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Product Description
This reference work is the second supplement to Dinosaurs: The Encyclopedia (a 1998 American Library Association Outstanding Reference Book) and follows the intent and format of the encyclopedia and first supplement. In speaking of that first supplement-"superb...the scope in phenomenal"-ARBA referred to the basic volume as "a reference legend...lavishly illustrated, cleverly written, and extraordinarily comprehensive." This continuation of what is now the standard encyclopedia provides up-to-date concepts and evidence of dinosaur paleobiology and evolution. Various competing positions are well presented and exhaustively referenced. The content is based on the latest original research of paleontologists, especially in dinosaur systematics, and genera, and covers such topics as the constant changes in technology and research methods, the Mesozoic Era in general, new theoretical ideas, the dinosaur-bird debate, dinosaur extinctions, and nomen nudum and excluded genera.
Amazon.com Review
If you think the title Dinosaurs: the Encyclopedia has a movie-sequel ring, you're only partly mistaken; editor Donald F. Glut has already authored The Dinosaur Dictionary and The Complete Dinosaur Dictionary. But you'll find no T. rex running amok here; this is a dense and rigorously scientific tome meant for only the most dedicated dinosaur lover. Part 1 contains an excellent background history of scientific findings in this rapidly changing field. (Also here is a wonderful, paragraph-long sentence detailing possible causes of the dinosaurs' demise, including "brains too small" and "inability to mate, sexual frustration, suicide.") Once into the alphabetical listings, however, it's easy for the layman to get lost. If the description "articular facets of prezygapophyses much enlarged in anterior caudals" makes your eyes cross, perhaps this is not the reference for you. But if your amateur paleontologist shows signs of getting serious, you won't get much more detailed, thorough, or reliable information than that contained here. And there's always the glossary in back, wherein you'll find words such as "ginglymus" and "astragalus" defined in everyday English.
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