Customer Reviews

Chased By Sea Monsters

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Nothing, not the carnivorous dinosaurs of the past, nor the imagined sea serpents and monsters of maritime history, nor the great white shark, salt water crocodile, killer whale and leopard seal of today can compare to the horrifying hunters of the prehistoric oceans. You will feel a lot more comfortable about going out for a swim or an afternoon boat ride knowing that such behemoths are extinct today!

The Dunkleosteus is school bus-sized armored fish with razor sharp bladed jaws for cutting through anything in its path. The mighty Liopleurodon is a true monster, largest and most powerful of the Pliosaurs. The deadly Mosasaurs where the real sea serpents of their day, and some where large enough to dispatch an adult tyrannosaur easily. The Basilosaurus, the first of the large whale species, is not a harmless plankton eater but a fearsome high speed hunter. And most frightening of all is the Megalodon, a gargantuan ancestor of the great white that makes its modern day relative look like a tuna.

If you're a paleontology buff like me or a fan of BBC's Walking with Dinosaurs series, this book is for you. The digital designs of the monsters are excellent and very well realized. And the fun-loving Nigel Marvin provides a great narrative. My only question is when does the DVD of the series come out?

Another excellent book is Sea Dragons by Richard Ellis.

"Chased by Sea Monsters: PRehistoric Predators of the Deep written by Nigel Marven and Jasper James is a wonderfully illustrated book with an engaging narrative that will keep you interested in the book till the end.

The book is divided into different time frames and groups the prehistoric reptiles, dinosaurs and mammals according to when they lived. Starting the adventure with the oldest to the more recent times. The books contents is as follows:

The Ordvivian
The Devonian
The Triassic
The Jurassic
The Cretaceous
The Eocene
The Pilocene

In each of these segments or chapters you are taken on a tour of how the Earth "encounters" was in those times making for an engaging adventure tale. Wearing breathing assistance for the earlier times Nigel Maren and Jasper James takes us to the depths of some very starnge worlds, indeed. I liked the book for it's straight forward apporach of the material at hand and puts it all in a logical manner for the reader, giving the reader little clues to the relationship of the different animals written about to their respective surroundings. Thus, making for some very interesting reading. This book would be excellent for a child's reading assignment for those 10 or older, although this is not a childrens book it would be a good start to an education into what lived in the Earth's seas so long ago.

There are some interesting creatures that existed in prehistoric times, bigger, and often fiercer than dinosaurs whose exploits have inspired more terrifying legends than any other group of animals. They were all but hidden and, now, they are being revealed from their watery home that has kept them hidden from view.

"Chased by Sea Monsters" is a sequel to "Walking with Dinosaurs' and follows the same lines and the latter book, taking the reader on varoius and sundry "encounters" for and adventure of a lifetime. As I've mentioned earlier, there are illustrated boxes that describe the latest scientific evidence that led to the reconstruction of these creatures, with details of the modern sites, from New York to Egypt where water once covered the land. What I found interesting was that whales are closely related to the hippopotamus, from DNA samples and the ear bone structures, and that whales walked on land first and later evolved to marine lives.

I rated this book as a solid five stars for the excellent way that the book was written and the excellent illustrations to back up the writing making this one of the better books for the masses... it gives some techincal data but it's in a form that is easily understood.

Chased By Sea Monsters - Prehistoric Predators of the Deep is the companion book to the BBC series of the same name. As in the programs, Nigel Marven is the presenter, taking us on a journey through the 7 deadliest seas of all time.

There are many photos from the series, and also plenty of new ones. Wonderful recreations of all the prehistoric creatures, they look completely real (even in the ones where Nigel is interacting with them, even holding them).

The book is written by both Nigel Marven and Jasper James. They split up the book about 50/50, although I must say it is hard to tell one from the other, so the book still flows smoothly.

The book follows the series very closely, but there are a few differences. In the series, Nigel goes through the seven deadliest seas, starting from the least and working his way up. In the book it's not the opposite, but still very different. The first chapter starts with the oldest ocean and works up to the most recent, instead of the most dangerous. I would have preferred they follow the series order, but it's only a minor complaint. Here is the books' content order; (also included are the authors of each chapter)


Foreword - Nigel Marven

Introduction - Jasper James

1. THE ORDOVICIAN - Jasper James

2. THE DEVONIAN - Nigel Marven

3. THE TRIASSIC - Nigel Marven

4. THE JURASSIC - Jasper James

5. THE CRETACEOUS - Jasper James

6. THE EOCENE - Nigel Marven

7. THE PLIOCENE - Nigel Marven


This is a very good book, and is a perfect companion to "Chased By Sea Monsters", highly recommended!

Written as a companion to the BBC television documentary series, this beautiful book takes the reader on an illustrated journey thru the prehistoric oceans. The book highlights seven different time periods (in seven different chapters) in the Earth's past, and shows the sea creatures living at those times; emphasizing those with the biggest jaws and their respective prey.

