National Geographic Prehistoric Mammals [Hardcover]

Alan Turner (Author), Mauricio Anton (Illustrator), Richard L. Cifelli (Introduction)

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Starred Review. Grade 5-10 - Except for stars such as saber-toothed tigers and woolly mammoths, prehistoric mammals get short shrift when compared to dinosaurs, pterosaurs, and toothy marine reptiles. Therefore it is refreshing to see a colorful compendium of these neglected beasts, ranging in size from the rather insignificant representatives from the Age of Dinosaurs to the ponderous Indricotherium of the Asian Oligocene. Dramatic full-color pictures (many encompassing entire spreads) and captions enhance the brief, informative text. Divided by orders and species, each two- to four-page section contains a time line, fact file, global distribution map (where possible), representative beasts, and those nifty illustrations. A ghostly shadow of a six-foot modern human is offered for scale purposes (for a small creature like Eomaia, for example, only the foot is shown). Primates are included, among them Australapithecenes, Homo erectus, and Homo sapiens. For lovers of the BBC production Walking with Prehistoric Beasts, it's a treasure trove. For students, it's an important source of information. - Patricia Manning, formerly at Eastchester Public Library, NY
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Gr. 4-6. Deinotherium, Gomphotherium, Arsinoitherium. Budding paleontologists who take joy in tackling such scientific tongue twisters will glue themselves to the polysyllabic commentary accompanying this extensive gallery of extinct mammals. Working carefully from the latest fossil evidence, veteran science illustrator Anton has created finely detailed portraits of more than 100 vanished creatures, from early whales and tiny proto-shrews to Neanderthals. Most of these he poses sedately against simplified natural settings, sometimes adding images of fossil skulls or other remnants for comparison. Along with the picture of the animal comes a distribution map, a time line, a human silhouette or other indicator to establish scale, and a fact box. As there is some repetition in the text, and, after several introductory spreads, the 20 animal groupings are not arranged in discernible order, this survey is better designed for browsing than systematic reading, quick reference, or efficient research. However, as an informative, eye-catching link between resources on modern animals and the ever-popular dinosaurs, it's sure to be a draw. John Peters
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 8 and up
  
• Hardcover: 192 pages
• Publisher: National Geographic Children's Books (October 1, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0792271343
• ISBN-13: 978-0792271345
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 1 x 11.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #100,106 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #13 in Books > Children's Books > History > Prehistoric
  • #28 in Books > Children's Books > Science, Nature & How It Works > Zoology
  • #89 in Books > Children's Books > Animals > Mammals

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

49 of 53 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars This is a children's book., May 27, 2005

By 

Marius the Wanderer "Roleplayer, Storyteller,... - See all my reviews

This review is from: National Geographic Prehistoric Mammals (Hardcover)

I don't know how I missed that this was geared more to the Jr.-High-School bracket; the product info page certainly wasn't shy about it. If you are looking for a kids' book on prehistoric mammals, this one's pretty good. Unfortunately, I wasn't.

The last time I bought a National Geographic book, they still came on semigloss stock between cloth covers with dust-jackets. I was expecting this, as well as what used to be their traditional division of the text into sections according to (order of animals/birds, AKC group of dog breeds...). Within a section there'd be an introductory essay, and then the individual critter descriptions, and a painting including each beast described on that page. The NG books were lush, they were heavy, they smelled good, they wore well. The idea of NG producing a prehistoric-mammal book made my heart leap.

What I have here is a book with awesome paintings of early mammals...and little else. The text is cursory and confines itself to physical descriptions of the animals and their fossils. Very little effort is made to extrapolate the likely behavior and lifestyles from the bones, an art which has become much-advanced among dinosaur specialists. There are also a lot of, to me, unscientific "value judgements" made. This beast is said to be "bizarre"; that one had "a remarkably small brain"; a giant wombat is said to be a dull, lumbering beast: "Such an idea is probably unavoidable, given its flat-footed stance and the rather blank facial appearance of many herbivores."

The paintings *are* superb; this is what decided me to keep the book--I did need a visual reference for a whole lotta mammals. But I had hoped for more text, and more out of the text, to where I could begin to guess how these creatures lived. I think the intended age-bracket would have liked that also.

Does anybody know if National Geographic plans to issue a grown-up version of this work? --If not, can anyone recommend a profusely-illustrated prehistoric-mammal book for adults?

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Splendid resource for young learners, November 1, 2005

By 

The Sanity Inspector (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: National Geographic Prehistoric Mammals (Hardcover)

Gorgeous, realistic illustrations; a fact box giving the beasties' vital stats, an overlay of a human silhouette for size comparison, and a brief but nuggetty article on each creature. There are also articles on the prevailing taxonomic groupings of mammals, and how we know what we know about their appearance and behavior. What's not to love? Any parents hoping to put solid paleontology information in the hands of their kids won't go wrong with this.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars National Geographic Prehistoric Mammals, September 23, 2005

By 

Mr. Peter Markmann (Canberra Australia) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: National Geographic Prehistoric Mammals (Hardcover)

A high-quality resource of ancient megafauna has been lacking for decades - that situation comes to an end with the publication of National Geographic Prehistoric Mammals. If you're a paleoartist or fan thereof, with interests extending beyond the age of dinosaurs, this is the book for you. The information is not painstakingly in-depth and there are some mistakes -- the smilodon did not go extinct 100,000 years ago; it was only 9,000, and humans certainly DID encounter them. The artwork, however, would be tough to improve on.