Paleontology: An Illustrated History

Great book for information about dinosaurs.

Got this for my 16 year old son who has a high interest in the world of paleontology. In today’s electronic age a hardcover book is an unusual experience. But he dug right into the book and came away very impressed and excited with all of the knowledge he gained by reading it. He was especially pleased with all of the pictures and illustrations!

We got this for our 15 year old nephew for Christmas. He spent the entire evening Christmas Eve reading it! It was a hit!!!

Beautifully illustrated, engaging text. Highly recommend.

Good book, has some interesting facts, and history about paleontology. Recommend reading.

Great gift for the paleontology needs in our life!

As a paleontology hobbyist who also likes the history of Science, I can recommend a new book “Paleontology An Illustrated History.” The author David Bainbridge is a science writer, reproductive biologist, and verternary anatomist at the University of Cambridge. He has published several books, but this is the first on paleontology. There are four chapters, each of which is divided into four subtopics. The topics are generally in chronological order of the discovery, as opposed to the time the fossil organism lived. Most of the subtopics are “special topics”, i.e. they concentrate on something specific, e.g. Marsh and Cope, Mary Anning, Luis Leaky, Lyuba the baby mammoth. etc. The “history” starts in ancient Greece, when were interpreted as remains of mythological beasts. It was not until the late 1600s that fossils were recognized as being the remains of past life. Paleontology as a science did not start until the early 19th Century. Some argue it reached its zenith in the second half of the 19th Century after dinosaurs were discovered in the American West. The last chapter of the book covers the modern era from 1980 to 2020, when paleontology started to become a high-tech, information-rich endeavor, using analytical chemistry, CT-scanning, cladistics, etc.. As the title suggests, this is a very illustration-heavy book. I would call this a “coffee table book”, except that it is not particularly large (7 X 9.5 inches). There is about 4-5 pages of text per topic, but most of the information is in the captions of the illustrations. The illustrations are equally divided between scientific diagrams from the published literature (which I greatly appreciate), photographs of fossils, photographs of famous paleontologists at work, and restorations depicting the living organism. After following paleontology as a hobby for decades, I have seen some of the illustrations before, but I would say at least half are new to me. Which is a good thing.

A perfect book for everyone, who dreams of traveling back and forth in Time on our beautiful little planet, exploring the wonder of life!

THE WAY FOSSILS ARE FORMED COULD BE EXPLAINED TO COMPLETE THE PICTURE

Bien empaquetado. Libro en perfectas condiciones

Excellent livre avec beaucoup d’informations pertinentes et intéressantes et de plus très abondamment illustré.Recommandé pour toutes personnes qui s’intéresse à l’évolution de la vie sur terre.

I've read man paleontolgy books since 42 years. I could learn some new hings in this book and appreciated the illustrations.

Bought this for my son for Christmas, he absolutely loved it.