Paleo Book Thread

[sepp]

I thought it might be nice for a thread about paleontology books, for our own reference.
The idea is that if you have a book that you own, or have read, or know about, you can comment here with its title and author and the gist of what the book contains, also if you want if you send it to me, I can add it to this top post here

Of course if you would just like to discuss books in general that is fine too - or anything paleo book related, really.

Bear with me please, this is a WIP!
(a lot of the info I collected since I made this thread was lost during a berserk computer malfunction and salvation, so I apologize for not having a lot of info already.)


Textbooks:



Dinosaurs: A Concise Natural History, 2009
Written by David E. Fastovsky and David B. Weishampel
Illustrated by John Sibbick



Evolution of Tertiary Mammals of North America
Vol. I: Terrestrial Carnivores, Ungulates, and Ungulate-like Mammals, 2008
Edited by Christine M. Janis, Kathleen M. Scott, and Louis L. Jacobs
Vol II: Small Mammals, Xenarthrans, and Marine Mammals, 2008
Edited by Christine M. Janis, Gregg F. Gunnell, and Mark D. Uhen


Reference Books:



The Dinosaur Society Dinosaur Encyclopedia, 1993
Written by Don Lessem and Donald F. Glut
Illustrated by Gregory S. Paul, Tracy Ford, Brian Franczak, John Sibbick, and Ken Carpenter



Predatory Dinosaurs of the World, 1988
Written and Illustrated by Gregory S. Paul



The Dinosaur Heresies, 1986
Written and Illustrated by Robert T. Bakker



Taking Wing: Archaeopteryx and the Evolution of Bird Flight, 1998
Written by Paul Shipman



National Audubon Society: Field Guide to Fossils, 1982
Written by Ida Thompson





This is a WIP thread ;D I still have to write down what you will find in these books, and I still have several more books to add to this list. If you have a book you want to put on this list, comment!

[Radman]

Great idea for a thread, Sepp!

Here is my first (of hopefully many) contributions:



Dinomummy is a lovely little book, only 64 pages, with appeal to both kids and grownups. It tells the unique story of Dakota, a hadrosaur (Edmontosaurus), with plenty of nice CGI graphics, from life to death. Mummification includes soft tissues, and half the book is devoted to showing excavation and recovery methods, etc, while the other half shows what life would have been like 70 million years ago.

Sample page:


A nice book to encourage junior paleontologists, highly recommended for the young dino fan in your house.

Oh yes, BTW, the author is Dr. Phillip Manning of U. of Manchester, UK, and the discoverer is Tyler Lyson of South Dakota, who will likely get/have his PhD. soon.
I may retake these pictures later for better quality

[turtlewax]

Oct 30, 2010 14:54:07 GMT sepp said:

Reference Books:



The Dinosaur Society Dinosaur Encyclopedia, 1993
Written by Don Lessem and Donald F. Glut
Illustrated by Gregory S. Paul, Tracy Ford, Brian Franczak, John Sibbick, and Ken Carpenter

I just saw a video of someone online holding this book! I didn't know it was from 1993.

[foxilized]

This book is a delight to read: CHARLES KNIGHT, AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AN ARTIST.
Sadly, it focuses pretty little on the painting work itself, and it's more on the early years of Knight, the important persons he met and his travels and learnings. Still it's very interesting to understand better who the man was.
Funny think are his opinions on Spain, I think Knight was sorta poorly informed about who Francisco Franco was (he writes he was a sort of "savior of the people" when the bastard was actually a dictator, lol)
The book includes illustratios by Mark Schultz.




THE NEW DINOSAURS by William Stout
This is the remake of an original book published in 1981. Even though there are some huge inaccuracies, this book was very important because it was the very first time the hot-blooded theories of the Reinassance were presented to the non-scientific public.
The illustrations are true pieces of art wich trascend the genre. Inspired by Art Deco, you might even find the style is not that different from our dear resident artist Niroot.
This book served as direct reference to Crichton when writting "Jurassic Park".




Stout had a more modern book, made a couple of years ago, with actualized dinosaurs and accurate reconstructions, titled DINOSAUR DISCOVERIES.
It's a sort of little encyclopedie listing the most important species found in the recent years.



