Customer Reviews

In the Presence of Dinosaurs

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book is a true treasure. I have not heard of Larry Felder before,but he has quickly become my favourite dinosaur painter. The way the book is made is as unique as the paintings. It is not an encyclopedia,but instead a book of wildlife on Earth. The pictures are amazingly detailed and I can see that the animals` shapes and colours are based on carefull studies of real wildlife. For example,the Pteranodons looks and acts like pelicans,as well as the Parasaurolophus are similar to zebras. Most of the meat-eating dinosaurs are feathered and are sometimes similar to birds of prey or lions and tigers. The habitat pictures are among my favourites... Among my favourites comes the triassic chapter,the late jurassic,and the cretaceous chapters of the seas and the dinosaur migrations. I love drawing dinosaurs and when I look at the pictures,I learn to draw such dinosaurs too,although not as detailed as Felder`s. I will also base my story "A Dinosaur Story" on the behaviour and look of the animals in this book. Over all,this is a book that could not be much better. The only thing minus is that I think it is almost too short. A book of 300 pages would have been better and with more artists.

I don't know quite what to make of this book. Parts of it are excellent. Parts of it are, well, not so good.

The good first. The authors make an effort to depict entire environments throughout the Mesozoic of North America, not just focusing on showy (though fascinating) dinosaurs. Reading like a nature show transcript, Colgrande and Felder don't discuss scientific theories or paleontoligsts, but try to place in you the actual landscape of the past, whether a Triassic rain forest or a Jurassic inland sea. Plants, invertebrates, birds, mammals, other reptiles, pterosaurs, marine reptiles are all discussed being born, living, and dying in lush worlds.

Some of the descriptions are quite engaging. I especially loved the Triassic rain forest (preserved as the petrified forest) and the Niobrara Sea.

Another plus are some of the illustrations. The ones of marine life are inspired, and others are quite excellent. In a field increasingly crowded with prehistoric art, some of this stands out.

Now the bad. This book is full of theories, and it doesnt' really tell you that, or doesn't stress it. Some, such as the idea that hypsilophodontids might have been corpophages is interesting, but it is just that - a theory. No evidence of it. And some of the theories (or illustrations showing such theories) are arugably wrong. Several dinosaurs species are shown as feathered as young, but scaled as adults. From what I understand this just not possible. Those are two entirely two different types of external covering, and it is not possible to switch from one to the another; if you are born with feathers, you live your life with feathers, you don't switch to scales at a certain age. Yes, birds have down while in the nest, but later get feathers, not scales. While this makes for some pretty pictures, and yes some dinosaurs species may have been feathered their entire lives, there is no evidence to suggest feathered (or furred for that matter) hadrosaurs.

Another bad point is ironically the illustrations. Though some are quite good, others are not good. Some come across as wooden or simplistic, while others are strangely unconvincing. One or two I would even describe as bad. Perhaps the illustrator wasn't quite as trained as he should have been, perhaps a few subjects were beyond his grasp, or maybe this was simply too much to paint, an overly ambitious project.

This book is an interesting one and can certainly inspire debate among amateur paleonotologists such as myself, but this might not be the best book available.

I have been collecting "dinosaurabilia" for 40 years, including many of the paleontological works of Charles R. Knight, America's first dinosaur painter. The only time I have ever been tempted to add an original painting by any other artist to my collection was when I first saw Larry Felder's depiction of a baby Parasaurolophus a few years ago. "Duckling Bill" is now the centerpiece of my entire "Metropolitan Museum of Mesozoic Memorabilia".

Only a handful of artists per century ever burst onto the scene with such imaginative vigor and precision as has Felder. Leafing through this book will make your hair stand on end and a chill run up your spine. At last we know what these amazing monsters really looked like!

I LOVE this book. This is the best book on dinosaurs I've seen and both the artwork and text are stunning. I prefer this book to the book version of "Walking with dinosaurs" . All in all a wonderful book for dinosaur and fossil lovers! Trust me, you'll like it!

Picture, if you will: Packs of tyrannosaurs, thundering across grasslands. A pair of Pteranodons, thirty feet acros, battling over a nesting site. Scores of Elasmosaurus, crawling out of the sea like massive turtles, to lay their eggs. All this and much more come alive with stunning detail in In The Presence Of Dinosaurs.
The book is orginized by ecosystems, each chapter covering notable animals in it. My favorites include Wandering Shores, Plains Dominion, and The Glens Of Hell Creek. The earliest come first, and the latest is last.
One thing i enjoyed is how some theories, like the dinosaurs being born with feathers but losing them later in life, are so ahead of their time. I think they only proved that in 2005!

The ilistrations are incredible. Some hard subjects, like the Phytosaurs in the water at sunset must have been very hard. No matter what anyone says, if you like dinosaurs, then you will love this book.

