible creatures in this dramatic trek back in time to the dawn of life on our planet and the age of the dinosaurs.Spectacular, full-color illustrations, photographs, and realistic dinosaur reconstructions based on the latest scientific discoveries bring each creature to life. The text combines hard facts about dinosaurs with interesting and intriguing details about their lifestyle and behavior. Species spreads detail the members of specific dinosaur families, giving information about their habitats and behavior, sizes, and the locations of fossil finds, while special subject spreads focus on various aspects of dinosaur life.Packed with dramatic photographs and illustrations, this colorful volume is an indispensable reference for young dinosaur enthusiasts and a captivating resource for the whole family.Special Features:Comprehensive, chronological encyclopedia of dinosaurs through the ages.Timelines give a visual guide to prehistoric periods.Up-to-the-minute research focuses on the latest finds.Includes glossary and general index. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

The Kingfisher Illustrated Dinosaur Encyclopedia
The Kingfisher Illustrated Dinosaur Encyclopedia written by David Burnie and illustrated by John Sibbick is a wonderful text with plenty of well captured illustrations along with the text to captivate your imagination about what dinosaurs were like. This text vividly captures you as it attempts to recreate the lives of the different dinosaurs covered in this encyclopedia.

"The Kingfisher Illustrated Dinosaur Encyclopedia" is arranged in a chronological order giving copious attention to dinosaur habits and habitats. Also, there is attention to detail about information on how fossil finds can be interpreted as the information is related to the time of the dinosaurs. The writing is easily understandable and children will wonder at the pictutres along with the prose.

I found this book to be up-to-date on a lot of information and is and outstanding guide to dinosaur life and times. There is some comparative anatomy, as the book goes into detail about the Maximum Length, Time, and Fossil finds as to location as to where these animals were found. This makes the book interesting as we see contrast to different types of dinosaurs as to location on the map. Also, the interrealtion of species to one another.

"The Kinfisher Illustrated Dinosaur Encyclopedia" is a book that can be used as a reference as well when comparing different dinosaurs to one another. The contents of this book is as follows:

Life in the Distant Past
The Age of Ancient Life
The Age of Reptiles
Plant-Eating Giants
Ornithopods
The Meat Eaters
Giant Meat Eaters
Armored Dinosaurs
Reptiles in the Air
Reptiles in the Sea
The Age of Mammals

There are subcatigories in each of these major chapters and there is adequate detail making for and interesting read. Dinosaurs are a significant part of prehistory. The more we discover about dinosaurs, the more we find out about the world we live in today.

This book rates a solid five stars for imaginative illustration and a text that is easily understood giving the reader a well-rounded view of life's past. You will not be disappointed with this book as it is unbelievably rewarding. ... Read more

Book Description

Reviews (2)

A refreshingly unique presentation of the alphabet
My son already liked alphabet books when I selected this one for his second birthday. We didn't need yet another alphabet book, but this one has become his favorite.
At 2 years and 3 months, he can recite the entire thing. It has a few "big" words like "nutritious", "quenching", and "irresistible", which is great for beginning speakers. It is a stretch for my son to pronounce those words, but that's where the learning is, and he's proud of himself.
As we talk about the bats, balls, boats, bananas, blueberries (and much more), he broadens his vocabulary, fine-tunes his pronunciation, and registers the concept of the "b" sound. He acts out this book by taking our plastic letters, quoting each page, ("A was appetizing"), and pretends to gobble the letter as the T-Rex does. The T-Rex puts the letter "R" in the refrigerator, so my son finds his "R" and wants to put it in the refrigerator too.
It is a colorful, visually appealing book, for toddlers through kindergarteners. My older son likes to help point out the items (that begin with the designated letter) on each page for his little brother. Some are obvious; some more challenging.

Fun and educational, too!
The educational content of this book is disguised by colorfulillustrations and witty passages. With each new letter comes theopportunity to name many objects that begin with that letter--C has clown, cotton candy, a carousel. And the letter that is being presented is always in bold type in every word in that particular passage. A wonderful tool to teach a little one their letters in both capital and lower case form. I chose this book because my son loves dinosaurs. However, I feel this book is wonderful for any child. So enjoyable! ... Read more

Book Description

Book Description

Millions of years ago dinosaurs roamed the earth. There was Brachiosaurus and Allosaurus, Stagosaurus and Triceratops. But greatest of all was Tyrannosaurus rex, king of dinosaurs. Some of these dinosaurs were meat eaters, others ate plants. Some dinosaurs could swim, some lived on land. Larn all about dinosaurs on this exciting trip to a museum.

