Peterson First Guide(R) to Dinosaurs (Peterson First Guides) [Paperback]

John C. Kricher (Author), Roger Tory Peterson (Author), Gordon Morrison (Illustrator)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 24, 1990 | Series: Peterson First Guides

Features more than one hundred dinosaurs and explains how recent scientific discoveries have changed our view of the way these fascinating creatures lived. 100 color illustrations.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

It is a rather silly idea to design a guide to dinosaurs in the same format as a field guide to living animals. For one thing, the only place a nonspecialist sees dinosaurs is in a museum, where they are likely to be labeled clearly already. The book's small pictures are not very enticing, and the brief text leaves a lot of questions unanswered. Also, the guide includes irrelevant sections about prehistoric mammals, human ancestors, and other nondinosaur creatures. Even at this inexpensive price, the book won't add as much to a dinosaur collection as would a really good picture book like Patricia Lauber's The News About Dinosaurs (Bradbury Pr., 1989).
-Amy Brunvand, Fort Lewis Coll. Lib., Durango
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About the Author

John Kricher is a professor of Biology at Wheaton College in Norton, Massachusetts. He also wrote a Neotrophical Companion and several books in the Peterson Field Guide Series.

Gordon Morrison is a well-known naturalist whose work has been praised by Roger Tory Peterson as "Marvelous, beautiful, excellent . . . Morrison's work is so inspiring that I wish such clear material was available when I was slowly learning ecology. . . . We owe a debt of gratitude to Gordon for his interpretive skills as an artist. He is a superb teacher who uses visual methods." Robert Bateman likened his work to that of Albrecht Durer and Andrew Wyeth. Gordon Morrison makes his home in Massachusetts.

Roger Tory Peterson, one of the world's greatest naturalists, received every major award for ornithology, natural science, and conservation, as well as numerous honorary degrees, medals, and citations, including the Presidential Medal of Freedom. The Peterson Identification System has been called the greatest invention since binoculars, and the Peterson Field Guides® are credited with helping to set the stage for the environmental movement.

Product Details

• Paperback: 128 pages
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin; 1st Edition. edition (April 24, 1990)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0395524407
• ISBN-13: 978-0395524404
• Product Dimensions: 7.1 x 3.8 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 ounces
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,414,488 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

I am a Professor of Biology at Wheaton College, Norton, Massachusetts. A graduate of Temple (B.A.) and Rutgers Universities (Ph.D.), I teach courses in ecology, ornithology, and vertebrate evolution.

I have conducted Earthwatch-sponsored research on migrant birds on their wintering grounds in Belize and I am the author of over 100 papers and articles in scientific journals, magazines, and newspapers. My most recent book, The Balance of Nature: Ecology's Enduring Myth, was published by Princeton University Press in spring of 2009. I have also authored Galapagos: A Natural History, published in hard-cover by Smithsonian Institution Press in 2002 and in soft-cover by Princeton University Press in 2006. Other books include A Neotropical Companion, and three ecology field guides (Eastern Forests, Rocky Mountain and Southwestern Forests, California and Pacific Northwest Forests) in the Peterson series. I have also done two recorded lecture series, one on dinosaurs and one on ecology, published by Modern Scholar. I have even authored coloring books and first guides on various aspects of nature ranging from dinosaurs to seashores.

My current writing project is a comprehensive book on Tropical Ecology to be published by Princeton University Press in 2011.

I am a Fellow in the American Ornithologists Union and have served as president of the Association of Field Ornithologists and president of the Wilson Ornithological Society.

I have led numerous trips to many places including Cape May, Block Island, coastal New England, Arizona, the Pacific Northwest, Belize, Guatemala, Costa Rica, Peru, Ecuador, Galapagos Islands, Panama, and Trinidad. I have lectured for Linblad Tours of the Galapagos Islands, for Society Expeditions trips to Venezuela, Brazil, and Indonesia, and for Glacier Bay Cruise Lines in Alaska. My travels have also taken me to Tanzania, Antarctica, and numerous other places where wildlife abounds.

I spend a lot of time writing about where I have been and what I have learned in my travels. I have been an avid birder for just over a half century.

My wife Martha Vaughan and I divide our time between Pocasset, Massachusetts, on Cape Cod and Sunbury, Georgia.