The Complete Guide to Prehistoric Life

by Tim Haines and Paul Chambers

Book Overview

The most exciting view of prehistoric life. "Comprehensive, illustrated encyclopedia to prehistoric animals... lifelike detail... this easily readable book should appeal to dinosaur enthusiasts of all... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1554071259
• ISBN13: 9781554071258
• Release Date: February 2006
• Publisher: Firefly Books
• Length: 216 Pages
• Weight: 2.55 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 8.8" x 11.1"
• Age Range: 13 years and up
• Grade Range: Grade 8 and higher

Customer Reviews

Excellent stuff!!!!!!!!!!!

This book has it all. Best of all it's made for the layman without all that heavy duty dry and boring science jargon. In this book. You will get a very general overview of the history of prehistoric life Some things you will explore 1) Sea arthropods of the early post Cambrian era. Monster sea scorpions bigger than humans. 2) Massive predatory fish of the Devonian era. Fish who ate Sharks!!!!!!!!!!! 3) World of man sized insects of the carboniferous era. 4) Forgotten world of terrifying Desert reptiles like the famous Gorgonops of the late permian era. Thank god there extinct. 5) Cretaceous period- world of killer and even bigger killers. Humans would of been at the bottom of the food chain. 6) Pleistocene era- Home to the most terrifying mammals of all time like the Hyaenodon and the Pig from Hell the entelodon. To the more more famous Saber cats and Cave bears and Mammoths. This book will spark your imagination and ignite your appreciation of the history of life. Great for KIDS and adults!!!!!!!!!

All about the book.

This is a great book. It features 111 of the animals from the BBC's famous "walking with" series. Unlike other books about prehistoric animals, it has realistic illustrations. The "walking with" series is about prehistoric life that lived millions of years ago. It has many episodes. My favorite is Walking With Prehistoric Beasts which is about life in the Cenozoic era. Though the book features most animals from the "walking with...." series it introduces a new specie called homo floresiensis. This human is not featured in any production of the walking with series. The contents of this book are divided into the rise of life, age of reptiles, age of beasts, timescale of the earth and tree of life. The rise of life lists the creatures of the Paleozoic era. The age of reptiles lists the creatures in the Mesozoic era. The age of beasts lists the creatures in the Cenozoic era. Each chapter has great illustrations. Most of the animals featured in the book are vertebrates. There were only nine invertebrates. Two of them are molluscs while the rest are arthropods. The illustrations in this book are so realistic that in an illustration of a homo sapien, I knew exactly what the clothes felt like. Everyone should get this book. It is a must for anyone who wants to collect books about prehistoric life.

The Book that Completes the Walking With... Series

After watching the Walking With... series and reading the books that correspond to the documentaries, this book sums it all up into one book. They take almost every animal from the series and gives them each a page or two about that certain animal. They even take animals from the Walking With... specials as well so those programs are important too since they cover animals that the original series do not. This book is a must-have if you are interested in prehistoric books and films. This is what the Walking With... people were trying to finally achieve and now they have. It is set up like a guide, hence the name, like a bird guide for example, only it is set for the prehistoric world. It completes the Walking With.. Series.

it's a good book

I am a freak when it comes to palentology and geology. I may only be in middle school but I know what I'm talking about. I'm in a gifted program. this was very interesting. if you like this type of stuff and want an easy to read book. this is for you. I would recomend this book to anyone even if you know nothing on the subject.

Re: Dinosaurs and much more

I bought this book after seeing the Walking with Monsters program on Discovery and have been much impressed with it. The book itself is an encyclopedia of prehistoric life but the authors seem to have taken care not to bias it too much towards the dinosaurs (a failing of other prehistoric guides). Instead they cover a range of animals from around 550 million years to the present day. The book is broekn into three sections which cover the three main time periods of life (Paleozoic and before, Mesozoic and Cenozoic) with a brief introduction and overview to each. Undoubtedly the great selling point are the computer generated pictures used to illustrate the book which are mostly very realistic but there's also a lot of text as well. Each animal has a one or two page biography that takes you from the basics (what did it eat, where did it live, etc.) through to more technical information about their evolutionry history. I am a fossil buff but there are quite a few creatures in here that are new to me or which I have not seen in other books. In all I would recommend this book to anybody who has a general interest in prehistoric life as it seems to combine a popular touch that will appeal to children with expert/new information that will appeal to more informed fossil fans.