Customer Reviews

National Geographic Prehistoric Mammals

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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?

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.

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.

This is an excellent overview of mammalian evolution for the general reader. In no way would I consider this a "children's" book. The book covers representative species of the major mammalian orders, which include range maps, a colored species time mark on a geological time line, a species size graphic, and a basic narrative. This is all the information that is necessary to get an overview of mammalian evolution. Each species is covered on a two page spread using the same format making it easy to locate items of specific interest.

If I have one issue, it is that the geological is often not linear, such as the 2 million year long Pleistocene era being shown as 3 inches long, and the 3 million year long Pliocene being shown below the Pleistocene as 1 inch long. However, I don't know if a linear scale would be practical.

In the normal National Geographic fashion, the graphics are excellent.

Though it is definitely a book for young readers the illustrations are a pleasure to peruse even for those who are no longer so young.

In contrast to a previous book written by Alan Turner and illustrated by Muricio Anton, "The Big Cats and their fossil relatives," This book disappoints. The artwork by Anton is excellent, but the text is superficial and light. A very nice coffee table book for the general reader, and perhaps a very good introduction for children, age 12 and older.

As far as printing quality, solid info and artistic craftsmanship go, this is a (very) good book. But it's also a somewhat boring one, lacking a more daring, dynamic approach to the various prehistoric ecosystems and the relationships between various species. Also, as a Brazilian, I must protest about the lazy approach to the information on prehistoric South American faunas, which relies wholly on the information provided by Argentinian sites studied by Darwin in the XIXth. Century, completely ignoring the recent work made by Brazilian researchers on sites such as the Itaborai formation, just in the neighbourhood of Rio de Janeiro; also ignored is the Rio National Museum, with its fine fossil specimens excavated in the Lagoa Santa site during the late XIXth. Century including complete skeletons of a ground sloth and a sabertooth.

My four year old son absolutely loves this book. After about two months of renewing it every time we went to the library, I knew it was going to be a keeper (he's allowed to renew one book each time - that this has stayed his favorite for so long is telling of its appeal). The color-coded timelines and maps are great for appealing to more than simply verbal learners, and the text doesn't stray into overly technical jargon (like some adult-intended references) - but it does highlight key points such as dentition and how reconstructions are made based on limited fossil evidence.

The animals are sorted by taxonomic families, which is very logical (as opposed to alphabetically or by time period), and then each genus gets a two page spread usually sorted by time period, which makes it extremely convenient for bedtime reading. (For example, all the Probuscids (Elephant-like) mammals are together, the first ones being the oldest, the last spread being on mammoths, the youngest of the family.)

My son is an avid dinosaur fan, and I find this book much more pleasant for me to read through than most of the dinosaur books we have - I find it interesting to read through, and sometimes my patience outlasts my son's. This book seems more than just a rote regurgitation of specs about each animal - I think it encourages critical thinking and thoughtful learning, too.

The only thing I wish it had was a pronunciation key - the multi-syllable Latin words cause a noticeable pause when I'm reading to him.

National geographic have once again brought out and presented us readers with prehistoric mammals a recognisable familar world with stunningly breathtaking photograph-like illustrations that are like transporting you back in time machine but without anyneed to go anywhere and with all sorts of structural, size charts detailed profiles on each individual species and whole stack more scientific information which is interesting to read because it,s fascinating for reference in discovery of new worlds.Finally i would like to add that the only putoff to this book is that the scientific names are incorrect or to more naturally put it wrong because of it,s classification data but it is still nonetheless worth buying whether you borrow it or keep it for reading four and half stars from me.

A great intro to mammalian evolution. Suited to yonger readers with good graphics and concise text.... Thanks National Geographic!