Accompanying the television series, this is an illustrated history of dinosaurs, from their first appearance in the middle of the Triassic period to their sudden demise, 160 million years later, at the end of the Cretaceous era.
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The companion volume to the BBC/Discovery Channel series, Walking with Dinosaurs reads like a cross between a National Geographic article and the script from one of Disney's True Life Adventures films. Scenes from the daily lives of various animals illuminate the changes in flora and fauna that occurred during the Mesozoic era.
The fossil record offers some clues about dinosaur behavior. Tracks preserved in sandstone indicate that some of the huge Diplodocus-type dinosaurs traveled in herds with the larger individuals on the outside and the smaller, more vulnerable animals in the center. The courtship behavior of Tyrannosaurus, the social hierarchy within the Diplodocus herd, etc., described in the book are pure speculation. But Haines models his descriptions on animals that occupy similar niches today: Tapejara, a fish-eating pterosaur, nests in remote colonies, like a migratory seabird. However, the suggestion that an old Tyrannosaurus suffered from gout is based on a hotly debated interpretation of the markings on bones of the "Sue" fossil in Chicago's Field Museum.
The striking visuals for the program involved a combination of animatronic figures, puppets, and computer animation. The images work well as illustrations. The formally posed animals in many old paintings had a taxidermic stiffness; these creatures are shown in motion, often in slightly awkward poses, which heightens the illusion that Walking with Dinosaurs is a book of nature photographs.
The result is a highly readable introduction to current theories about dinosaurs that amateur scientists of all ages can enjoy. --Charles Solomon --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Publishers Weekly
Though dinosaurs died off more than 65 million years ago, our fascination with them--as anyone who's ever heard of Jurassic Park knows--is far from extinct. Now comes this astounding illustrated tour of their world, to coincide with the Discovery Channel's program of the same name that originally aired to tremendous acclaim on the BBC. Innovatively illustrated with images created by a combination of photography and state-of-the-art computer graphics and written by award-winning BBC series producer Haines, this magnificent natural history will help readers imagine that ancient and alien world more completely than ever before. When dinosaurs first roamed the planet, earth had high sea levels and no ice caps and was covered by one giant continent, Pangaea, which was slowly disintegrating. It wasn't until the end of the Mesozoic era that the land masses began to more closely resemble our current world. Among the inhabitants presented in the book are the carnivorous Coelophysis, one of the smallest and earliest dinosaurs of record; the gigantic and brutal Tyrannosaurus; the ambush predator of the sea Cryptoclidus; and the huge, vegetarian Diplodocus. Spanning the middle of the Triassic period more than 220 million years ago, when dinosaurs were making their first appearance, through the Late Cretaceous period 65 million years ago, as they were dying off, this marvelously illustrated volume renders a vivid portrait of the extraordinary beasts' violent existence amid an ever-changing terrain. BOMC and QPB alternate selections. (Apr.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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29 of 29 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Age of the Dinosaurs brought to life,
This review is from: Walking with Dinosaurs: A Natural History (Hardcover)
If you're interested in dinosaurs -- and who isn't -- you will be blown away by this magnificent book. It's a great companion volume to the TV special on the Discovery Channel, and a terrific book on its own. The text is well written, informative, and comprehensive to us lay readers, and the pictures of dinosaurs are so real that you almost forget they are computer-generated images; they look ready to walk right off the pages into your living room. I especially liked that along with the more familiar standbys such as Diplodocus, Stegosaurus and Tyrannosaurus, Tim Haines introduces us to dinosaurs most of us didn't know about before, such as Placerias and Postosuchus from the early Triassic period; Ankylosaurus, who could knock a Tyrannosaurus bowlegged; and Liopleurodon, a marine monster who looks like he could chomp a small whale in half and finish off with a couple of great white sharks for dessert. Haines presents the argument for warm-blooded dinosaurs very convincingly and his theory is backed by the recent discovery of a four-chambered fossilized dinosaur heart in South Dakota. He presents the dinosaurs not as museum fossils but as living beings who breathed, ate, slept, excreted, reproduced, and survived attack, and where the evidence is scant, his suggestions for filling in the blanks are so rational that we feel we are sharing a typical day in the life of a prehistoric animal. The photographs of the natural environment the dinosaurs lived in help bring the whole era to life. The final pages, which describe the crash-landing in the Caribbean of the asteroid that terminated the Mesozoic era, are written so vividly that we can almost visualize the flash of light in the distant horizon and feel the shock wave that spread over most of the earth and ended the age of the dinosaurs. This is a wonderful book for the whole family which will be read and referred to over and over again.
32 of 33 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
a time travel of 50 million years into the past,
This review is from: Walking with Dinosaurs: A Natural History (Hardcover)
What an absolute delight! H.G. Wells would be proud of a time machine like this book. It is not simply WALKING WITH but almost LIVING AMONG DINOSAURS. I have always been a fan of drawings and paintings of dinos but this book surpasses all I have seen before. The landscapes are partly original nature photos which depict a lush vegetation of a world long gone and make wonderful backgroung for the beasts. And the beasts themselves... well, there are no flaws (like a slightly misplaced or twisted limb) like the ones you may occassionally find on paintings - the computer generated graphics make sure of this. The animals hold themselves in a natural way showing grace of motion instead of the robust awkwardness we just about a decade ago thought were their way. The pictures themselves are of superb quality and the text really gives you a lot without using too much unintelligible jargon for the layman. The questions of extinction, cold- or hot bloodedness, reproduction etc. are all addressed. I only had one point of sorrow - a book like this cannot be long enough. But until someone develops a real time machine, we have to make do with this book - and it is worth the try!
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Dino-myte!,
By William Blessing (Wood Dale, Illinois) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Walking with Dinosaurs: A Natural History (Hardcover)
Tim Haines' "Walking with Dinosaurs: A Natural History" is simply awesome. As a dino fan for several decades, I am truly impressed. I've read many dino books and this one rates with the very best.Mr. Haines leads us through the day to day existance of various ancient creatures from their emergence through their mysterious vanishing. Each of six segments examines either a specific time period, species, or type (aquatic, airborne) of animal. The text is vivid and engrossing, especially the chapter describing the dinos' ultimate demise. The illustrations are taken from the video of the same name and are stunning. Perhaps Mr. Haines did take a bit of poetic license in creating the story lines, but since none of us were around at the time, his explanations are certainly as plausible as any other. In summary, if you or someone you love is any kind of dino fan, this book is a MUST!
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