Readers discover incredible dinosaurs and lush landscapes in this vibrant book. They experience the flourishing natural environments of the Lower Jurassic period including green jungles and vast oceans. Cutting-edge artwork brings new depth and detail to renderings of the most amazing creatures of the Lower Jurassic. Readers are introduced to fierce hunters, such as Lophostropheus, flying pterosaurs, and many more remarkable reptiles. They even see how these creatures would look next to humans with the help of a detailed scale.
Readers discover incredible dinosaurs and lush landscapes in this vibrant book. They experience the flourishing natural environments of the Lower Jurassic period including green jungles and vast oceans. Cutting-edge artwork brings new depth and detail to renderings of the most amazing creatures of the Lower Jurassic. Readers are introduced to fierce hunters, such as Lophostropheus, flying pterosaurs, and many more remarkable reptiles. They even see how these creatures would look next to humans with the help of a detailed scale.
Readers get a detailed look at the landscapes and creatures of the Lower Cretaceous period and the dramatic changes of life on Earth during that time. They explore the incredibly varied environments of this period including the Asian river plains and African watering holes. Along the way, readers also discover early mammals, amazing reptiles, and some of the strangest dinosaurs to ever roam the planet, including huge raptors and the feathered Beipiaosaurus. Through the use of colorful, cutting-edge artwork and helpful scale renderings, the fascinating facts in this book are brought to life in a vibrant, captivating way.
The dinosaurs of the Upper Jurassic were larger than ever before, including the first birds and incredible sea creatures. The most amazing dinosaurs and reptiles of this period are also revealed to readers, uncovering fascinating facts about the history along the way. Readers come face-to-face with the most ferocious predator of its time, Allosaurus, as well as other feared hunters and huge herbivores. Using cutting-edge technology and helpful scale renderings, the impressive artwork in this book takes readers into the prehistoric world in a fresh, captivating way.
The Middle Jurassic period was one of change in both the natural landscape and the forms of life roaming Earth. Readers take a close look at the diverse environments of this period including African forests and European coastlines. They also learn about the amazing creatures that inhabited these varied places, including the most unique dinosaurs to ever exist. Colorful, cutting-edge artwork allows readers to see incredible features of these dinosaurs in astounding detail, including feathers, spikes, and very sharp teeth.
The Upper Cretaceous period ushered in a time of incredible change on Earth. The end of this period saw a mass extinction event that destroyed all of the dinosaurs, but the years before that event featured more species of life on Earth than ever before. In this book, readers discover the incredible dinosaurs and other creatures that lived during this time, including the massive carnivore, Spinosaurus. They also explore the lush landscapes of the Upper Cretaceous including the Horseshoe Canyon of North America and African shorelines. Cutting-edge, computer-generated renderings of these creatures and environments make the prehistoric world intriguing and accessible to all readers.
The Upper Triassic period is when dinosaurs first began to roam Earth. Readers explore the world of the first dinosaurs in this book. They learn about giant sea creatures, such as Cymbospondylus, which could grow to become over 30 feet long and incredible reptiles from environments as diverse as forests, riverbanks, and jungles. Computer-generated renderings of these incredible creatures bring them to life in a new and exciting way for readers. A scale shows how these reptiles measure up next to modern humans.
Geared toward a broad variety of students, Dinosaurs: The Textbook offers a concise and lucid presentation of the core biological and geological concepts of dinosaur science. Revised throughout to reflect recent fossil discoveries and the current scientific consensus, this seventh edition details the evolution, phylogeny, and classification of various dinosaur species while modeling the best approach for navigating new and existing research. Spencer G. Lucas takes readers through the major taxonomic groups, including theropods, sauropodomorphs, ornithopods, ceratopsians, pachycephalosaurs, stegosaurs, and ankylosaurs. He also examines the behavior and extinction of the dinosaurs, their biological relationship to birds, and their representation (or misrepresentation) in art, literature, film, and other forms of popular culture. This seventh edition of the leading text for introductory courses on dinosaurs incorporates comprehensive updates based on the latest research. Lucas highlights how dinosaur science is rapidly evolving, exploring how new discoveries, methods, and ideas are expanding the frontiers of knowledge. The book features cutting-edge and scientifically rigorous illustrations by leading paleoartists. It also includes extensive and reader-friendly end-of-chapter summary tools, review questions, a detailed glossary, a dinosaur dictionary, and a comprehensive index.
How did flying birds evolve from running dinosaurs, terrestrial trotting tetrapods evolve from swimming fish, and whales return to swim in the sea? These are some of the great transformations in the 500-million-year history of vertebrate life. And with the aid of new techniques and approaches across a range of fields—work spanning multiple levels of biological organization from DNA sequences to organs and the physiology and ecology of whole organisms—we are now beginning to unravel the confounding evolutionary mysteries contained in the structure, genes, and fossil record of every living species. This book gathers a diverse team of renowned scientists to capture the excitement of these new discoveries in a collection that is both accessible to students and an important contribution to the future of its field. Marshaling a range of disciplines—from paleobiology to phylogenetics, developmental biology, ecology, and evolutionary biology—the contributors attack particular transformations in the head and neck, trunk, appendages such as fins and limbs, and the whole body, as well as offer synthetic perspectives. Illustrated throughout, Great Transformations in Vertebrate Evolution not only reveals the true origins of whales with legs, fish with elbows, wrists, and necks, and feathered dinosaurs, but also the relevance to our lives today of these extraordinary narratives of change.
What were the dinosaurs? What was the world like in which they lived? What ended their 150-million-year reign? What if they had survived? The World of Dinosaurs Revealed A collaboration to excite the mind and dazzle the eye, probing such mysteries as: • Where the first dinosaurs appeared and how they evolved • How the giant sauropods lived and reared their young • Hunting strategies among the predators • Migratory habits and family life of the dinosaurs • Possible causes of extinction and much more... An extraordinary new look at the prehistoric life of the dinosaurs by some of the world’s foremost paleontologists, dinosaur illustrators, and visionary authors. This unique collaboration produces a spectacular tour of the world of the dinosaurs with vivid pictures, fascinating new ideas and thought-provoking tales by a dozen respected dreamers.