Aliki's lively, informative words and inimitable full-color drawings make these long-extinct animals come alive again.

Reviews (4)

my visit to the dinosaurs review
My visit to the Dinosaurs is a book I would reccommend to any kid. This book is a very good book that has lots of pictures and teaches you a lot about dinosaurs. This book takes you through a dinosaur museum as you follow a young boy and his Father and sister. They give you cool facts that you might not have known about Dinosaurs. they show you all kinds of dinosaurs, small, tall, short and long. They tell you how you find Dinasours and other exciting facts. this book in my mind is deffenently one of my favorite children books.

A Favorite
Both of my sons enjoy this book...over and over and over. Anything about dinosaurs is popular, but this book even provides good educational information.

great for a 5 year old boy
My 5 year old son really enjoyed this book. It has good content at a reasonable length that held his attention. The art work is also good. It is simply a good book!

A wonderful children's introduction to dinosaurs.
Aliki's 'My Visit to the Dinosaurs' is an exciting and scientifically accurate adventure through the dinosaur hall of a museum of natural history. Children from pre-school up will enjoy their tour through this fascinating world through the eyes of a child. The supplemental audo cassettte is well recorded and easy to follow, an excellent way for your little one to learn how to read and increase their vocabulary. Occasional comments by Prof. Franklin Branley, former Director of the American Museum of Natural History in New York City are an added treat. ... Read more

Reviews (4)

Charmingly Illustrated Book, But Possibly Counter-Productive
There really isn't too much to find fault with in this cute little book. The illustrations are quite charming and it's focus on the fantastic notion of modern-day animals as dinosaur "cousins" is really quite sweet, if a bit naive. I thought that some of the dinosaur/modern animal associations were a bit far-fetched (baby chicks and protosauruses?), but if there's any real fault to be found, it's in the concept of the pairings themselves.

Because of its numerous scientific facts about dinosaurs, I was afraid that younger children might take the fantasy-based idea that contemporary creatures might be their "cousins" for as much of a fact as the rest of the text. I think, however, that that's a very minor point.

All-in-all, it's a very sweet book that indulges fantasies while encouraging children to see similarities in diparate objects. It even manages to include a lot of scientific facts about dinosaurs. It's most certainly a fun book for many different ages.

great book
My 4 year old son loves this book. I've found very few books
about dinosaurs that are on his level. This one is perfect. It
has concrete information about different dinosaurs and compares
them to familiar animals, and there are no gory pictures. I'd
highly recommend it for this age level.

The size of Dinosaurs
My son is almost 3 and a dinosaur lover but he didn't understand why he couldn't see them in the zoo. I explained they lived long ago and this book helped him relate to the size and shape of dinosaurs by comparing them to animals he has seen. It really works!

Awesome
I am a teacher, and use this book in the classroom. I feel it does a good job of explaining things in a kid way. It promotes creative problem solving, and imagination. It is in terms the students can relate to. My students loved this book and so do I. ... Read more

Book Description

Fascinated with dinosaurs, Patrick imagines that at one time dinosaurs were great friends of people. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

I loved this book
I loved this book because they had a lot of fun and had a lot of
details and it was very interest and funny to me.

A delightful fantasy rewrite of pre-history
In "What Happened to Patrick's Dinosaurs" the author takes us on a pleasant romp through the imagination of a dinosaur lover.Patrick tells his brother Hank of the times when Dinosaurs did all the work for theirbeloved humans, making them cars, roads, and houses.Although his brotherHank tries to correct and question Patrick, Patrick has an answer foreverything, logical and intreguing.

The illustrations in the book are adelight as well.From cloud formations and star contellations in the shapeof dinasaurs, to pictures of dinosaurs wearing clown make-up to put on ashow. ... Read more

Book Description

Designed to encourage children to explore the world around them, the Touch and Feel series features fun, tactile elements on each spread which depict objects familiar to preschoolers. Touch and Feel Dinosaur make details -- such as the scales of a dinosaur -- touchable in order to reinforce primary learning skills through sensory perception. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

beautifully presented photos and drawings
The DK series of eyewitness books are all fabulous, but this has to be my favorite. Dinosaurs are always appealing to children and adults and this book is no disappointment. Superb studio-quality, well lit photographs give you close-up shots of teeth and bones so real, you'll feel like they're right there for you to touch and pick up.