In each chapter, the book examines the physiology, anatomy, habitat, and probably lifestyle of the top predators. Each chapter also shows what is happening on land at that same time, and consistently shows that the predators on land were really no match in terms of size or scariness with respect to their marine counterparts. Covered monsters include reptiles such as mosasaurs, aquatic carniverous birds such as hesperonis, sharks like megaladon, and mammals such as the king of whales; basilosaurus. Each chapter also shows how the earth's continents were positioned at that time, along with the state of the global climate.

The book is beautifully illustrated, with color pictures drawn to look like underwater photographs of the actual creatures as if they were still alive. The intro chapter also gives a timeline of life on the planet, and explains how life evolved from sea to land, and often times back to the sea again. Overall, a great book; though it is missing several things that prevent me from giving it 5 out of 5 stars. First, throughout the text various sea creatures are named without any accompanying figures. Second, the term "sea monsters" implies animals at the very top of the food pyramid. Unfortunately, this book fails to "flesh out" the rest of the food pyramid. Each chapter should have included one large illustration of a food pyramid, with illustrations and names of the various organims at each step in the pyramid. Third, outside of one chapter, the book emphasizes creatures living and hunting in the shallows, or the top layer of the ocean. It would be nice if the book also examined more creatures living closer to the ocean bottom, such as deep-sea fish. Last, there should be a concluding chapter to sum everything up. This chapter should also include a large picture of the modern Earth, and highlight where fossils of the different "sea monsters" have been found. Even with these drawbacks, the book is still wonderful, and is great reading for kids, teenagers and adults.

This gorgeous presentation explores the prehistoric world in search of sea-based monsters and is published to coincide with the BBC program of the same name; but familiarity with the TV show is not required for a separate appreciation of this book. More than just another dinosaur guide, Chased By Sea Monsters focuses on life in ancient oceans during each prehistoric period, providing a fine focus on evolutionary proceedings.

I bought this book for my teenage son who has autism. He asked for this book. It's great! It coinsides with a program with the same name that has been shown on Discovery Channel. The book is a perfect companion to the program. It has awesome descriptions and "photos" of the prehistoric animals. It clarifies when each animal lived, and what the world looked like at that time. The fact that Nigel Marvin "went back in time" to study these monsters was awesome! Anyone who loves prehistoric animals has to have this book in their collection!

Face-to-face with sharks that can bite whales in half? Swim with armor-plated fish so powerful that they can bite through chain mail? Dive into the midst of a feeding frenzy? Do all this and live to write about it?

This is the premise behind "Chased By Sea Monsters", the companion book to the Discovery Channel program. The series featured intrepid zoologist/time-traveler Nigel Marven swimming in the seven most deadly seas of the prehistoric age and encountering some of the most dangerous (and not-so-dangerous) sea monsters of those eras, such as the Jurassic and Devonian. Some of the creatures that Nigel encounters are the marine crocodile, the pack hunting mosasaur, the may-not-be extinct megalodon shark and the whale-eating prehistoric whale the basilosaurus.

The book is a word-for-word print version of the program though it also features a few more facts about some of the creatures. The book does not go into a lot of biological detail about the creatures but you do get a good feel for how they interacted and what they ate (or what ate them), and what climate conditions were like. The book does provide brief summaries of the creatures, giving the era they lived in, length, what they ate and the like.

If you would like to be "Chased By Sea Monsters" and get more of a feel for the marine reptiles of the dinosaur age, this is the book to have.

This was a great book, fun to read and the pictures were awesome. Only thing I would change is give more of a description on some of the animals discussed breifly while creating a image for the readers, otherwise top notch.

Chased by Sea Monsters is a vivid and engaging introduction to concepts of paleontology suitable for older elementary school students. The book includes good general discussions of planetary conditions during the different epochs portrayed.
The story thread follows explorers ranking the "danger level" of different eras of Earth's early oceans. This is a highly readable book, with illustrations bringing home the alien nature of ancient sea creatures, and the humorous but educational text making this a first-rate addition to juvenile dinocaur literature.

as soon as i recieved this book, i hugged a startled looking UPS guy and then ran off to my room for an afternoon of fun reading. As i read the book, i was mesmerized, enchanted, by the beautiful computer graphics and the very descriptive language in the book. i began to feel as if i were actually walking along the shores of a beach in the Ordovician, diving in the seas of the Cretaceous (the most dangerous sea of all time) or actually coming face to face with a terrifying megalodon or dunkleosteus. i became lost in my own world, imagining how cool it would be to be in those times. Imagine going diving with a humongo dunkleousteus by your side, or being able to ride on the back of an Archelon ( ancient ancestor of the green turtle) Imagine being chased by a megalodon, the prehistoric (and much much bigger) relative of the modern great white shark. to most people, this would be terrifying, but i get really turned on by danger so anyways. Just buy the book and it will take you there. go on a journey through the seven most dangerous seas of all time and see what lived in our oceans so long ago. And this amazing book also tells you what is happening on land as well as in the ocean. it also tells what is new ( changes in the environment, which new predators are arriving, etc.) if you are as interested in our very distant past as i am, then i definetly recomend you get this book, along with Walking with Dinosaurs, Walking with Prehistoric Beasts, Walking with Cavemen, and any other books in the series
P.S You will be very surprised to see how the very first whales looked like, and how they evolved into what they are today!