A Great Book of Prehistory by Špinar & Burian

[Sinornis]

A read a post not long ago on this forum that mentioned the book; A Great Book of Prehistory by Špinar & Burian. It was not only recommended for Burian's dinosaur and ice age paleoart (a personal favorite of mine), but also for his landscape paintings. That's what had me purchase this book right away, and I was not disappointed!

As I was sitting down with the book the other morning, I noticed one page in the book that sort of looked familiar. No, it wasn't the famous Burian Archaeopteryx and Compsagnathus depiction, but an image of a ocean scene with ammonites and orthoceras squids on it. I walked into my bathroom a little while later to shave, looked down at the granite countertop and said; what an idiot, there's Burian's ocean image!

Embarrassingly, I don't know a lot about this fossil slab that was installed thirteen years ago, but I did find a bit of online info that may be useful.

ORTHOCERAS ARE A SPECIES OF EXTINCT SQUID TYPE CREATURES THAT WERE MEMBERS OF A GROUP CALLED ORTHOCONE NATILOIDS. THE ORTHOCERAS HAVE STRAIGHT SHELLS RATHER THAN THE COILED AMMONITES. WHEN THEY DIED, THE CURRENTS LINED UP THE SHELLS IN ROWS WHICH SHOW UP IN THESE FOSSIL DISPLAYS . THESE ORTHOCERAS FOSSIL SQUID STANDS ARE FROM SOUTH EAST MOROCCO AND ARE IN BLACK LIMESTONE. ORTHOCERAS ARE FROM THE DEVONIAN PERIOD AND ARE APPROXIMATELY 400 MILLION YEARS OLD.

If someone has additional information on this granite slab, I would really appreciate it.   

http://avianmusing.blogspot.com/

[PlesiosaurusNessy]

The best would be, to ask "Halichoeres" here in the DTF forum, I think, he´s the greatest specialist here for ammonites,trilobites
a.s.o, please PM him...

Spinar and Burian, they published three great books about dinosaurs, prehistoy and early humans.
The authors came from Czechia and your book is written in czech,but there are existing copies in english
and german,too.
I am from Germany, and the dinosaur book "Leben in der Urzeit"(Spinar/Burian) was the first great scientific book,
I got as a child at the age 6 from my parents in 1974! I really love the books from Spinar/Burian!
A lot of collectors here in the forum know or own this book or the others of Spinar/Burian.
For a long time they were the most famous authors for dinosaur books here in Germany and northern Europe!

The fossil bathroom table is absolute wonderful! My parents own exactly nearly the same fossil table
with the same orthoceras fossils, it is a fantastic thing and the table is standing in the living room!
My parents got their table from a design house in southern Germany and the fossil table came from
Solnhofen, as far as I know, a very famous location in southern Germany, to find lot´s of orthoceras + ammonites!
I like very much the fossil table, my parents bought him in the beginning of the 1980´s, I think, but I am always admiring
this fantastic table til today, whenever I visit my parents and see it...

Thanks for sharing the interesting photos in your posting!

[RobinGoodfellow]

..I'm deeply in love with this book since my childhood:



In my language the title sounds like: "When the Man didn't exist" 

[Sinornis]

Thank you guys for the reply! Nice to see that others still appreciate, and cherish this book as much as I do! Thanks again!

[PlesiosaurusNessy]

@Sinornis: No problem at all! You´re very welcome!
@RobinGoodfellow: That´s a very interesting cover, I hadn´t known, that this famous book was translated in italian language,too.
                                Fantastic, that you have got yours in your childhood,too!

This book and/or all the books of Spinar/Burian are very much liked by a lot of dinosaur collectors in this forum!