Before The Dinosaurs

Explores the Earth prior to dinosaurs and examines the creatures that lived here.

"This dynamic series takes readers into the thrilling and frightening world of prehistoric Earth. This volume, focused on the time period before dinosaurs lived, is filled with lush, vivid illustrations that portray the ocean life and the gigantic insects that roamed the earth at that time, accompanied by a lively and informative narrative. Special features include timelines, labeled illustrations, and scaled illustrations."

Detailed, ready-to-color illustrations of Nothosaur, Titanosuchus, Oligokyphus and 42 other formidable creatures that predated dinosaurs. All portrayed in realistic habitats and identified by fact-filled captions.

Eight-year-old Jack and his younger sister Annie find a magic treehouse, which whisks them back to an ancient time zone where they see live dinosaurs.

For most of us, the story of mammal evolution starts after the asteroid impact that killed the dinosaurs, but over the last 20 years scientists have uncovered new fossils and used new technologies that have upended this story. In Beasts Before Us, palaeontologist Elsa Panciroli charts the emergence of the mammal lineage, Synapsida, beginning at their murky split from the reptiles in the Carboniferous period, over three-hundred million years ago. They made the world theirs long before the rise of dinosaurs. Travelling forward into the Permian and then Triassic periods, we learn how our ancient mammal ancestors evolved from large hairy beasts with accelerating metabolisms to exploit miniaturisation, which was key to unlocking the traits that define mammals as we now know them. Elsa criss-crosses the globe to explore the sites where discoveries are being made and meet the people who make them. In Scotland, she traverses the desert dunes of prehistoric Moray, where quarry workers unearthed the footprints of Permian creatures from before the time of dinosaurs. In South Africa, she introduces us to animals, once called 'mammal-like reptiles', that gave scientists the first hints that our furry kin evolved from a lineage of egg-laying burrowers. In China, new, complete fossilised skeletons reveal mammals that were gliders, shovel-pawed Jurassic moles, and flat-tailed swimmers. This book radically reframes the narrative of our mammalian ancestors and provides a counterpoint to the stereotypes of mighty dinosaur overlords and cowering little mammals. It turns out the earliest mammals weren't just precursors, they were pioneers.

Every Christmas Eve, the dinosaur fossils in the museum come to life to sing, dance, eat gingerbread, and celebrate.

Dinosaur! is the perfect book for children who love dinosaurs, with spectacular pictures and fun facts on every dinosaur from T. rex to Triceratops. Packed with the most realistic dinosaur images ever published in a children's book, this lavishly illustrated, fact-filled dinosaur encyclopedia brings the lost world of Velociraptor, Stegosaurus, and other prehistoric monsters back to life as never seen before.

Based on more than a decade's research in South Africa's Karoo Desert, this remarkable journey of discovery and real-life adventure deep into Earth's history is offered by a renowned scientist. Photo insert.