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Product Description
Amazon.com Reviews
The companion volume to the BBC/Discovery Channel series, Walking with Dinosaurs reads like a cross between a National Geographic article and the script from one of Disney's True Life Adventures films. Scenes from the daily lives of various animals illuminate the changes in flora and fauna that occurred during the Mesozoic era.
The fossil record offers some clues about dinosaur behavior. Tracks preserved in sandstone indicate that some of the huge Diplodocus-type dinosaurs traveled in herds with the larger individuals on the outside and the smaller, more vulnerable animals in the center. The courtship behavior of Tyrannosaurus, the social hierarchy within the Diplodocus herd, etc., described in the book are pure speculation. But Haines models his descriptions on animals that occupy similar niches today: Tapejara, a fish-eating pterosaur, nests in remote colonies, like a migratory seabird. However, the suggestion that an old Tyrannosaurus suffered from gout is based on a hotly debated interpretation of the markings on bones of the "Sue" fossil in Chicago's Field Museum.
The striking visuals for the program involved a combination of animatronic figures, puppets, and computer animation. The images work well as illustrations. The formally posed animals in many old paintings had a taxidermic stiffness; these creatures are shown in motion, often in slightly awkward poses, which heightens the illusion that Walking with Dinosaurs is a book of nature photographs.
The result is a highly readable introduction to current theories about dinosaurs that amateur scientists of all ages can enjoy. --Charles Solomon
From Publishers Weekly
Though dinosaurs died off more than 65 million years ago, our fascination with them--as anyone who's ever heard of Jurassic Park knows--is far from extinct. Now comes this astounding illustrated tour of their world, to coincide with the Discovery Channel's program of the same name that originally aired to tremendous acclaim on the BBC. Innovatively illustrated with images created by a combination of photography and state-of-the-art computer graphics and written by award-winning BBC series producer Haines, this magnificent natural history will help readers imagine that ancient and alien world more completely than ever before. When dinosaurs first roamed the planet, earth had high sea levels and no ice caps and was covered by one giant continent, Pangaea, which was slowly disintegrating. It wasn't until the end of the Mesozoic era that the land masses began to more closely resemble our current world. Among the inhabitants presented in the book are the carnivorous Coelophysis, one of the smallest and earliest dinosaurs of record; the gigantic and brutal Tyrannosaurus; the ambush predator of the sea Cryptoclidus; and the huge, vegetarian Diplodocus. Spanning the middle of the Triassic period more than 220 million years ago, when dinosaurs were making their first appearance, through the Late Cretaceous period 65 million years ago, as they were dying off, this marvelously illustrated volume renders a vivid portrait of the extraordinary beasts' violent existence amid an ever-changing terrain. BOMC and QPB alternate selections. (Apr.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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