Customer Reviews

Predatory Dinosaurs of the World: A Complete Illustrated Guide

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Once, I was just a kid obsessed with Jurassic Park. That's as in touch with dinosaurs as I got. Then, on a search for information on Velociraptor, I discovered this book at my public library. And it got me hooked. PDW got me into dinosaurs for real, and ever since I have been fascinated by them, a serious field of interest for me.

PDW is well-written, lively and readable, save for the occasional (and amusing) typo. The information is extremely valuable. Although some of Paul's theories on theropods, especially their classification, have since been disfavored (or were never really agreeable to begin with), an astonishing number of them have remained wickedly close to the truth. It is fascinating reading of Paul's then-outrageous theories of, say, feathered theropods, and not even ten years later watching feathered theropods pop out of the ground like weeds.

The illustrations are incredible. Paul is, without a doubt, the most influential dinosaur artist today; virtually every other artist has been influenced at least somewhat by Paul's magnificent work. They depict dinosaurs at the highest level of accuracy, painstakingly researched, skeletons reconstructed, muscles laid onto the bones, and finally the flesh (and, sometimes, feathers) added to reveal the finest possible restorations of these extinct animals. Greg Paul is truly a genius.

This book has been scrutinized by the conservatives, flamed, disappreciated. I think that is truly a shame, as the book is, in actuality, one of the gems of dinosaur paleontology. It is also a shame that this book is out of print. If you are fascinated by theropod dinosaurs, or dinosaurs or paleontology in general, I urge you to find a copy of this book. It may be hard, but it's worth it. Or, you can wait and hope Mr. Paul writes an update sometime in the near future. I wait for a version two with more anticipation that I can possibly relate in words. We'll see...

I only lower the number on this review because much of the material presented here is outdated. In fact, Greg Paul kinda went out on a limb with his classification system. While he was correct that a new one was needed, other schemes have left his behind long ago. This book also is missing (because of the date of publication) some of the essential and fascinating finds of the nineties. I've sent Paul an email before hassling him to get a new edition out! It would truly be the most complete reference of its kind available, and Paul's wonderful illustrations are a plus anytime, while his skeletal restorations are more than just a plus, they are a necessity! Maybe we could convince him to through in a couple of his color plates in that new edition...

Greg Paul is the greatest dinosaur artist. He inspired a whole generation of dinosaur artists including myself. When I first found his book and saw it's astounding, action-packed illustrations my art would never be the same again. His art is more accurate, more dramatic, and more breathtaking than any other dinosaur artist alive today. For thirty years he has set the bar, and for thirty years every dinosaur artist young and old have tried but failed, to put it any higher. That's without saying his book, the PREDATORY DINOSAURS of the WORLD, that did the same for all dinosaur-books there after. In my opinion, my small dim-witted opinion,is one of the greatest dinosaur books to exist today. The only thing that keeps it from being the greatest is it's out-dated by little over ten years. Maybe someday Greg Paul will update P.D.O.T.W. and will showcase gigantosaurus, sinosauropteryx, chacharodotosaurus, majungatholus, neovenator, afrovenator, and so many others that I can't even think of at this point. Let finish with saying that if you enjoy dinosaur art, dinosaurs or paleontology you're going to flip out when you get this book.

Here's an interesting exercise. Conduct a literature search to identify all the SCHOLARLY books published commercially before 1986 that are devoted to special topics (e.g., infinite-dimensional vector spaces) in, say, the fields of mathematics, chemistry, physics, astronomy, genetics, and cellular biology. Expect to turn up items numbering in the hundreds, if not the thousands. Now, conduct a search for all the pre-1986 commercially-published scholarly books devoted exclusively to dinosaurs (henceforth, "SDBs"). You're not likely to come up with more than a single item, W. E. Swinton's THE DINOSAURS (Thomas Murby & Co., 1934), which went out of print in 1952 but resurfaced briefly in 1968.

Astounding as it may seem, before the publication of Bob Bakker's THE DINOSAUR HERESIES (Citadel, 1986), one could not walk into any book store in the English-speaking world and purchase a TECHNICAL volume devoted entirely to dinosaur paleontology. Prior to 1986, the only such books were treatises published by state or national geological surveys, professional paleontological societies, or museum-affiliated research institutions (example: Charles Whitney Gilmore, OSTEOLOGY OF THE CARNIVOROUS DINOSAURIA IN THE UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM, Bulletin 110 of the United States National Museum [Government Printing Office, 1920]). These treatises were published in limited runs and today are rarely encountered outside of university libraries. Enthusiasts seeking copies for purchase will probably require the good offices of book dealers specializing in out-of-print scientific tracts and must expect to pay dearly.