Theories on how dinosaurs really looked on the outside and how they walked are explored. Every caption has a tidbit of information that is interesting to anyone who reads it. A book like this will keep a child of any reading age occupied for no less than an hour on a road trip... and it will constantly be read over and over again... it's just intriguing and beautifully presented.

Great DINOsaur book...
I appreciate this book because it gives you drawings and paintings of how prehistoric creatures lived millions of years ago. It gives a perfect understanding of the study and also art of Paleontology. This book is, in my opinion, 1 of 2 of my most favorite books ever published for the scientific review of more than just a few species...This concludes my review. ... Read more

Book Description

This is a comprehensive treatment of dinosaurs designed to be used mainly as a textbook for students in first or second year undergraduate courses, although non-specialists are also sure to find the book of great interest. Nonetheless, it is unique in that it truly portrays dinosaurs from a specialist viewpoint. It is the only comprehensive text that takes an explicitly phylogenetic approach to this group. The geological context of dinosaurs is also stressed, and dinosaurs are presented in the context of contemporary plate tectonic and climatic settings. The authors also cover topics of interest in dinosaur palaeobiology, 'hot-blooded' dinosaurs, aspects of dinosaur functional morphology and the relationships of dinosaurs to birds. All of the discussion is couched in lively and accessible language, and the book is lavishly illustrated by specially commissioned line drawings and colour plates that show dinosaurs in a variety of natural settings. ... Read more

Reviews (7)

The Evolution and Extinction of the Dinosaurs
The Evolution and Extinction of the Dinosaurs written by David E. Fastovsky and David B. Weishampel is primarily designed as a textbook. Although very readable this text can be used as a resource, the chapters build sequentially reflecting the nature our the science.

The idea within this text is simple: to use dinosaurs as an attractive vehicle to understand aspects of natural history. The dinosaurs are presented here in a phylogenetic context. The prose of phylogenetic systematics, however, can be rather vexing. For this reason, chapters in which the great groups of dinosaurs are discussed individually -in particular, Chapters 6 through 12- are organized in consistant fashion, making it easier for skimming the descriptions and systematic paleontology by going to the "Paleobiology and Paleoecology sections in the above chapters.

This text presents dinosaurs as professionals understand them... the study of dinosaurs has much to do with the history of life and of the earth, with the nature of nature, and with who we are. There are several photographs provided by museums and institutions giving the book greatly needed illustration.

Because dinosaurs have been known since 1818, a good deal is understood; by the same token, a 20-year-old revolution in methods of studying them has only in the last 10 really begun to overturn long-held ideas about them and their 160-million-year history on earth.

This textbook is divided into four parts where each part has subsequent chapters and is very well organized. The parts are:

Part 1: Setting the Stage... here we have five chapters, The introduction; The Mesozoic Era: Back to the Past; Discovering Order in the Natural World; Interrelationships of the Vertebrates; and The Origin of Dinosauria.

Part 2: Ornithischia... here we have five chapters, Stegosauria: Hot Plates; Ankylosauria: Mass and Gas;
Pachycephalosauria: Head-To-Head, with malice aforethought; Ceratopsia: Horns, Frills, and Slice-And-Dice; Ornithopoda: The Tuskers, Antelopes, and the Mightly Ducks of the Mesozoic

Part 3: Saurischia... here we have three chapters, Sauropodomorpha: The Big, The Bizarre, and The Majestic; Theropoda I: Nature Red in Tooth and Claw; and Theropoda II: The Origins of Birds.

Part 4: Endothermy, Environments, and Extinction where there are four chapters, Dinosaur Endothermy: Some Like it Hot; Dinosaurs in Space and Time; Reconstructing Extinctions: The Art of Science; and The Cretaceous-Tertiary Extinction: The Frill is Gone.

There is an extensive glossary, taxonomic index of genera, and subject index helping to reader along and for further information. If you treat this book as a textbook you can use the information found in this book to further your knowledge in the realm of dinosauria.

This is a solid 4 star book filled with information. It may read dryly at times but the information contained within its pages is invaluable.

