Book recommendations

[Newt]

I recently ordered two books illustrated by the wonderful Mauricio Anton:


The Big Cats and their Fossil Relatives by Alan Turner and Mauricio Anton


Dogs: Their Fossil Relatives and Evolutionary History by Xiaoming Wang, Richard Tedford, and Mauricio Anton


Turner, Wang, and Tedford are leading researchers on their respective groups and bring great expertise to the text. I would describe both books as mildly technical; if you read a lot about paleontology you probably won't have much trouble following them. Of course, they're mammal books, so there's some tooth talk, but it doesn't get too tiresome. They serve as fine introductions to these two groups of carnivorans. The cat book covers living species in some detail and also talks a bit about cat-like carnivorans such as the nimravids; the dog book is more strictly focused on the extinct Canidae. They cover general evolutionary trends, ecology, and phylogeny of the respective groups and spotlight a few of the better-known fossil species. If you are looking for exhaustive encyclopedias, these are not the books you are looking for; consider them rather as primers.


And of course, one of the primary draws of each book is the illustrations. Anton is a top-flight illustrator. The usual skeletal drawings and "spotter's guide" illustrations are fine, but where he really shines is the scenes of these animals living their lives. Each book has many pencil drawings and a smaller number of color paintings, all quite excellent.

[Gwangi]

Great recommendations. I have both of those books too, "Cats" and "Dogs". Read them a few years back. I think mildly technical is accurate, not so technical as to confuse or bore the reader.

[HD-man]

Back in October, I sent the following book recommendations to a friend who manages a museum store. Of those listed, I've reviewed the 1st edition of Naish/Barrett's Dinosaurs: How They Lived and Evolved ( https://www.amazon.com/review/R3VQ7TMT8EFOC7/ref=cm_cr_srp_d_rdp_perm?ie=UTF8 ), Rey's Extreme Dinosaurs! Part 2: The Projects ( https://www.amazon.com/review/R30VGMGZ7WL3V4/ref=cm_cr_srp_d_rdp_perm?ie=UTF8 ), & Bonner's Dining With Dinosaurs ( https://www.amazon.com/review/RP5K90YL2VODH/ref=cm_cr_srp_d_rdp_perm?ie=UTF8 ).

Teens & adults:
-Witton's "Life through the Ages II: Twenty-First Century Visions of Prehistory" ( https://iupress.org/9780253048110/life-through-the-ages-ii/ )
-Naish/Barrett's "Dinosaurs: How They Lived and Evolved" (page 28: https://www.nhm.ac.uk/content/dam/nhmwww/business-services/publishing/NHM-Catalogue-2019.pdf )
-Bonnan's "The Bare Bones: An Unconventional Evolutionary History of the Skeleton" ( https://iupress.org/9780253018328/the-bare-bones/ )

Older kids:
-Rey's "Extreme Dinosaurs! Part 2: The Projects" (self-published: https://luisvrey.wordpress.com/2019/10/22/extreme-dinosaurs-pt-2-the-projects-is-finally-available/ )
-Howard's "Earth Before Us" series ( https://www.abramsbooks.com/earth-us-series/ )
-Barrett's "Stegosaurus: An Extraordinary Specimen and the Secrets it Reveals" (page 28: https://www.nhm.ac.uk/content/dam/nhmwww/business-services/publishing/NHM-Catalogue-2019.pdf )
-Bonner's "Dining With Dinosaurs" (page 89: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/pdf/kids_fall_2019_catalog.pdf )
-Bonner's "Bind-Up Collection: 3 Books In 1" (page 89: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/pdf/kids_fall_2019_catalog.pdf )

Younger kids & their parents:
-Sampson's "You Can Be a Paleontologist!" (page 88: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/pdf/kids_fall_2019_catalog.pdf )
-David & Jennie Orr's "Mammoth is Mopey" (self-published: https://www.etsy.com/listing/577268124/mammoth-is-mopey-hardcover-alphabet-book ). David Orr makes a lot of other items that are also worth checking out: https://www.etsy.com/shop/orogenic

[Libraraptor]

Make sure you get a copy of this great little book! It´s in German AND in English and contains many wonderful pictures by the wonderful artist Joschua Knüppe!

Order here for example:

https://pfeil-verlag.de/?product=europasaurus

[HD-man]

I'm definitely looking forward to the following books:

-Brake/Chase's The Science of Jurassic World: The Dinosaur Facts Behind the Films ( https://www.amazon.com/Science-Jurassic-World-Dinosaur-Behind/dp/1510762582 ): I always enjoy a good "science of" (especially when it comes to dino-related media, hence my many reviews of day-in-the-life dino books) & this book is apparently part of a whole series.* The authors aren't dino experts, but they do seem to have a lot of experience researching the "science of" sci-fi.