Of course, there were scads of POPULAR books on dinosaurs published before 1986. These make strange reading today, not so much because they contain antiquated information, but because they contain so LITTLE information even by the standards of the time. Virtually every popular book on dinosaurs was written to formula: first, a chapter on the beginnings of dinosaur paleontology in 19th Century England; next, a chapter on geologic time that introduces the technical names for geochronological eras and periods but never contemplates an interval of time shorter than an epoch, so that in subsequent chapters the reader will think that various dinosaur types (say, Tyrannosaurus rex and Styracosaurus albertensis) were contemporaries (they both lived during the Upper Cretaceous, didn't they?) when in fact they were separated in time by millions of years (the GEOGRAPHIC distribution of dinosaur genera is never discussed, so that the reader hasn't a clue that Triceratops, for example, is an exclusively North American genus); then, a chapter on pre-dinosaur vertebrate evolution (now, we mustn't forget Dimetrodon!) that frequently blurs the concepts of genus and species so that the reader eventually comes away thinking that every dinosaur genus is monospecific (inevitably, the only SPECIES identified in a popular dinosaur book is [drum roll, please] Tyrannosaurus rex [Would anyone care to name ANOTHER species of Tyrannosaurus?]); finally, a chapter (yes, a WHOLE CHAPTER, usually comprising no more than 25 pages!) on dinosaurs that typically surveys ONLY those genera of which complete skeletons are on display (pre-1986, that usually meant late Jurassic and late Cretaceous dinosaurs of western North America); possibly, a chapter on Mesozoic marine reptiles (and sometimes, a chapter on Cenozoic mammals); and lastly, a chapter on dinosaur extinction.

So, since there were no SDBs, what did the pre-1986 dinosaur enthusiast do if he wanted more information than what was offered in popular books? Well, there WERE a few commercially-published scholarly volumes on vertebrate paleontology in general. The main books were: Edwin H. Colbert, EVOLUTION OF THE VERTEBRATES (John Wiley & Sons, 1980 [one chapter on dinosaurs]); Alfred Sherwood Romer, VERTEBRATE PALEONTOLOGY, (University of Chicago, 1966 [one chapter on dinosaurs]); Romer, NOTES AND COMMENTS ON VERTEBRATE PALEONTOLOGY, (University of Chicago, 1969 [one chapter on dinosaurs]); Romer, OSTEOLOGY OF THE REPTILES, (University of Chicago, 1956 [dinosaurs are mentioned in passing throughout the book]).

Everything changed after 1985. First, there was Bakker's book in 1986, followed by Gregory Paul's PREDATORY DINOSAURS OF THE WORLD (PDW) in 1988. And after PDW, the deluge. There are now CPSDBs on such specialized topics within dinosaur paleobiology as systematics, osteology, bone histology, functional morphology, physiology, reproductive biology, ichnology, and so on.

Paul's PDW has become something of a classic. As of 11/20/2009, Amazon indicates that the hardcover edition is no longer available and lists only one new copy of the paperback edition (for the alarming price of $151.09). As several other Amazon reviewers have noted, the book's contents show their age. I've had occasion to ask Paul whether he intends to produce an updated edition, but he shows little enthusiasm for the project.

PDW nevertheless makes for exceptionally good reading. Although stretches of the book are pitched at a moderately high level of technicality, most of the technicalities are well-explained and further illuminated by Paul's own outstanding anatomical drawings. Paul's writing is highly engaging, even though every so often an infelicity pops out of the text. Pp. 52 - 53: "In 1983, Michael Benton argued that protoarchosaurs and early thecondonts were not really in competition with one another, but this cannot be so because the two groups were out there squabbling over carcasses and competing for game." The preceding sentences and the illustration on p. 52 invite the suspicion that Paul meant to address thecodonts' possible competition with SYNAPSIDS rather than with protoarchosaurs. Furthermore, although the quoted passage can be rewritten to avoid fallacy, it presently stands as a locus classicus of Begging the Question. [By the way, anybody who's tempted to dismiss Paul as a scientific lightweight who can't command a more robust, less reader-friendly style of technical writing may consult his DINOSAURS OF THE AIR (The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2002), in which far fewer concessions are made to deficiencies in the layman's background.] Paul isn't afraid of controversy, and he usually makes plausible cases even for his more questionable views. Some of the conjectures in PDW haven't stood up well (example: that spinosaurs may be subsumed phylogenetically under the ceratosauria), but others (example: feathered nonavian coelurosaurs) have panned out pretty spectacularly.