While a Good Book, I Agree It Is Unnecessarily Dry
After reading this book---not for a class---as well as all the reviews below, I also agree with the reviewer from Albuquerque that this text could have been better written. Mr. Brackett, in his criticisms of this reviewer's comments seems to assume much about the reviewer's character and comments based upon the reviewer's status as a student, without really addressing the reviewer's comments. This book DOES err in overly emphasizing the technical at the expense of descriptive or a vivid reconstruction of a natural history of dinosaurs, and cladisitic studies, while necessary and appropriate, do dominate the text. While this is perhaps to be expected, based upon the context, subject and background of the authors, there is little question that a work such as this could offer far more if it were written with a broader emphasis upon a recreation of its subject, while at the same time including the technical data necessary for a full comprehension of the subject. Technical and academic writers often tend to write to their own peer group, without considering or being aware of the extent of their potential audience. Mr Brackett's blithe dismissal of a "student's" criticism of the text based entirely upon his or her status as a student reflects at best an attitude more exclusionary than inclusive, and does not meaningfully respond to the student's criticisms of this text. While this book remains the benchmark of texts upon the subject, there is little question that it could be written with greater verve and expression of the interest that the subject should inherently generate. After all, an introductory text should reach out to stimulate interest in its subject to a wide audience, and the study of dinosaurs certainly possesses no dearth of potential interest. I feel that this can be accomplished with the commensurate amount of technical detail without becoming the artifact of Pop culture Mr. Brackett seems so afraid of.

Best Book Out There About Dinosaurs For Educated Dino-Fans
I cannot say enough good things about this text! It covers the bulk of the dinosaur research up to the time that writing of the book ended and does so in a fairly unjudgmental fashion. It makes a point to show the multiple views of the arguments found within its covers. The authors' writing is also in a style that encourages the reader to continue reading, and is quite lively in places which gives new "spring" to the reader's "steps" as they journey through.

This book starts by introducing the reader to fossils and their collecting. It then sets the stage of "when" the book is speaking of so as to aid the reader's understanding of the subject. In setting this "when" the book discusses subjects like plate tectonics, stratigraphy and climatology. It then explains about how paleontology classifies creatures and a bit about organic evolution. After this the book talks of the relationships between the various animals out in the world which have backbones, collectively called vertebrates. This is the first four chapters and 94 pages setting the stage for the reader. Some may describe this as "boring" but it is necessary for a greater understanding of the dinosaur section of the text. In chapter five we are introduced to the origin of dinosaurs both as animals in the Mesozoic Time and in modern science in the 19th Century. This ends Part I of the text.

Parts II & III, 8 chapters and 216 pages, are where all the dinosaur lovers want to be - the parts that actually discuss the various types of dinosaurs. Part II talks of Ornithischia or "bird-hipped" dinosaurs while Part III is about Saurischia or "lizard-hipped" dinosaurs. What is absolutely inspired is the structure of each of the dinosaur chapters. Each chapter starts speaking of the history of the discoveries of that type of dinosaur's fossils. It then defines that general type of dinosaur and proceeds with talking about the diversity of that type and its evolutionary path. After that the book takes the reader into the Paleobiology and Paleoecology on that dinosaur type - the FUN STUFF! Why is it the FUN STUFF? Because most of these sections of each of these chapters is educated dreaming or speculation. The authors speak on a variety of matters such as the feeding, reproductive and social habits of these animals and they do so credibly without resorting to uncontrolled flights of fancy.

Part IV carries the learning experience on through some final serious issues concerning dinosaurs. Were they endothermic or "warm-blooded"? How were they distributed through the Mesozoic Era? What is an extinction? Lastly, what is and caused the Cretaceous-Tertiary Extinction where dinosaurs disappeared? What is commendable is that the authors describe all of the possible theories for the dinosaurs' extinction.

Some prior reviewers have made disparaging comments on the illustrations and diagrams found herein. I, too, wish there were more illustrations and diagrams, especially artwork and illustrations from some of the leading artisans in the PaleoArt field. BUT I have purchased enough textbooks in my college career to realize that the authors have made some financial considerations for those who would be buying this book. If they had acquired what could be considered a dreamy-level of quality illustrations for this book, my experience dictates that this volume would have been as much as 75% more expensive, thereby being almost useless to its main target audience, "Intro to Paleo" students. Why? Because no college faculty member would expect ones students to spend such an outrageous amount on an intro text. Simply, lots of high quality art is nice, but is extremely expensive because the artists and their work are worth a goodly sum.

