Smithsonian Dinosaurs And Other Amazing Creatures From Deep Time

"A fun, pocket-sized book presenting the remarkable dinosaurs and other creatures that roamed Earth billions of years ago"--

A fun, pocket-sized book presenting the remarkable dinosaurs and other creatures that roamed Earth billions of years ago Smithsonian Dinosaurs and Other Amazing Creatures from Deep Time traces the journey of life on Earth from its origins some 4.6 billion years ago. Beginning with the first evidence of life in the form of single-celled microbes, it moves through the Cambrian era's explosion of biodiversity around 540 million years ago through the mass extinction event 252 million years ago that cleared the stage for the first turtles, pterosaurs, and other dinosaurs and mammals of the Triassic era. It offers a rare look at some of the world's most fascinating creatures: from sauropods, the largest creatures to ever walk the land, to the top carnivorous predator Tyrannosaurus rex, as well as the mastodons, saber-toothed cats, dire wolves, walrus-whales, and other beasts that seem outlandish to us now. Profiling these and many other fascinating creatures throughout prehistory, the book is sure to delight young dinosaur enthusiasts.

A fun introduction to prehistoric creatures that are not dinosaurs, and why! Everyone knows what a dinosaur is, right? Well, maybe not. Dinosaurs are actually just one type of extinct animal from prehistoric times. So, what sets them apart? Here, readers are introduced to ten prehistoric animals. Each one looks like a dinosaur. But it’s missing at least one key characteristic of all true dinosaurs. Animal by animal, each of those characteristics is added to a growing list, until, by the end of the book, readers know just what makes a dinosaur a dinosaur! A dinosaur by any other name is . . . not a dinosaur, of course!

A look at the history of life on Earth starts in the present and goes back hundreds of millions of years to the Ediacaran Period, profiling the creatures that existed at each time.

Brings the extraordinary animals of prehistory to life, using the latest in digital technology. Take a journey through the Triassic, Jurassic, and Cretaceous worlds to discover giant predatory reptiles lurking in the seas, pterosaurs the size of small planes soaring through the skies, and colossal dinosaurs striding over the land. Meet the monstrous mammals that cam next, such as the saber-toothed Smilodon and the wooly mammoth. Computer-generated imagery reveals the scales, spikes, teeth, and talons of these curious creatures.

A Hudson Booksellers Staff Pick for the Best Books of 2013 One of Publishers Weekly's Top Ten Spring Science Books A Bookshop Santa Cruz Staff Pick Dinosaurs, with their awe-inspiring size, terrifying claws and teeth, and otherworldly abilities, occupy a sacred place in our childhoods. They loom over museum halls, thunder through movies, and are a fundamental part of our collective imagination. In My Beloved Brontosaurus, the dinosaur fanatic Brian Switek enriches the childlike sense of wonder these amazing creatures instill in us. Investigating the latest discoveries in paleontology, he breathes new life into old bones. Switek reunites us with these mysterious creatures as he visits desolate excavation sites and hallowed museum vaults, exploring everything from the sex life of Apatosaurus and T. rex's feather-laden body to just why dinosaurs vanished. (And of course, on his journey, he celebrates the book's titular hero, "Brontosaurus"—who suffered a second extinction when we learned he never existed at all—as a symbol of scientific progress.) With infectious enthusiasm, Switek questions what we've long held to be true about these beasts, weaving in stories from his obsession with dinosaurs, which started when he was just knee-high to a Stegosaurus. Endearing, surprising, and essential to our understanding of our own evolution and our place on Earth, My Beloved Brontosaurus is a book that dinosaur fans and anyone interested in scientific progress will cherish for years to come.

"Provides information and step-by-step drawing instructions for 30 dinosaurs"--Provided by publisher.

Here is the first complete portrait of the legendary flying dragons of deep time - the pterosaurs - designed for non-specialists, yet founded on the real science of these bizarre creatures. Presented lucidly and accessibly by one of the world s leading experts, David Unwin s book is built on a mountain of new fossil discoveries and the latest research. Packed with 95 color and 30 black and white illustrations - including 10 full-page original color paintings that are scientific recreations of different pterosaur species - The Pterosaurs From Deep Time takes readers on an wondrous expedition back through the lost world of the Earth s deep past.