The New Dinosaurs: An Alternative Evolution

By Dougal Dixon

Book Overview

The New Dinosaurs: An Alternative Evolution, 1988, by Dougal Dixon and with a forward by Desmond Morris. Illustrated hardcover book with dust jacket, 120 pages, published by Salem House Publishing. This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0881623016
• ISBN13: 9780881623017
• Release Date: January 1988
• Publisher: Salem House Publishers
• Length: 50 Pages
• Weight: 2.03 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 9.8" x 11.0"

Customer Reviews

The New Dinosaur review

An excellent read, I would consider buying this if you liked "The World of Kong: A natural history of skull island". A great view on the life of dinosaur had they not become extinct.

What If the Dinosaurs Never Went Extinct?

I absolutely love this book. I have a well-read, well-loved copy that I've owned since my parents bought it for me back when I was seven or eight years old, and I wouldn't trade it for the world. In this book, Dougal Dixon (known for his alternate evolution scenarios like 'After Man: A Zoology of the Future' and 'The Future is Wild') posits a world where the dinosaurs never died out. He opens up with a nice introduction to dinosaurs and mass extinctions, and then goes on to give charts detailing his alternate evolution, information on continental drift, different biomes and regions of the earth, and how lifeforms adapt to everything from tropical rainforests to open deserts and grasslands to the seas. Then we get into the REAL meat of the book. Arranged by region, we get to see richly illustrated creatures that might have evolved, had the dinosaurs not vanished 65 million years ago. We are introduced to ground dwelling pterosaurs on the African savannah, sleek theropods that stalk the great herds of hadrosaurs on the North American plain, armored ankylosaurs on the Asian steppe, giant ammonites and the pleisosaurs that adapted to eat them, and armless, scavenging descendants of the tyrannosaur in Patagonia. These, and the countless other fascinating, yet believable, creatures all show parallels to contemporary animals like pandas, flamingos, whales, jerboas, pelicans, woodpeckers, and so forth. And, not all dinosaurs survived Dixon's either. He mentions the last stegosaurs as dying out on the Indian subcontinent 2 million years ago, for instance. Creationists and other such types will probably find the whole concept a bit objectionable, but those of us who accept evolution can look at this book as a fascinating read, an alternate look at the potential creatures that may have evolved were the dinosaurs with us today. Its really sci-fi in the strictest sense of the word, and a fun read to boot, so I definately recommend getting your hands on a copy when (if) you can find it.

A delightful saurian romp

What would have happened if the K-T had never happened? What if the dinosaurs and their relatives had continued their succesful lineage and continued to gradually evolve? Renowned paleontologist Dougal Dixon delves headfirst into this interesting topic. We start our tour with a brief history on the different theories of the extinction of the dinosaurs. We then move into the present-day dinosaurs. We start in the steamy jungles of Africa, where we see "arbrosaurs" (tree-climbing dinosaurs) eating insects and wasps in the canopy. We then see bizarre giraffe-like creatures on what would be the African Savannah, descended from pterosaurs. In the desert, there are "sandles" a subterrenian predator, and Wyrms, which kill and eat small mammals. We move up to North America, in which we see "gestalts" a social dinosaur, with a queen, soldiers, and workers. We see agile brickets (descended from hadrosaurs) and the zwims, aquatic mammals. We move into the tundra, where giant flightless birds (trombles) migrate to breed. Smaller birds (whiffles) follow in their wake. In the colder deserts, we see ankylosaur descendants, adapted for colder weather. In the grasslands, we see gazelle-like sprintosaurs and the raptor-like northclaws. Dinosaurs have even colonized the mountains, like the herbivorus balacvlavs, and their predators, the mountain leapers. In South America, we see manatee-like watergulps and scaly gliders in the rainforests. On the pampas, heavily armoured turtosaurs roam, sharing their food with the larger lumbers. In Asia, we see panda-like Taddeys, and Numbskulls (their real name!) on the steppes of the Asian highlands. In Australia, things get really bizarre. We see flamingo-like dinosaurs (cribrums) and dingums, poisonous dinosaurs. In the trees, we see tubbs, a saurian equivalant of the koala. On the offshore islands, we see Seussian wandles, and Kloons, flightless pterasaurs. On the beaches, coconut grabs, amphibious ammonites (much like the swampus of The Future is Wild) and Shorerunners, small flightless pterasaurs which are their predators. There are more creatures, but I won't reveal them all. Get the book and find out about them for yourself!

Fascinating

I have found this book to be fascinating since I first got hold of it as a child. I have always had a fascination with dinosaurs (I'm in college now and majoring in paleontology), so of course I was always plague by the question "What if they hadn't died out?" Dixon answers this question very creatively and to my complete satisfaction. Some of the other reviews on this book claim that many of Dixon's creations are implausible. Well, look around. I see a lot of equally implausible animals roaming the earth today. Have you ever taken a good look at a camel? An anteater? A duckbilled platypus? A porcupine? Think about it. If we hadn't seen them with our own eyes, wouldn't they seem pretty "out there," too? Or some extinct creatures. Anyone with any real knowledge about this subject can tell you that there are some pretty strange creatures represented in the fossil record. To those people who complain about implausibility, all I have to say is this: Go find yourself a nice illustrated book about the Burgess Shale fossils. I recommend "Wonderful Life" by Steven Jay Gould. Spend some time reading up on weird and wonderful critters like Opabinia, Marella, Sidneyia, Aysheaia, Anomalocaris, and Hallucigenia. Then let's hear your views on implausibility.Dixon has a wonderful imagination, his descriptions are good, he is obviously knowledgeable about the workings of evolution. I find each and every one of his unique critters to be entirely plausible. In fact, every time I read his book, I have this urge to go on some sort of safari to see all those amazing creatures. I will spend the rest of my life regretting that I will never be able to see any of Dixon's wonderful animals except on the pages of his book.

Another Fantastic Alternative History

In the tradition of AFTER MAN, this book (which I was lucky enough to discover at a used book shop in San Diego) looks at today- if the dinosaurs had not become extinct. Following evolutionary patterns sometimes not unlike those in AFTER MAN, the book is lavishly illustrated in its depiction of an ecology that has accomodated dinosaur forms in a variety of mammalian, avian and other guises- great for any dinosaur fan, great coffee table book, and one of the most unique dinosaur books I've ever read.