In closing, I must comment on a prior reviewer's review. The reviewer had several complaints. Too much cladistics, too many chronologies, too much on evolutionary relationships, laughable illustrations and poor writing to only name a few of them. I feel that the reviewer should not have reviewed this book. Why? Because all the reviewer is doing is whining about how this book (and most likely the reviewer's Intro-to-Paleo professor) did not spoon-feed the reviewer enough. The reviewer wanted an introductory hard science class to be of the hand-feeding sort that a documentary for general-public consumption can be, and that expectation is unreasonable, but unfortunately typical in this day and age. I am not saying that "Walking With Dinosaurs" was a documentary series with poor science in it. I am saying that anyone who has the expectation that a hard science book and class, even an introductory one, is going to be written like "pop" TV needs to have another look at reality. If someone wants a dinosaur book of the entertainment-only variety, I would direct them to any of the quality children's-level volumes from DK publishing. If those are still not entertaining enough, then the only stop left of any quality would be The Magic Schoolbus series for elementary/primary school children. Otherwise, if you, the reader, can handle some science and like dinosaurs, this book by Fastovsky and Weishampel is the book to springboard you into the exciting and challenging area called Dinosaur Vertebrate Paleontology!

Dry and Overly Devoted to Cladistic Studies
This was the required text for a class I recently attended. Despite earlier reviewers' accolades, I found this work exceedingly dry, with pages upon pages devoted to morphology, philogeny and cladograms, in some cases the bulk of individual chapters. While all of this is obviously important, little is present descriptively in terms of what individual species may have looked like, beyond their bone structure, the environments they inhabited, or the natural history of their lives. Instead, pages upon pages are devoted to chronologies of when individual species were first discovered and where, as well as cladograms diagramming where evolutionarily each species and family exists. The former, when occupying much of the book, is tiresome, and the latter, while helpful, without further descriptive and narrative substance exists only as a sterile evolutionary chronology. And, I agree, the illustrations are rather laughable in terms of skill of rendering.

If this is the best that is available, as some reviewers have asserted, then the state of paleontological writing is very poor indeed. Someone who can actually write, beyond the technical, needs desperately to be found who can infuse some descriptive life into these reading. While the actual subjects may long be dead, there is no reason for the readings to be, as is evidenced in the recent and largely excellent, if at times speculative, Discovery series "Walking with Dinosaurs." And teachers need to be aware that while they may salivate over the technical details of their particular subject or area of interest, the average student will hardly find such dry detail by itself particularly captivating.

outstanding
As an avid dinosaur buff, this undergraduate level textbook is a mandatory part of one's collection. The text is very readable yet complete, filling a void between child-oriented dinosaur books and books written for professional paleontologists. I must confess I could not put the book down. Although it is several hundred pages in length, I read the book in less than a week. Topics range from basic dinosaur paleontology to special subjects such as the evolutionary relationship between dinosaurs and birds. If you are a dino-phile, this textbook is a must-read.

Brett J. Guinn, MD ... Read more

Book Description

In the days when dinosaurs dominated the earth, their marine counterparts--every bit as big and ferocious--reigned supreme in prehistoric seas. In this entrancing book, Richard Ellis, one of the world's foremost writers on the denizens of the deep, takes us back to the Mesozoic era to resurrect the fascinating lives of these giant seagoing reptiles.

Working from the fossil record, Ellis explores the natural history of these fierce predators, speculates on their habits, and tells how they eventually became extinct--or did they? He traces the 200-million-year history of the great ichthyosaurs, plesiosaurs, and mosasaurs who swam the ancient oceans--and who, according to some, may even still frequent the likes of Loch Ness.

Picture if you will seventy-foot dragons with foot-long serrated teeth, or an animal that looked like a crocodile crossed with a shark the size of a small yacht. With its impossibly long neck, Plesiosaurus conybeari has been compared to "a giant snake threaded through the body of a turtle." At a length of nearly sixty feet, Mosasaurus hoffmanni boasted powerful jaws and teeth that could crunch up even the hardest-shelled giant sea turtle. And Kronosaurus queenslandicus, perhaps the most formidable of the lot, had a skull nine feet long-more than twice that of Tyrannosaurus rex--with teeth to match.