An alternate edition exist titled NEW DINOSAUR DISCOVERIES A TO Z. It's cheaper than the first version, and with less text and also less technical, but includes exactly the same illustrations.





THE ILLUSTRATED ENCYCLOPEDIA OF DINOSAURS by David Norman.
This was one of my first dinosaur books. It's dated 1985 and of course the reconstructions on it are highly outdated. Yet reading it today is very interesting because I think the pure info on it it's actually very good and it's only the interpretation of that info what is today considered "wrong". There are a lot of "maybes" and "what ifs" wich today have been discarded but as a good technical book, it's pretty clear what is a supposition and what is actual fact.
It's a very technical book, indeed, very serious and adult oriented.
The illustrations are epics by Sibbick. Yep, they are retro as the 80's can be, but those double paged paintings deserve to hang in a museum, no matter how inaccurate.

[Libraraptor]

A book question for the book thread: Is there a book that only treats Terror birds and / or their discovery?

[arioch]

Nov 6, 2010 21:53:25 GMT foxilized said:

I agree. The illustrations are just beautiful and elegant and have a very realistic look. Even today I take a look at it sometimes, no matter how wrong I know it is what I´m seeing. My favourite is the Euoplocephalus , which by the way still could be considered an accurate depiction. Also, this is one of the few old dinosaur books which doesnt seem at least partially aimed to kids.

The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Pterosaurs by Welnhofer , which is also filled with Sibbicks amazing art is a perfect complement to that book.

[deanm]

Jun 16, 2011 22:46:59 GMT arioch said:

Nov 6, 2010 21:53:25 GMT foxilized said:

The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Pterosaurs by Welnhofer , which is also filled with Sibbicks amazing art is a perfect complement to that book.

Was there ever an Illustrated Encyclopedia of Marine Reptiles? have both of the others and am just curious if they ever did the logical third volume?

[lyleblosser]

A recent (2010) book is Gregory Paul's "Princeton Field Guide to Dinosaurs". I like it both for the coverage of many dinosaur genera and species but also for Paul's wonderful imagery, both skeletal reconstructions as well as life restorations. And I especially appreciated his comments on things like coloration, skin and other "soft tissue" topics that help paleo-artists bring the creatures back to vivid life. While it doesn't cover every single species known today, it does cover a lot of 'em (over 700), and gives a good representation of the major groups.

[sonjecka]

Yesterday I found three books in the bookshop

original title: E. EXPLORE - DINOSAUR
2007. Page Count:96, HC
220x280



children book on big sale
have a good illustration
original title: Prehistoric Life, Page Count 31, HC
Nicholas Harris,Joanna Turner and Claire Aston,Orpheus Books Ltd.


Reading level: Teen/Adult
Page Count: 512 pages
Publisher: DK Publishing

[gwangi]

I love that Prehistoric Life book (despite some flaws), I made sure to buy one for myself the Christmas it came out. Also thanks to you guys I got a copy of that David Norman book you were all talking about, really takes you back!

[gwangi]

My first contribution.

Predatory Dinosaurs of the World: A Complete Illustrated Guide
Gregory Paul


I recently acquired this book for my birthday for only a couple bucks on Amazon and for the money spent it is probably the best deal I've gotten on a dinosaur book. Although over 20 years old a lot of the ideas Paul presents and things he discusses are quite modern. The book is written for the average educated citizen but still has a lot of info seasoned dinosaur enthusiasts can appreciate. I love how he constantly points out the similarity between birds and theropods whenever he can, he treats birds as he would any other dinosaur and he points out many skeletal similarities I wasn't even aware of. Of course being a Gregory Paul book he does taxonomic lumping which I find annoying and many of his theories regarding taxonomy are outdated (Deinonychus being a species of Velociraptor for example). Overall it is a fun and fairly easy read very similar IMO to the other great dinosaur book of it's day (Dinosaur Heresies). The artwork is of course fantastic and is filled with modern looking and even feathered dinosaurs. The first half discusses predatory dinosaurs in a general way while the second half is an encyclopedia of sorts. If you're a theropod fan this is a must own for a low price.