Gorgeous. Beautiful. Stunning. Exhilarating. This book is enough to send one running for the thesaurus to find new adjectives to describe it! One of my favorite paleo books to come along these last few years, Larry Felder and John Colagrande have combined to create a truly beautiful book. If you loved "Walking With Dinosaurs" this book is a must-have. In many ways I even prefer it. Whereas the CGI dinos of WWD are pretty amazing there is just something about the touch of a brush to canvas, the interaction between artist and paint that I'll prefer anytime. Felder's images are full of warmth and vitality, almost as though a they are being visualized by a Renaissance artist. The science behind the images is fully 21st century, however. Felder is on the very edge of the new breed of paleo artists who depict dinos as vivid, highly colorful, sophisticated creatures. Whether you prefer your dinos drab or day-glow, however, there is no denying the splendidness of these paintings.
As for the text, Cologrande has crafted a wonderful, free-flowing narrative of life in the Mesozoic. As with "Walking With Dinos" (which this book can't avoid being compared to) there is a large amount of speculation involved about the day-to-day details of dino life. But Cologrande obviously placed a high priority upon grounding his speculations in as much solid science as possible. No wild flights of fancy are found here. In fact, in text this book is substantially superior to WWD.
As a paleoartist myself I find this book to be a constant source of inspiration and amazement. Jack Horner called it "jet fuel for the imagination." I can't think of a better description. BUY IT!

This is a truly beautiful book, elegantly written and stunningly illustrated. As a zoologist and paleoartist, I'm pretty critical, but Colagrande's science is solid, and Felder's art up-to-date and wonderfully realised. Occasionally his animals look a little top-heavy eg, Dilophosaurus (pp62-3) and Tyrannosaurus (pp156-7), and his backgrounds can have an unusually neat, parklike quality, and one or two feet don't seem to really make contact with the ground, but there is no doubting his mastery of his medium. The detail is exquisite, the settings imaginative, and colouration believable (none of Luis Rey's carnival animals!) My one real gripe, though, is that I wish there was an occasional burst of bright sunlight. Even on the pterosaur beach, there always is a darkness about the pictures. Shadows are always immensely, unnaturally deep. The world isn't always early morning, late afternoon, or just before a rainstorm. I'd love to see this talented artist throw some more light on his subjects now and then!
A beautiful addition to any dino-buff's library, none the less.

If one book ever deserves the title „best illustrated dinosaur book available" then it's „In the presence of dinosaurs" by Felder/Colagrande. I have seen and red many books about dinosaurs now but this one is by far the most beautiful one. In no other dinosaur book you'll find paleo art of this size and quality! Felder must be a genius, every painting in this book (at least 100 !!) is comparable to a photo and really a work of art. No wonder that he appears in „high-level" science and nature magazines and the world famous John Lanzendorf collection. The size, layout and composition of the book is very similar to the „BBC-Walking with Dinosaurs" but instead of fuzzy renderings of computer animations it is filled with the incredible art work described above. Colagrande provides the narrative part of the book. Covering different periods of time within the Triassic, Jurassic and Creteaceous, very detailled he describes the typical inhabitants in their natural habits. His motives are taken from the careful observation of present wildlife, whereas the eye-poppingly paintings get an even more realistic meaning. Simply amazing! I warmly recommend this book to everybody interested in dinosaurs, kids and adults. Better you buy two, to keep one for you and the other to give as a present.

"Doc" Cologrande was THE MOST AWESOME teacher in High School. I had him for Science 3 years straight! (yup - even he couldn't believe it!)I have not read this book - but believe me. If he wrote it - you will love it.

If "Doc" Col" talked about it - it was interesting.

Absolutely the best!

Dave Patnaude
"Doc Col's" class 1985-1987

In the Presence of Dinosaurs written by John Colagrande and Larry Felder is a very highly illustrated book with some amazing pictorials. When looking at the picture in this book it makes you feel as though you are in the presence of dinosars.

This book has a very good flowing narrative that is both educational and informative. The Mesozoic world was filled with amazing wonders, but from the fossil record we can only glimpse and speculate what it really looked like. Through the illustrator's eyes and put into print we really can what it was like. From dragonflys, pteradactyls, forests, and deserts to T.rex, sea-life, and valleys.

All are portrayed with an artful touch rendering a life-like appearence.Can you imagine a Pteranodon with a wingspan of more than 25 feet to a Elasmosaurus laying eggs on a beach. The coloration of the dinosaurs is highly speculative, but they probably did have colors to identify themselves for mating and for protection from predators. Also fur and feathers were probably used to keep them warm and protect them from the weather. Again, this is speculative, but I stongly think the illustrator has the right idea.

You'll read this informative narrative and get lost in your imagination by the artwork, as this is a worderful book.