The first book about these amazing animals in nearly a century, Sea Dragons draws upon the most recent scientific research to vividly reconstruct their lives and habitats. Their fossils have been found all over the world--in Europe, Australia, Japan, and even Kansas--in lands that once lay on the floors of Jurassic and Triassic seas. Along the way, the book also provides intriguing insights into and entertaining tales about the work, discoveries, and competing theories that compose the fascinating world of vertebrate paleontology.

Ellis also graces his text with a set of incomparable illustrations. Widely hailed as our foremost artist of marine natural history, he depicts vividly how these creatures probably appeared and, through these likenesses, invites us to speculate on their locomotion, their predatory habits, their very lifestyles.

A genuine book of marvels and wonders, Sea Dragons will certainly stir one's curiosity about our planet's prehistoric past. ... Read more

Reviews (8)

not as good as his other stuff
I read "Monsters of the Sea" and "Search for the Giant Squid" by Mr. Ellis and was expecting the same great read. I was disapointed. Slow, and far too technical. I am still hacking my way slowly through the last few chapters.

Read those other titles first!

Going for a swim?
The next time you're setting up a putt on the ninth hole at Smoky Hill Country Club in Hays, Kansas, pause a moment. Glance around you at the arid hills and scattered vegetation. It's difficult to comprehend that where you're standing was once under hundreds of metres of sea water. Millions of years in the past most of what is now central North America lay beneath the great Niobrara Sea [better known as the Bear Paw Sea]. Nor would you feel lonely - it was inhabited by all manner of creatures. However, some of these rivalled in size and ferocity the great land-dwelling dinosaurs of the same period. Richard Ellis has started to fill a long-standing gap in revealing how these creatures likely lived. And perhaps why they are no longer with us.

Ancient marine reptiles developed to immense sizes and bizarre shapes. Ellis focusses on the four major types, all of which had one commonalty - size. After a brief lesson on nomenclature and a dismissal of the Loch Ness enigma, he goes on to introduce us to some true monsters. And gargantuan they are! The fossils found in Britain and Belgium almost two centuries ago amazed the world with their likely size. Those revealed since, many from around Hays, Kansas, achieve lengths of up to twenty metres. In line with their massive bodies, some bore impressive dental equipment, with some teeth achieving twenty centimetres in length. Seeking prey at depth, they developed eyes the size of dinner plates. These were formidable creatures, indeed.

Ellis compiles fossil evidence to develop a picture of marine reptile lifestyles. They were all predators, but shape, locomotion and capacity for diving to extreme depths combined to focus on particular niches. Some must have been a glorious sight [if they didn't see you!], literally "flying" through the water like penguins. Others undulated their bodies like snakes, although, as Ellis states, no snakes were present in the seas at the time. The ichthyosaurs seem to have resembled tunas in shape and motion. The most extraordinary were the long-necked plesiosaurs who may have been bottom feeders. The range of body types and swimming styles is a reflection of the long period of their dominance. They were successful enough to have occupied the full extent of the world's oceans of the time.

There are a few quirks in this book the general reader should note. These reptiles maintained an imposing set of food processors and there's a challenge in demonstrating many factors in but one illustration. As Ellis notes often, how they appeared and how they lived relies much on what they ate. But, unlike the many illustrations he provides for dramatic effect, they didn't cruise the seas mouths agape. That's for fish with gills, not air-breathing reptiles. There's some irony in the illustration [p. 212] depicting a mosasaur swimming closed-mouthed, but bending its neck in a manner no large reptile with only seven vertebrae could achieve. These are, of course, minor issues and detract little from Ellis presentation. Still, as a learning resource for the non-paleontologists among us, it was incumbent on Ellis to use his wealth of information accurately. [stephen a. haines - Ottawa, Canada]

Regretfully mediocre
I wish that I could be at all as enthusiastic in my evaluation of Sea Dragons as were those who wrote the dust jacket blurbs. I do not find Mr. Ellis's writing riveting, vivid and delightful, or readable and accessible. Sea Dragons managers to be both superficial and prolix. I find it poorly organized, diffuse, and repetitious, and I can only recommend it to someone who is desperately enamored with the Mesozoic Era.

Ellis is an excellent artist, but his black and white illustrations are often not well posed to show the particular features he discusses in his text. There are few detail drawings to show the particularities of form, bone structure, dentition, or skin that he mentions. A few drawings look to be at odds with his text.