PWD is not the last word, nor even the latest word, on its subject. Be that as it may, the book is several very substantial steps up from a mere popularization: while it does reach out to a more general readership, it still enjoys the respect of professionals and is frequently cited in the bibliographies of paleontological articles in the most rigorously-refereed scientific journals.

This is a must for the dinosaur maven, the biomechanic and the professional paleontologist. Gregory Paul is one of those all too rare scientists who is a superb illustrator and artist. He brings his intimate familiarity with fossils to a disciplined imagination and careful documentation. The result is one of the best dinosaur books ever. By the way, what is the similarity among a tyrannosaur, a horse and an ostrich? You have to buy the book to find out...

Someone mentioned to me that this book was out of print. It was hard to believe, but it seems to be true. Slightly outdated now, this remains one of the best books I've ever seen on the subject. It includes everything from detailed dimensions, distributions, and timelines of the carnivores to Greg Paul's acclaimed technical drawings of the skeletons. This, incidentally, is one of the books Crichton drew from in writing Jurassic Park. The worst of it is, Paul had intended to write a series of volumes, moving from predators to sauropods, ceratopsians, stegosaurs, hadrosaurs, etc. That was ten years ago. I'm hoping that he'll eventually continue the series, creating a complete encyclopaedia of technical, yet easily read books. If you can track this one down, you'll be pleased with it

"Predatory Dinosaurs of the World: A Complete Illustrated Guide" written and drawn by Gregory S. Paul is a complete guide up and to the point of publication (1988) but it is fastly becoming outdated. But, nevertheless, it is a wonderful book with illustrations of predatory dinosaurs.

Gregory Paul fleshes out dinsosaurs through his illustrations making them look life like and ready to strike when and if they choose. What I liked about this book is that it is divided into two different sections or parts. The first part discusses the life and evolution of predatory dinosaurs. Getting to know the life-styles of the big and powerful and the small and fierce. The history of predatory dinosaurs success and failures and their avian descendants. There is a discussion of the nuts and bolts of predatory dinosaur anatomy and action, along with discussions on speed, whether they were cold or warm blooded, and there is a good chapter about the beginnings of bird flight: from the ground up or the trees up.

The second part of the book is the catalog of predatory dinosaurs divided by type. There is an explaination of the catalog, with skeletal muscle and life restorations, explaination of the data synopses. The predatory dinosaures are divided by primative paleodinosaurs, bird-mimicking Herrerasaurs, then the Theropods. The Theropods are divided into groups called the paleotheropods... early and late, and the birdlike avetheropods, which are further divided into the early avetheropods, the Allosaur-Tyrannosaur group and then the Protobirds: flying and nonflying.

I found a wealth of good information within the pages of this book, but as stated earlier, there is no data concerning the newer finds of the 1990's... this could be done with a new edition of the book. All in all, I gave the book a solid 5 stars as it was very educational and informative and the book was compelling and emotive. "Predatory Dinosaurs of the World" is a luxurious testimonial to the public fascination with dinosaurs, enriched by imagery that eloquently illustrated with current scientific theories about dinosaur behavior, physiology, and locomotion.

This is one of the most important works devoted to predatory dinosaurs ever. The book was a great asset in my own research. Greg Paul is a genius. Buy this book.

Dr. Stephen W. Templar, Author: rexGun rexGun

Never before have I read such a comprehensive study of dinosaur anatomy and behavior as was compiled for this book. Where most books (even Bakker's _The Dinosaur Heresies_) on serious dinosaur studies borrow from the past to complete a picture of the present theories of dinosaurs, Paul literally threw everything out the window and started from scratch to put together new theories of lines of evolution, dinosaur locomotion, and even going so far as to build a completely new system of taxonomy for the great beasts. Some of his thoughts are sadly mistaken, but the rest of this book is such a gem that it should be on all paleontologist's shelves.

Predatory Dinosaurs of the World is an excellent for anybody who has an interest in dinosaurs and art. It is lavishly illustrated and is a good source for dinosaur facts. Some of the ideas are out of date and Paul has since changed his views. And some of the ideas are still considered controversial. But all in all it is a very good, interesting book for pros and amateurs. It meets all of the critera for a good book with its illustrations, information, funness to read and references. A must read!!