The Illustrated Encyclopedia of the Prehistoric World [Hardcover]

Douglas Palmer (Editor)

Product Details

• Hardcover: 512 pages
• Publisher: Chartwell Books (March 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0785820868
• ISBN-13: 978-0785820864
• Product Dimensions: 11.7 x 9 x 1.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,372,744 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Comprehensive and sort of complete, but out of date, August 5, 2008

By 

Hanqing Li - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Illustrated Encyclopedia of the Prehistoric World (Hardcover)

First of all, I would like to thank god that I purchased this book for a bargain price of 9.94$ from this wonderful seller: limitless_books

Haha, sorry, no ads. Anyway, why am I acting like this? Answer's simple, this book is out-dated.

Well, just like how the previous review stated, this book has some interesting sections, which is mostly complete and really comprehensive. You could find a lot of information on prehistoric geology in this book. But, like I said, there's still a major problem in this book. I'm not sure of the situation on the other sections, but the dinosaur section is completely out of date. For example, Spinosaurus and Tyrannosaurus are both included in the Infraorder Carnosauria!!! Even the novice dinosaur fans all know that they belong in their on distinctive families!

Another major problem of this book are the illustrations. Most of them are good but some are just out of date! Just look at Spinosaurus, It's basically an Allosaurus with a sail! That is just disappointing. I can't help from thinking whether this book was truly published in 2006 as stated on the first page or not. Most of the information are wrong facts that are used at least 10 years ago. Boy, if it really was published in 2006, the author sure has some guts.

All in all, this book was quite worth for 9.94$ since it's so huge and informative. But 29.99 for this book? You gotta be kidding me, you can almost say that this book is an old piece of junk if not for the wonderful prehistoric geology facts.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A must have for anyone interested in paleontology, July 16, 2008

By 

appyanna (Woodland, WA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Illustrated Encyclopedia of the Prehistoric World (Hardcover)

This huge beautifully illustrated book is one of the best of its type that I have seen. It is well organized into 4 sections:

The Changing Globe section, which illustrates the globe as it changed through time, with 17 time periods shown from the Vendian times through to the Quaternary times;

The Ancient Worlds section, which covers the different eras from Precambrian to Present, the changes of the planet, its features, the early beginnings and development of life forms with many beautiful color photos and illustrations;

The Animal Fact File section which is very well organized and covers animals from jawless fish through to humans with illustrations and facts for each animal; and

The Earth Fact File section which has chapters covering geology history, timescale, rocks, plate tectonics, fossils, animal classification list, biographies of geologist, paleontologist, and other scientists, a glossary and a well organized bibliography.

This book would be interesting to young and old students alike except perhaps the college professors that teach these subjects. It would be a wonderful addition to any library.

The only fault I find in this book is its lack of coverage of the flora of our planet. It would be nice to see the development of plants

4.0 out of 5 stars just a combination of 2 out of print books, March 22, 2011

By 

john of san mateo ca - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Illustrated Encyclopedia of the Prehistoric World (Hardcover)

1st printing, 1993 : 312 pages. The Macmillan Illustrated Encyclopedia of Dinosaurs and Prehistoric Animals: A Visual Who's Who of Prehistoric Life.
2nd printing, 1999 : 312 pages. The Simon & Schuster Encyclopedia of Dinosaurs and Prehistoric Creatures: A Visual Who's Who of Prehistoric Life.
3rd printing, 2006 : 512 pages. The Illustrated Encyclopedia of the Prehistoric World.
The additional 200 pages are from Atlas of the Prehistoric World (224 pages, 1999) by Douglas Palmer also.
If you don't have the out of print Atlas of the Prehistoric World and the 2nd printing of 1999, then this book is a good buy bec. it combines the 2 books resulting in a lower price.
The highlight of the additional 200 pages from Atlas of the Prehistoric World are the chronological environment drawings starting with a two page drawing for the Vendian period, early Cambrian, late Cambrian, another two page drawing for the Ordovician, then Silurian, etc., up to the age of humans.

For more of Douglas Palmer, I recommend the newer book : Evolution the Story of Life.
It contains 100 two page paintings in chronological order showing various prehistoric animals and plants in their environments, just like museum murals. It is like a much more detailed version of the Atlas of the Prehistoric World.