Did Comets Kill the Dinosaurs? (Isaac Asimov's Library of the Universe)

Isaac Asimov

ISBN 10: 1555323227 ISBN 13: 9781555323226

Publisher: Gareth Stevens Publishing, 1988

Synopsis

Examines the mass extinction of dinosaurs and offers a possible explanation of the causes.

About this title

From School Library Journal

Grade 3-5 In tackling the question of the dinosaurs' demise, Asimov provides good, basic explanations of how aster oids, comets, meteor showers, and ``Nemesis'' (the dark star) could have played a role in their disappearance. Other information is less useful, and sometimes superfluousa box describ ing the discovery of the coelacanth has only a vague tie-in to the subject. The large print and colorful illustrations make this book more accessible to younger readers than Bates and Si mon's The Dinosaurs and the Dark Star (Macmillan, 1985), although Asimov's book is less informative overall. Asi mov sticks to facts, whereas Bates and Simon's narrative provides more of the reasoning behind the statistics. Unfor tunately, neither book gives little more than passing mention of other theories of dinosaur extinction. Children may well conclude from Asimov's book that the comet theory is the best, or perhaps the only, explanation of the dinosaurs' disappearance. As dinosaur extinction is one of the most heated scientific de bate topics today, students would be better served by Peter and Connie Roop's Dinosaurs (Greenhaven Pr, 1988), which presents explanations of a much wider range of theories of dino saur extinction. Cathryn A. Camper, Minneapolis Public Library
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Gareth Stevens Publishing
• Publication date: 1988
• ISBN 10: 1555323227
• ISBN 13: 9781555323226
• Binding: Library Binding
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 32