Ellis's text includes pairs of sentences where the second repeats the first with minor modification or elaboration as if he intended to discard the first but didn't. There are paragraphs that are dustbins of assorted sentences with no topic. There are paragraphs that change topic in mid stream. There are collections of paragraphs with neither topic sentences nor transitions between paragraphs. Sideshows are numerous and only wander back to the main topic with difficulty. Ellis uses long footnotes that should have been incorporated into the text. He does provide good translations for many of the species names.

Most technical areas of anatomy or cladistics are dealt with by quoting a jargon-filled paragraph, noting its incomprehensibility to lay readers, and skipping on to something else. Ellis notes opposing viewpoints but does little to clarify which is to be preferred or why. There are no cladograms or old-style trees of proposed descent whatsoever. No group of Sea Dragons is dealt with in any specific order. There is very little paleoenvironmental information to make clear why a given animal is said to have lived in a particular setting, and only one or two illustrations supply any such information.

Many of these problems might be attributed to inadequate editing. Sea Dragons is the first book I've read in ages that contains misspelled words as opposed to spell-checked misuses. The organizational and editing problems can be seen most obviously where Ellis discusses the mosasaur Globidens, a supposed bivalve-eating creature with rounded teeth. Globidens is mentioned five different times on different pages, but in detail with an illustration only the last time. At that point we are reminded that the ichthyosaur Grippia was also a presumed shellfish eater, but in the previous mention of Grippia, one hundred and forty-some pages earlier in the proper section on ichthyosaurs (Ellis truly loves ichthyosaurs; they turn up in every section), we were told twice only where Grippia was found. In the last section, Ellis first has plesiosaurs going extinct with the ichthyosaurs 20 million years before the K-T asteroid strike, then two pages later has them going extinct "around the K-T boundary," "about 65 million years ago." These would be small matters if they were isolated occurrences, but they are not.

Ellis includes the obligatory attack against creationists in the middle of his section on ichthyosaurs. Creationists have such problems with truth and accuracy and there are so many obvious points on which to criticize the ludicrous nature of their views that it is embarrassing to have Ellis pointlessly write that "here we will assume quite the opposite" when his disorganization and omissions obscure the evidence for evolution marine reptiles do provide. Assumptions aren't good enough to overcome willful ignorance.

Sea Dragons desperately needs a listing in each section of the species/genera discussed and those placed on a graph with location on one axis and time on the other. A side-by-side listing of European and North American geological divisions with radiometric dates should be included. The illustrations need a scale bar or human figure for comparison.

For younger readers, certainly not Ellis's target audience, I would recommend any of David Norman's books that touch on marine reptiles, recognizing that he has little to say on Mosasaurs.
For adult readers, Christopher McGowan's Dinosaurs, Spitfires, & Sea Dragons or Richard Cowen's History of Life provide a more cogent though far briefer account of these truly great dragons of the seas. For those willing to brave the terminology and jargon, Ancient Marine Reptiles, Jack M. Callaway and Elizabeth L. Nicholls, eds., remains the most informative volume.

Sea Dragons: Predators of the Prehistoric Oceans
Sea Dragons: Preators of the Prehistoric Oceans written by Richard Ellis is a wonderful book. This is the first book to present a detailed summary of the history on marie reptile paleontology. This book is well-written and vivid and delightfully illustrated.

"Sea Dragons" chronicles a lesser-known but equally magnificent group of megafauna... those remarkable giants that swam our oceans in the great Mesozoic era. In that era when dinosaurs dominated the earth, there were marie counterparts, every bit as big and mean.

The contents of the book takes us on an overview of marie reptiles then we get into the heart of the book.

The Ichthyosaurs
The Plesiosaurs
The Plisaurs
The Mosasaurs

Each of these sections are very detailed and are wonderfully written and very understandable with illustrations to show the reader what the author is writing about. Although these marie reptiles are merely fosilized bone now, it is not difficult to flesh them out in our minds and see this tableau as a representation of what may have taken place when the world was 150 million years younger than it is now.

Many of the descriptions of the creatures in this book, all of which are extinct, and all of which are known only from fossils, consist primarily of osteological terminology. Osteology is the study of bomes. What I found interesting was that even the size of the eye, so critical of the differentation of various ichthyosaur genera, relies largely on the circle of bony plates in the eye socket known as the sclerotic ring.

