Dinosaurs: How they lived and evolved

Authors Darren Naish and Paul Barrett deserve the highest praise for producing such a well researched, comprehensive, very readable, helpfully illustrated and all round accessible work as this certainly is. The well known saying, 'good wine needs no bush', is very appropriate here. Some works, which have a whole string of famous people recommending them, fall flat on their face when compared with this wonderful book, which has no such recommendations. This work takes the reader step by step through the world of dinosaurs, which are still with us today in the form of birds.The book is divided into six sections.1: History, origins and the dinosaurs' world.2: The Dinosaur Family Tree.3: Anatomy.4: Biology, Ecology and Behaviour.5: The Origin of Birds.5: The Great Extinction and Beyond.There's glossary, a further information section, an index and credits.The authors entirely avoid the disrupting error of including irrelevant personal details about themselves, an annoyance that imposes an unnecessary distraction on the reader. Another helpful thing about this work is that it's the best companion ever to other leading works about dinosaurs. It brings their information together along with the very latest discoveries. You can go to another relevant work and then relate it to the information in this book plus accessing the best recommended websites and so on. For those of us who still prefer owning real books this one is of immense value. In it the reader will get to know dinosaurs in the most fascinating, wonderful way possible.

The information and the related Illustrations are perfect. You don't have to read the book from page one tot the last, but you can pick out a subject. That will guide you to what you need to know and lead you to one or another chapter. I discovered this book thanks to Amazon who always send updates about your interests.

Bought this for my boyfriend for Christmas and wow!! I could not have bought a better present! Because it is such a recent book, there is more up to date information about dinosaurs that we have discovered. He has told me that this book completely differs to all other dinosaur books because it explains how dinosaurs were the same but also how each species were different which is (apparently) a really hard find. The art work is spectacular too. He also said if he had a friend who was interested in dinosaurs, he would 100% recommended this book. It is literally the best present I have ever bought!

Got it for my 12 year old who loves prehistoric life And has a higher than average reading age. He has outgrown most of the kids dinosaur books and then there is a gap so we have trouble finding books that aren’t intellectual enough but not universit text books. I thought this book might bridge it, but it is a little advanced for him. My husband however, found it fascinating, and he is not known to be a dinosaur fan. I think my son may grow into it in a few years.best for maybe 15+.

I did not dislike anything about the book.

Clearly an author that knows his stuff, this book had lots of up to date and quite adult type information in it like the terriffic family trees for the different species. Good content about the feathered discoveries. Would recommend to a nerdy dino fan but not for young children.

a very interesting guide into the pre history a large number of different views on dino types. They explore ideas of certain dinosaurs found being either juveniles or different species.

Absolutely fantastic book, a must for those interested in Dinosaurs! Very informative, coving the history of dinosaurs from their early evolution through to the end of the non avian dinosaurs last days.

Hervorragend, sympathisch und interessant geschrieben. Das Dinobuch mit den aktuellsten Forschungsstand, das mir bekannt ist. Sehr zu empfehlen für alle, die sich für Dinosaurier interessieren.

Naish, a paleozoologist, and Barrett, a paleontologist, have given us an altogether splendid treatment of what, as of just a couple of years ago (this business changes fast, especially regarding feathers) we know about dinosaurs. This isn’t a competitor to Steve Brusatte’s 2018 The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs, with which it will often be compared: rather, these books are complementary.Where Brusatte presented a highly readable story, beginning to end, Naish and Barrett dig (literally) into the meat and bones of dinosaur evolution. Barrett’s book chronicles what happened, mixed with discovery stories and asides on the science: Naish and Barrett tell why and how it happened. Dinosaurs starts with an overview chapter, then goes into the complexities of the family trees, then chapters on anatomy and on biology, ecology, and behavior. They provide a fascinating chapter on the origin of birds and how they survived and thrived up to the present day, showing what we know of Mesozoic-era birds and what features survived into the birds of today. Birds also offer clues we can trace back to look at dinosaurs: those sluggish reptiles we saw in our childhood books can in part be blamed on an over-reliance on modern reptiles as the models.The two scientist/authors make clear how countless dinosaur features, from feathers to femurs, evolved and worked.The book is sumptuously illustrated, drawing heavily for photos on the collection of the Natural History Museum in London but including vivid artistic depictions. Clear line drawings explain the anatomical features and how researchers have figured them out (or, in some cases, why they are still puzzling.) Another valuable bit is the authors' ability to explain how we know so much from fossils, what kind of clues (like tooth wear demonstrating feeding habits) we can get through traditional and modern exam techniques.American readers need not fear the British authors have slighted our favorite dinos: Triceratops and T. rex and the other North American denizens of the Mesozoic, especially the Cretaceous, get full treatment here. The authors close with a thorough examination of the extinction event and the aftermath.The authors get just a little too dry in spots for this nonscientist dino aficionado, and the structure of the book lends itself to too many “we will look in detail at this later” statements. These are quibbles, though. If you hand this book and Brusatte’s to your favorite dino-lover, you’re not going to see that person again for a week.

Che dire, il libro fa quello che deve, ossia spiegare i donasuri. Scritto in un inglese abbastanza semplice da approcciare, ricco di illustrazioni. Consigliato.

I bought this book for my husband as a gift and he is enjoying it very much. More than meets his expectations -- well written, informative, and engaging. Beautifully illustrated with photos of specimens from the Natural History Museum in London, England. My husband, an amateur enthusiast for geology and palaeontology, had the delight to meet one of the authors, Darren Naish, on a 2016 geological tour in the UK, making the book a double pleasure to read.

Very good book- a more robust cover would have been better