Customer Reviews

National Geographic Dinosaurs

5 star:		(24)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Well,this book is finally an updated overview of the prehistoric era. I would like to classify it as a modern version of "The Ultimate Dinosaur Book" which I also own,but this one is much better. On 192 pages,it is of suitable length and the format is excellent too.
It begins with a presentation of the dinosaurs with chapters like "What is A Dinosaur","The Age of Dinosaurs","Discovering Dinosaurs","How They Lived",etc.
Then,it does a good job presenting 53 of the most well-known dinosurs,like T-rex,Triceratops and Stegosaurus,as well as some lesser known such as Pelecanimimus and Therizinosaurus. The profiles are well organized,with a drawing of each species accompanied by some short fact files about name,size,time,place and classification,as well as some interesting facts about discovery,and possible behavior.
Because I am commonly interested in more scientific dino books,I bought this one for another reason than the fact,though that`s nice having too: the artwork!
There are about 30 double-page illustrations by paleoartist newcomer Raul Martin. Each picture is worth a thousand words!
Some of them,like the cover illustration,are just breathtaking.
Never I`ve seen so many awe-inspiring dinosaur images by one artist. His way to capture the majesty and beauty of this creatures is just fantastic!All of the elements - light,habitat,color,and motif - are very well combined to really fit with each other. The style sometimes reminds me of Tolkien artist John Howe. There are two main types of paintings in this book: the first type are peacefull but mysterious,and the second type are bold and dramatic,featuring terrifying encounters with allosaurs,raptors etc.
Over all,he is a really talented artist and I`ll keep looking for his future work.
Well,I hope you can excuse me for mentioning too much about the art,but for me it`s more than a fact book. It is an art book!
The text is quite easy to read,which makes it suitable for ages 11 and up,I think.
So,I can recommend this to most people interested in dinosaurs. For kids,it is a perfect information source which they`ll love. And to paleontologists: buy it for the art!Just open the book and look at the first illustration on page 18. It will blow you away!

My three year old is just discovering dinosaurs and loves to look through this book. As a life long enthusiast, I have loved having the opportunity to share with him and learned a lot myself from this resource. There is information here for any age group. The book clearly outlines dinosaur families and discusses individual species in detail. The illustrations are fantastic. Any family with an interest in dinosaurs would love this book.

National Geographic: Dinosaurs written by Paul Barrett and illustrated by Raul Martin is a richly illustrated and fact-filled book about dinosaurs that ruled the Earth of 160 million years.

This book has stunning artwork making your imagination work overtime as you read the fascinating descriptions and there is a size chart with a human silhouette giving the reader a reality as to the size of some of these dinosaurs.

But, size is not the only thing discussed in this book, for instance, what were dinosaurs like, what did they eat, how did they interact, where were the fossil remains found, and what kind of habitat were they living in. All of there questions are answered to the best of todays painstaking research, informed imagination, and excavation by some of todays foremost dinosaur experts.

What I found very interesting is the integrative biology, how the dinosaurs not only acted within like kind or with different species, but also how the flora played and important roll in how the dinosaurs acted. Also, toward the back of the book, there is a chapter on the different theories as to why and how the dinosaurs became extinct.

This is a very good, well-illustrated and a very readable narrative. This book is well worth the money for an extremely fine reference book.

I must confess that I bought this book solely for a few of
Raul Martins illustrations.
I think it would be ok to call it a beginnersbook for adults and why not teenagers, but not for younger children bcause the textstyle is not suited for this purpose ( I'm a teacher ).

I was really disappointed with the layout, especially the colourphotographs as many of them have extremly low resolution, blurry ,very small and too dark and also illogically placed and cropped ( similar photos can be found with better quality on the internet) :(

Many of the paintigs are clumsily placed or so that critical parts of them get obscured by the midsection or folding. I'm sure the illustrator wept.

My critisism may seem a bit harsh but I never thought National Geographic would agree to this kind of hastywork in layout matters.

Anyway....while being interested in paleoart I still think its worth having due to some paintings of Raul Martin although I grind my teeth everytime I see those bad pictures.

Shape up PLZ !

As soon as my freind got this book,I had to get it it too.Its awesome.It has facts on many different dinosaurs and about the dinosaur world too.It was also made in the year 2001 so it has all the latest dinosaur facts.Only bad thing is that it doesn't have Spinosaurus.I say its the greatest dinosaur book EVER.

See all my reviews of dinosaur books.

