HD-man's Serious Dino Books/Dino-Related Reviews!

[HD-man]

My 112th review for this thread is a positive 1. If you haven't already, I'd greatly appreciate you reading & voting "Like"/"Helpful" for said review in the bolded link below. Besides wanting to make sure said review gives a good idea of what to expect, it needs all the "Like"/"Helpful" votes it can get b/c it's for a very good book that deserves more attention. Many thanks in advance.

Mostly good, part 7 ( www.goodreads.com/review/show/6991349141 ): 4/5

I recommend reading Lomax's Locked in Time: Animal Behavior Unearthed in 50 Extraordinary Fossils (henceforth Time) in conjunction with Witton's Life through the Ages II (henceforth LA, which I reviewed: www.goodreads.com/review/show/6242530008 ): For 1, like LA, Time includes section-by-section references to more technical sources (which is especially important "when it comes to behaviour": https://archosaurmusings.wordpress.com/2017/03/27/buried-treasure-dave-hone/ ); For another, in terms of coverage, LA & Time complete each other very nicely (E.g. LA has more Triassic sections, while Time has more dino sections); For yet another, as much as I like Time as is, it could be better in 2 major ways, hence this review, plus the LA recommendation.*

1) As much as I like the writing as is (especially its accessibility), there are several weird bits of it throughout Time. More specifically, there are several overly-broad descriptions (E.g. "They originated[...]around 54 million years ago, near the middle to late Eocene"; "Before the appearance of pterosaurs during the Middle Triassic, roughly 220 million years ago") & inconsistent figures (I.e. Some of them are arranged up-down, while others are arranged left-right).

2) As much as I like the paleoart as is, especially of peaceful dinos (Dilophosaurus: https://archive.ph/X47eM ) (Oryctodromeus: https://archive.ph/1sio1 ), Nicholls's art style works MUCH better in color. More specifically, there's a lot of detail that's hard to see (& thus, appreciate) in black-&-white.** What's especially frustrating is that the Korean translation IS in color ( https://archive.ph/IUg8p ).

*As indicated by some of the best dino/paleo books in recent years (E.g. Naish/Barrett's Dinosaurs: How They Lived and Evolved, which I reviewed: www.goodreads.com/review/show/3505614509 ), Nicholls & Witton go very well together.

**Just to clarify, the same does NOT go for all art styles: GSPaul's art style works MUCH better in black-&-white; This is especially apparent in his Princeton Field Guides.

[HD-man]

@DefinitelyNOTDilo

I recently started reading a book called Otherlands, by Thomas Halliday, and I knew I had to recommend it to you. It's absolutely a must read in my opinion.

I might read it at some point, but I'm a bit iffy about the reverse chronological format & lack of illustrations. In any case, many thanks for the thoughtful recommendation

[DefinitelyNOTDilo]

@DefinitelyNOTDilo

I recently started reading a book called Otherlands, by Thomas Halliday, and I knew I had to recommend it to you. It's absolutely a must read in my opinion.

I might read it at some point, but I'm a bit iffy about the reverse chronological format & lack of illustrations. In any case, many thanks for the thoughtful recommendation

I was unsure about that too, but it actually works quite well. And the man is a master of description imo, to the point that illustrations don't feel as important as they otherwise would.