Dinosaurs: The Encyclopedia, Supplement 4 (Dinosaurs: The Encyclopedia, 5) - Hardcover

Glut, Donald F.

9780786422951: Dinosaurs: The Encyclopedia, Supplement 4 (Dinosaurs: The Encyclopedia, 5)

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0786422955 ISBN 13: 9780786422951

Publisher: McFarland, 2006

Here is the fourth supplement to Dinosaurs: The Encyclopedia, a 1998 American Library Association Outstanding Reference Book (ARBA called it “a reference legend...lavishly illustrated, cleverly written, and extraordinarily comprehensive”). This volume updates the concepts discussed in the encyclopedia and its earlier supplements. It includes a discussion of the Mesozoic Era, covers recent discoveries in paleontology, and furthers the ectothermy/endothermy debate from previous installments. It also offers lengthy sections on dinosaurian schematics and genera and updates the encyclopedia’s list of excluded genera. Appendices discuss Pterosaurs and Mesozoic birds, and a glossary is included to aid students and scientists alike. The extensive bibliography lists the most recent peer-evaluated paleontology literature.

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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.

From the Inside Flap:

This reference work is the sixth supplement to Dinosaurs: The Encyclopedia (a 1998 American Library Association Outstanding Reference Book) and follows the intent and format of the encyclopedia and previous supplements. Among the many dramatic events discussed and updated are the discoveries of a basal titanosaur that may be the largest dinosaur yet found in China; the first large-bodied theropod from Pakistan; the largest Jurassic theropod tooth yet documented; and the first preserved integument and bonebed pertaining to the horned dinosaur Triceratops. This volume also includes lengthy sections on dinosaurian schematics and genera and updates the encyclopedia's list of excluded genera. One appendix provides a main-entry catalog of dinosaurian genera. Supplements do not repeat information from earlier volumes, but build upon them.

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