-Fastovsky/Weishampel's Dinosaurs: A Concise Natural History ( https://www.amazon.com/Dinosaurs-Concise-Natural-David-Fastovsky/dp/1108469299 ): The 3rd edition came out in 2016, so this edition is a long time coming. As you may remember, Fastovsky/Weishampel's book is 1 of the best natural histories of dinos for adults ( http://dinotoyblog.com/forum/index.php?topic=7132.0 ). IDK how different the interior art is, but the new cover art is very nice.

-Dingus' AMNH The Dinosaur Hunters: The Extraordinary Story of the Discovery of Prehistoric Life ( https://www.amazon.com/Amnh-Dinosaur-Hunters-Extraordinary-Prehistoric/dp/0233005439 ): AFAIK, the AMNH has published more/better popular dino books than any other dino museum.** This book's content reminds me of Naish's The Great Dinosaur Discoveries, while its aesthetic reminds me of Norell's The World of Dinosaurs: An Illustrated Tour.

-Brusatte's The Age of Dinosaurs: The Rise and Fall of the World's Most Remarkable Animals ( https://www.amazon.com/Age-Dinosaurs-Worlds-Remarkable-Animals/dp/0062930176 ): This book is a "junior edition" of The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs ( https://books.google.com/books?id=6qHazQEACAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=editions:ISBN0062930192 ). As you may remember, the latter is good, but has some problems that keep it from being great ( https://www.amazon.com/review/R1H5PAIZYRT2B/ref=cm_cr_srp_d_rdp_perm?ie=UTF8 ). Hopefully, those problems won't be problems in this book.

*So far, I've reviewed Bakker's Maximum Triceratops (page 2), Zoehfeld's Dinosaur Parents, Dinosaur Young: Uncovering the Mystery of Dinosaur Families (page 2), Waldrop/Loomis' Ranger Rick's Dinosaur Book (page 3), Martin's Dinosaurs Without Bones: Dinosaur Lives Revealed by their Trace Fossils (page 3), Zoobooks Zoodinos Tyrannosaurus Rex (page 3), Henry's RAPTOR: The Life of a Young Deinonychus (page 3), Lauber's How Dinosaurs Came to Be (page 3), & Cooley/Wilson's Make-a-saurus: My Life with Raptors and Other Dinosaurs (page 4): http://dinotoyblog.com/forum/index.php?topic=2210.0

**So far, I've reviewed Norell et al.'s Discovering Dinosaurs: Evolution, Extinction, and the Lessons of Prehistory, Expanded and Updated (page 1), Abramson et al.'s Inside Dinosaurs (page 3), Norell's The World of Dinosaurs: An Illustrated Tour (page 5), & Lach's I Am NOT a Dinosaur! (page 5): http://dinotoyblog.com/forum/index.php?topic=2210.0

[Newt]

My Christmas gifts included several paleontology-themed books. I've read two so far, both on amphibian evolution. There's some redundancy, but overall I'd consider them complementary and recommend both.


The Rise of Amphibians by Robert Carroll


Amphibian Evolution: the Life of Early Land Vertebrates by Rainer R. Schoch


Both books cover "amphibians" in the broad sense - that is, all tetrapods except the amniotes. Both cover the general evolutionary trajectories of the Tetrapoda from Devonian tetrapodomorph fishes and fishapods through the great diversity of Carboniferous and Permian anamniotes to the extant frogs, salamanders, and caecilians.


There are some major differences between the two books, however: Schoch focuses on evo-devo and ecology to a much greater extent, while Carroll is much more about detailed rundowns of each major amphibian group's history, diversity, and anatomy. If you are a paleoartist looking for a reference work, Carroll's book will be more helpful to you; it is abundantly illustrated with skeletal drawings and fossil photos, most taken from scientific papers on the animal in question (the skeletal drawings in Schoch are more diagrammatic). Both books do discuss functional morphology, soft tissue reconstruction, and musculature of extinct amphibians.


My major quibble with Schoch's book is its proofreading; there are quite a few typos, and many of the illustrations are poorly labeled. There are a series of plates in Carroll illustrating various amphibian faunas in their habitat, painted by Tonino Terenzi. The figures in them seem to have been copied from different sources with different styles, giving a weirdly folk-arty vibe that is disconcerting. Otherwise the book's illustrations are excellent. Both authors make the same error of stating that all plethodontid salamanders undergo direct development, but both also state in other sections that some plethodontids retain aquatic larvae; this is not intended to imply any plagiarism (I see no evidence of that), just an oddity I noticed.

