Need help finding an old dinosaur book...

[DaNuGy]

Hello all.

I have recently gotten back into my love-affair with dinosaurs I had as a child.

I recall a book I once owned that was breathtaking. This book dates from the mid-80's to the early 90's.

It had a photo-realistic cover with a blue sky and clouds in the background. In the foreground, the large head of a Styracosaur dominated. The Styracosaur had wild markings on it's frill as I recall; orange, red and black "eyes" (similar to the "eyes" on the wings of some moths to frighten predators).

At any rate, the book had the word "Dinosaur" or "Dinosaurs" in the title (doesn't narrow it down, I know...), and the lettering as a flat gold/yellow with black shadow behind it. I don't know the publisher, or the authors, eithier. The ISBN also is unknown to me.

I may have been young, but I recall the book was like a large coffee-table book. Each and every dinosaur was painted to scale, and all the species were in chronological order as they evolved/died out. One of the very first was Dimetrodon.

Each dinosaur was positioned so that their profile was visible, and ALL of them were facing to the left, like they were walking.

There were numerous sauropods that required the use of "centerfold" type foldouts of four pages to keep the long necks and tails in scale.

This book was truly breathtaking, and I last had it when I was 17--but it got lost somehow during a move.

I have scoured Amazon, Halfdotcom, and ebay, to no avail for the past three or so months. Please, my friends...please, someone here must have this book--or know the title.

I must have this book--as I want to share it with my son when he is born, just as mine shared it with me.

Thank you all for your time.

[Joel]

Is it this book?

The animal on the cover is not a Styracosaurus, but it does match the color description, along with every thing else you described (I know because I still have this book)

You should be able to find it on Amazon.com without too much trouble.

Good luck!

PS, the author, David Peters, did a very similar book just before that one:

I have that one as well, and it's also very fascinating.

[DaNuGy]

 A thousand thank-you's, Joel!

I just found a copy on Half.com, and it is on it's way!

Thank you again!!!

[Joel]

No problem, I'm glad I could help. 

[Gwangi]

You can download both those books for free on the authors web site.
http://davidpetersstudio.com/books.htm