Dinosaurs: How They Lived and Evolved

Authors Darren Naish and Paul Barrett deserve the highest praise for producing such a well researched, comprehensive, very readable, helpfully illustrated and all round accessible work as this certainly is. The well known saying, 'good wine needs no bush', is very appropriate here. Some works, which have a whole string of famous people recommending them, fall flat on their face when compared with this wonderful book, which has no such recommendations. This work takes the reader step by step through the world of dinosaurs, which are still with us today in the form of birds. The book is divided into six sections. 1: History, origins and the dinosaurs' world. 2: The Dinosaur Family Tree. 3: Anatomy. 4: Biology, Ecology and Behaviour. 5: The Origin of Birds. 5: The Great Extinction and Beyond. There's glossary, a further information section, an index and credits. The authors entirely avoid the disrupting error of including irrelevant personal details about themselves, an annoyance that imposes an unnecessary distraction on the reader. Another helpful thing about this work is that it's the best companion ever to other leading works about dinosaurs. It brings their information together along with the very latest discoveries. You can go to another relevant work and then relate it to the information in this book plus accessing the best recommended websites and so on. For those of us who still prefer owning real books this one is of immense value. In it the reader will get to know dinosaurs in the most fascinating, wonderful way possible.

This is a very informative and really good book from the Natural History Museum

Bought this for my boyfriend for Christmas and wow!! I could not have bought a better present! Because it is such a recent book, there is more up to date information about dinosaurs that we have discovered. He has told me that this book completely differs to all other dinosaur books because it explains how dinosaurs were the same but also how each species were different which is (apparently) a really hard find. The art work is spectacular too. He also said if he had a friend who was interested in dinosaurs, he would 100% recommended this book. It is literally the best present I have ever bought!

I did not dislike anything about the book.

Got it for my 12 year old who loves prehistoric life And has a higher than average reading age. He has outgrown most of the kids dinosaur books and then there is a gap so we have trouble finding books that aren’t intellectual enough but not universit text books. I thought this book might bridge it, but it is a little advanced for him. My husband however, found it fascinating, and he is not known to be a dinosaur fan. I think my son may grow into it in a few years.best for maybe 15+.

Clearly an author that knows his stuff, this book had lots of up to date and quite adult type information in it like the terriffic family trees for the different species. Good content about the feathered discoveries. Would recommend to a nerdy dino fan but not for young children.

a very interesting guide into the pre history a large number of different views on dino types. They explore ideas of certain dinosaurs found being either juveniles or different species.

The information and the related Illustrations are perfect. You don't have to read the book from page one tot the last, but you can pick out a subject. That will guide you to what you need to know and lead you to one or another chapter. I discovered this book thanks to Amazon who always send updates about your interests.

Che dire, il libro fa quello che deve, ossia spiegare i donasuri. Scritto in un inglese abbastanza semplice da approcciare, ricco di illustrazioni. Consigliato.

Hervorragend, sympathisch und interessant geschrieben. Das Dinobuch mit den aktuellsten Forschungsstand, das mir bekannt ist. Sehr zu empfehlen für alle, die sich für Dinosaurier interessieren.

As you may remember, Gardom/Milner's "The Natural History Museum Book of Dinosaurs" WAS my favorite serious dino book ( amazon.com/review/R2URWS93D4PO4C/ref=cm_cr_srp_d_rdp_perm?ie=UTF8 ). However, Naish/Barrett's "Dinosaurs: How They Lived and Evolved" (henceforth DH) is my NEW favorite. Thus, DH is now my go-to natural history of dinos. There are 2 main reasons for why that is: 1) DH is very comprehensive; This is especially apparent in Chapters 5-6 (which not only cover "the origin of birds" like Chapter 10 of Gardom/Milner's book, but also birds "beyond the Cretaceous"); 2) DH is very well-illustrated; In addition to Sibbick (who illustrated Gardom/Milner's book), DH is illustrated by Bonadonna, Conway, Csotonyi, Knüppe, Nicholls, Willoughby, & Witton. My only nit-picks are the cover art (which, while not the worst, neither reflects the interior art nor compares to the cover art of Gardom/Milner's book) & the lack of emphasis on the museum website (although the museum logo should be enough to show readers where to go for more info). Otherwise, these 2 books are very similar (E.g. Compare the quotes at the end of this review). 1 more thing of note: Contra what Publishers Weekly says, the "chapter on dinosaur cladistics" is 1 of the highlights of DH; Each section reads like a mini-story of how that sub-group evolved. "For 160 million years, dinosaurs were the most successful and diverse creatures to dominate the Earth. This book is based on the world-famous fossil collections and permanent “Dinosaurs” exhibition at London’s Natural History Museum. Written by two experts from one of the world’s leading Paleontology departments, this book features hundreds of color photos and illustrations that reveal the astonishing variety of life that proliferated in the Mesozoic Era—the Age of Dinosaurs. Tim Gardom has researched several major exhibitions, including The Natural History Museum’s acclaimed “Dinosaurs.” Angela Milner is Head of Fossil Vertebrates at The Natural History Museum" ( amazon.com/Natural-History-Museum-Book-Dinosaurs/dp/184442183X ). "From the Victorian golden age of dinosaur discovery to the cutting edge of twenty-first century fossil forensics 'Dinosaurs' unravels the mysteries of the most spectacular group of animals our planet has ever seen. Despite facing drastic climatic conditions including violent volcanic activity, searing temperatures and rising and plunging sea levels, the dinosaurs formed an evolutionary dynasty that ruled the Earth for more than 150 million years. Darren Naish and Paul Barrett reveal the latest scientific findings about dinosaur anatomy, behaviour, and evolution. They also demonstrate how dinosaurs survived the great extinction at the end of the Cretaceous Period and continued to evolve and thrive alongside us, existing today as an incredibly diverse array of birds that are the direct descendants of theropods. 'Dinosaurs' is lavishly illustrated with specimens from the Natural History Museum's own collections, along with explanatory diagrams and charts and full-colour artistic reconstructions of dinosaur behaviour" ( amazon.co.uk/Dinosaurs-They-Lived-Evolved-2016/dp/0565093118 )

Very good book- a more robust cover would have been better

I bought this book for my husband as a gift and he is enjoying it very much. More than meets his expectations -- well written, informative, and engaging. Beautifully illustrated with photos of specimens from the Natural History Museum in London, England. My husband, an amateur enthusiast for geology and palaeontology, had the delight to meet one of the authors, Darren Naish, on a 2016 geological tour in the UK, making the book a double pleasure to read.