Throughout the discussion of the marine reptiles in this book the author cites the various chronological periods making for good reference points for the reader as to how long ago these creatures existed. All in all, this is a well-compiled work and is very easy to understand.

I enjoyed this book and gave it a solid 5 star rating for its ease of readability and the logical way it was written. This book would make an excellent addition to your home library as it explains about life in the Mesozoic ear.

A very impressive review of Mesozoic ocean reptiles
This book has no real peer at the moment. Indeed, a comprehensive, detailed, but easily understandable book on marine reptilian predators of the Mesozoic has been long awaited, and overdue. These animals approached whales in size in some instances, and easily dwarfed their terrestrial counterparts. Indeed, a T Rex may have been only one eighth the size of the largest pliosaurs. Yet, most books on Mesozoic life have, until now, relegated these marvelous animals to one or two back chapters or sections at the most.

Author Ellis, a renowned illustrator, writer, and researcher, has produced a masterpiece. His drawings of these seagoing reptiles are impeccable, if sometimes a bit speculative, and enable the reader to capably visualize these gigantic creatures.
Likewise, the text is enormously informative, not only about such FAQ's as size, weight, methods of reproduction, etc., but also on more arcane matters, such as how these huge beasts propelled themselves quickly and efficiently through the water. One glance at a long-necked, flippered plesiosaurus reveals that the answer to this problem is far from simple.

After an excellent introduction, the author covers icthyosaurs, plesiosaurs, pliosaurs, and mosasaurs in turn. Ellis then concludes with what seems to be the mandatory conclusion to any Mesozoic book; i.e., what caused all of these fabulously efficient, dominant predators to disappear in one fell swoop.

I found this book enormously enjoyable, and it was one of my best Christmas presents in years. I shall read it again and again. Anyone with a high school background will enjoy this book to the hilt, and my recommendation is extremely high.

By the way, this is the sort of book one loans out only very carefully. ... Read more

Book Description

Reviews (1)

Fun and interesting
These little books make great gifts. My young cousins love them, and so do I. There's no accompanying information (beyond the names) about the dinosaurs, but that's not why you'd buy this one anyway. The pictures are detailed, and include dinosaurs not readily known, like the Psittacosaurus, as well as popular ones like Stegosaurus and Tyrannosaurus. Other depictions are Styracosaurus, Parasaurolophus, Deinonychus, Spinosaurus, Ornithomimus, Triceratops, and Pachycephalosaurus. ... Read more

Book Description

Over 40 drawings, superbly rendered for coloring, of Archaeopteryx, Stegosaurus, Archelon, Tyrannosaurus (largest and fiercest carnivore ever to walk the earth), etc.—in all, 32 dinosaurs, 6 non-dinosaurian archosaurs, 1 fossil bird, and 1 ancient sea turtle.
... Read more

Book Description

After sixty years in the same old place, Mitchell the dinosaur decides it's time to move. His neighbor, Margo, dreams up ways of stopping him. But nothing can hold Mitchell back. Two weeks later, Mitchell's in a new home, but he's not as happy as he thought he'd be. Can he be missing his best friend? ... Read more

Reviews (3)

A really sweet story with funny characters...
When Mitchell announces that he is moving "two weeks away" from the home he's lived in for sixty years, his best buddy (and next door neighbor) Margo doesn't sit quietly by and let him slip away. The tale that ensues speaks volumes about the love of friendship and surprising solutions. If you find yourself reading the same stories over and over, you'll want to make sure this one is among the possibilities.

Outstanding and Unique
Mitchell is moving is one of the best books I have ever read. Mitchell has lived next door to his friend for so long so he finally decides to move away, "three days away" to be exact. Margo, his friend, is not to happy about it so she tries to keep him from going. I recomend this book to all ages!

One of the cutest stories I've ever read
Mitchell the dinosaur is tired of living in the same old place and decides to move "three days away". His best friend Margo isn't happy about that at all. She thinks of some very ingenious ways to try and keep Mitchell as her neighbor. The story stays cute and readable--no matter how many times I've read it over the years. ... Read more

Book Description

Packed with information about more than two hundred prehistoric animals —their size, their habits, when they lived, when and where their fossils werediscovered, and more — this compact reference will delight young readers and serve as a valuable reference in the classroom. Detailed color illustrations and drawings will capture the imagination, and sections such as "The Evolution of Birds" provide context and further information for the curious reader. ... Read more