Feathered Dinosaurs: The Origin of Birds

By John Long and Peter Schouten
Hardcover : 208 Pages
September 1, 2008

Feathered Dinosaurs: The Origin of Birds is a book of beautiful illustrations and accompanying text about feathered Dinosaurs and early Birds. In the past few decades more and more evidence has come to light to suggest that some Dinosaurs did in fact have feathers. Long and Schouten take these findings and use them to craft this guide.

The book begins with a chapter on the history of Paleontology and an overview of Dinosaur evolution. It then includes short chapters on several important Orders and Families. The remaining chunk of the book is made up of dozens and dozens of Dinosaurs illustrated in full color, complete with a short “biography” as well as an authors note regarding the depiction.

This is a beautiful and informative book, and I recommend it to anyone who has any interest in Dinosaurs. It really makes you think about these amazing animals of the past and how they may have looked completely different from how we’ve envisioned them for so long.

Contains references and index.

Read More

Dinothesaurus

By Douglas Florian
Hardcover : 56 Pages
March 10, 2009

Dinothesaurus: Prehistoric Poems and Paintings is a short, illustrated work that features the poems and paintings of Douglas Florian. All of the material relates to Dinosaurs or other prehistoric reptiles (since Plesiosaurs and Pterosaurs are not technically Dinosaurs.)

The book includes short poems, typically only a few lines long, that highlight a specific species or type. The poems are accompanied by a painting (often in collage style) of that animal, which also reflects the text in the poem. The poem on Deinonychus for example, mentions that they could ruin your whole day. The painting includes illustrations of Deinonychus with a background of newspaper clippings of days of the week.

Florian covers all sorts of species, some that I've never even heard of, like Minmi and Troodon. The drawings are rather interesting, and poems are cute and highlight an important feature of the species. Each poems also includes a pronunciation guide, which is especially helpful for Micropachycephalosaurus. The book also includes a glossary that covers all of the species mentioned, as well as a list of notable museums and fossil sites.

Overall I really liked this book. If you're looking for something with catchy poems and fun illustrations about Dinosaurs, then this is the book for you!

Read More