"National Geographic Dinosaurs" is aimed perfectly at the new student (aged 8-12). It's illustrations are vivid and the information is well-pitched. The only problem is this book was originally published in 1999 so feathers don't appear on dinosaurs like Therizinosaurus or the dromeosaurs. This edition was reprinted in 2006, and unfortunately there are still no feathers.


At almost 200 pages in length, there are thicker books. However, with 120 pages dedicated to dinosaur profiles, there are enough dinosaurs to satisfy the new student.

Typically, there are a series of chapters that provide a context, followed by the dinosaur profiles. "Nat Geo Dinosaurs" contextual chapters include 'What is a Dinosaur?'; 'The Age of the Dinosaurs' - info on the Mesezoic era and other creatures - marine and flying; 'Dinosaur Sites'- key fossil sites; 'Discovering Dinosaurs'; 'Reconstructing Dinosaurs'; 'Dinosaur biology and behaviour'; 'How they Lived' - maternal instincts, hunting and fighting, arms and armor, diet, size and weight, movement; 'Classification' with flowcharts. Overall, these chapters hold-up reasonably well with other similar books, especially the classification pages. After the profiles there are chapters on extinction and dinosaur films.

The book then goes into genus profiles (usually of one page per dinosaur, sometimes two) of the bird-hipped dinosaurs for 50 pages then the lizard-hipped dinosaurs for another 60 pages. Each of these pages contains a Fact File with a grid showing the size of the dinosaur against a 6 foot man. Included in the Fact File is: Genus; Classification; Length; Weight; (When it) Lived; and where it was found (with a world map). Also included is a colour illustration of the dinosaur in a profile pose. The information is generally 3 to 4 paragraphs long and is very basic science. Normally there is information on distinguishing features and some comparison with cousins. Unfortunately, single dinosaurs are not covered in detail; it is only the genus - so if you are looking on the Tyrannosaurus page, you wont find anything on each of the tyrannosaurs (like Albertosaurus or Tarbosaurus). What you get is pretty much T.rex disguised as a generalised tyrannosaur.

Where I really think the book falls down is in it's interpretations of dinosaur behaviour and adaptations. There is quite a lot of information presented as fact when it is pure speculation. Also, there isn't any balance in arguments. For example, the profile on Carnotaurus states when mentioning its short snout 'that it could have got twisted and bent, particularly in struggles with large animals' suggsting that 'Cartnotaurus did not often attack animals of the same size or larger than itself, as its skull could not withstand such forces'. This is only providing one side of the argument (and the weaker side at that). There is currently strong debate about the diet of Carnotaurus due to the argument of how strong its jaws actually were, and whether it hunted in packs. I prefer information that is more balanced like the more accurate "The Kingfisher Illustrated Dinosaur Encyclopedia" by David Burnie. The information in "Nat Geo Dinosaur", however, is way more realistic than Gee and Rays "A Field Guide to Dinosaurs", but not as adequate as Parker's "Dinosaurus" which has individual species profiled.

Overall, I do "The Kingfisher Illustrated Dinosaur Encyclopedia" by David Burnie over this book due to its superior information, and perhaps "A Field Guide to Dinosaurs" by Gee as the illustrations are more up to date.

National Geograpic Dinosaurs by Paul Barrett was an excellent book. It was written for both kids and old folks like myself. The book outlines all the different types of dinosaurs (except Spinosaurous-unfortunately)- a dinosaurs that dominated the movie Jurassic Park 3. Dinosaur lovers will love this book, the subject matter, the descriptions and colored photos, and the required detail of each dinosaur type. An excellent birthday or Christmas gift-like all National Geographic products and shows.

I read the best review and worst. I'm shocked I agree with the worst review comments on picture layouts. I thought how bad could it be. I purchased to read to my 4 year old, we love it but I am so annoyed by the picture layouts I get distracted. You wouldn't think it makes a difference but it does. There are heads in the seams, center of picture key to the photo Cut off. It really is too bad. I love everything else and would still recommend it. If you read this and the other critiques you'll be prepared and not think you got a mis print.

I bought this book for my two year old. She loves dinosaurs and I like to learn about them too. There's lots of great pictures and information about different species. I like to read about them and she likes to look at the pictures. It would be a great gift for a young dinosaur enthusiast.

I have a four year old who wants to be a paleontologist and this book has what we were looking for-each 2 page spread shows either a family tree, or one dinosaur-where it lived, how big, and basic information, as well as great photos of real digs, bones and eggs. It is to the point, easy to read, and full of color. Dad is a science teacher and the charts are fantastic for ease of use. I am not saying it is overly simplistic, after all, it's a large reference book-it is easy to understand and learn from and presented with quality.