[Lanthanotus]

@Newt Very intersting, does not come cheap, but I need to keep these in my mind or maybe set it on a wishlist.

@Libraraptor Woah, sauropod book about a German dinosaur, and with realnice illustrations... I am up.

[ceratopsian]

@Libraraptor - thanks for the recommendation of Europasaurus. Mine is here now and I'm glad I tracked it down.

[Newt]

@Lanthanotus - Keep an eye on used book sites. I'm pretty sure mine were purchased from Abebooks for less than what Amazon is asking.

[Giganotosaurus]

I ordered the Facts and Figures Therapods book! Did you all like that book?

[HD-man]

I ordered the Facts and Figures Therapods book! Did you all like that book?

I'm in the process of reviewing Blasing's Dinosaurs! My First Book About Carnivores. Thank goodness for Molina-Pérez/Larramendi's Dinosaur Facts and Figures: The Theropods and Other Dinosauriformes. You'd think the latter had been made specifically for fact-checking the former. 1 of my only non-editing gripes is that not every species comes with specific info about when they lived (E.g. Some come with "lower Maastrichtian, ca. 72.1–69 Ma", while others from the same time only come with "lUC" [late Upper Cretaceous]).

[Giganotosaurus]

Nice! So good to know I am actually learning from reading this book!
So far I quite like the reading!

[Libraraptor]

At the moment I am reading these two books:

[HD-man]

Wow, that book looks cool!
They seem to have changed the subtitle, though the description still says "Let the 4 Billion Year Journey begin!"
https://smile.amazon.com/Life-Through-Time-700-Million-Year-Story/dp/0744020174/ref=sr_1_2?dchild=1&keywords=life+through+time&qid=1597580957&sr=8-2

@Stuckasaurus (Dino Dad Reviews) Just in case you haven't already gotten the book, I should warn you that there are only 3 definitely good 2-page spreads (I.e. Those by Bonadonna). The rest of the book is a mixed bag of OK & bad.

[Stuckasaurus (Dino Dad Reviews)]

Wow, that book looks cool!
They seem to have changed the subtitle, though the description still says "Let the 4 Billion Year Journey begin!"
https://smile.amazon.com/Life-Through-Time-700-Million-Year-Story/dp/0744020174/ref=sr_1_2?dchild=1&keywords=life+through+time&qid=1597580957&sr=8-2

@Stuckasaurus (Dino Dad Reviews) Just in case you haven't already gotten the book, I should warn you that there are only 3 definitely good 2-page spreads (I.e. Those by Bonadonna). The rest of the book is a mixed bag of OK & bad.

Thanks! That's good to know. I still haven't gotten around to that one yet. So many books, so little money...

[Stuckasaurus (Dino Dad Reviews)]

Make sure you get a copy of this great little book! It´s in German AND in English and contains many wonderful pictures by the wonderful artist Joschua Knüppe!

Order here for example:

https://pfeil-verlag.de/?product=europasaurus

I just received my own copy a couple weeks ago, and posted my thoughts about it at Dino Dad Reviews!
I can't recommend it highly enough.

https://dinodadreviews.com/2021/03/09/europasaurus-life-on-jurassic-islands/

[Libraraptor]

Make sure you get a copy of this great little book! It´s in German AND in English and contains many wonderful pictures by the wonderful artist Joschua Knüppe!

Order here for example:

https://pfeil-verlag.de/?product=europasaurus

I just received my own copy a couple weeks ago, and posted my thoughts about it at Dino Dad Reviews!
I can't recommend it highly enough.

https://dinodadreviews.com/2021/03/09/europasaurus-life-on-jurassic-islands/

You are absolutely right Love the book and wrote the author about it. 

[JPuggy]

I enjoy The Dinosaur Heresies. It's an amazing book with beautiful illustrations
https://www.amazon.com/Dinosaur-Heresies-Unlocking-Dinosaurs-Extinction/dp/0821756087

[Libraraptor]

I enjoy The Dinosaur Heresies. It's an amazing book with beautiful illustrations
https://www.amazon.com/Dinosaur-Heresies-Unlocking-Dinosaurs-Extinction/dp/0821756087

Yes,  it is an alltime classic.

[GojiraGuy1954]

Anybody read "When Life Nearly Died?" I can't believe that a subject such as the Permian Mass Extinction could be made boring, but Michael J. Benton managed it.