The Complete Dinosaur (Life of the Past)

"... a gift to serious dinosaur enthusiasts... a highly successful volume." -- Science

"The book is useful both as a reference and as a browse-and-enjoy compendium..." -- Natural History

"The amount of information in just 750 pages is amazing. This book should be on the shelves of dinosaur freaks as well as those who need to know more about the paleobiology of extinct animals. It will be an invaluable library reference." -- American Reference Books Annual

"An excellent encyclopedia that serves as a nice bridge between popular and scholarly dinosaur literature." -- Library Journal (starred review)

"... copiously illustrated and scrupulously up-to-date... the book reveals dinos through the fractious fields that make a study of them." -- Publishers Weekly

"... stimulating armchair company for cold winter evenings... Best of all, the book treats dinosaurs as intellectual fun." -- New Scientist

The single most authoritative account of dinosaur paleontology for the general public, all in one volume. Sumptuously illustrated, with up-to-the-minute information.

• More than 350 illustrations, including 16 pages in full color• Each chapter written by an expert in dinosaur studies• Includes the latest dinosaur discoveries• New information on the warm-blooded/cold-blooded debate• New insights on the possibility of isolating dinosaur DNA• What dinosaurs ate -- and how we know about it• Dinosaurs in the media• A time-line of the history of dinosaur science• And much, much more!

Although content will require some basic knowledge of biology (and you will find refresher material here as well--remember all your bones?), the chapters are for the most part always interesting, and some reflect the unquestionable enthusiasm of the authors. One particular chapter on the use of multimedia in cataloging and exchanging dinosaur data, while seemingly irrelevant to folks who just want to know the name of a dinosaur, spoke volumes of dedication and commitment to moving dinosaur finds from museum closets into scientists hands around the world. This level of enthusiasm does not diminish through the book, making what would otherwise be a very heavy read into something of a treat.

There are two or three other dinosaur books that may be as definitive as this one, however from paging through 'The Dinosauria' and 'The Dinosaur Encyclopedia', Farlow's books seemed the most approachable/accessible, while also not shorting the reader on content.

While this and the other dinosaur books mentioned might be a bit challenging at times for readers who don't have a background in biology, geology, paleontology, etc. (IE there is a lot of prior knowledge about evolutionary theory that the reader is assumed to possess), I would still not hestitate to recommend it to someone with a passion for Dinosaurs...which should be about everyone by now, right?


Recipe for Becoming a Scientist:   September 15, 1998
13 out of 13 found this review helpful

First, take one bright, enthusiastic person with an interst in paleontology. Second, add a dash of The Complete Dinosaur. Third, allow to sit for a week or two. Sounds almost too easy, doesn't it? Although most people are interested in the findings of science, science is usually viewed as too difficult for the average person to "do." This book starts with interesting, non-technical essays on subjects pertaining to dinosaurs, the history of their discovery, and how artists learn to restore them. Then it moves through how paleontologists work on things like anatomy, geology, and how dinosaurs are related to one another. By the end of the book, the reader is reading full-blown technical treatises, without realizing it. This engaging book is also sprinkled with amusing annecdotes (how many lawyers would it take to feed a T. rex?). The good nature of the editors, combined with the lively writing of the individual authors, makes the transition from interested layman to knowledgale amateur an easy one. Many paleontologists I work with have their own copy of this book as a reference. Highly recommended.


The Complete Dinosaur   October 24, 2002
Joe Zika (Cincinnati, Ohio)
10 out of 11 found this review helpful

The Complete Dinosaur edited by James O. Farlow and M.K. Brett-Surman is a comprehensive book about dinosaurs. There are many contributors that have written chapter for this book, so you get different writing styles and information is duplicated at times.

This book is divided into six parts and each has chapters written by the various contributors. The parts are as follows:
Part One: The Discovery of Dinosaurs
Part Two: The Study of Dinosaurs
Part Three: The Groups of Dinosaurs
Part Four: Biology of the Dinosaurs
Part Five: Dinosaur Evolution in the Changing World of the Meszoic Era
Part Six: Dinosaurs and the Media

What I found that was very interesting was that at the end of each chapter there was extensive references. So, if you find something that piques your interest you have something else to read about, to either clarify or strengthen your viewpoint. Also, this makes the book easy to use when dealing with technical material.

This book summarizes the current knowledge about dinosaurs at the time written (1997), and currently there are only eighty professional dinosaur paleotologists in the world. This book is written like professional scientific literature, but that doesn't make it difficult to read. Reading on you will find this book is not without controversy, as vigorus disagreements among the specialists over topics of contention will be found here as they hash out these sharp divergences of opinion.

I must say, that there is some very fine artwork, with bone of skeletons, muscle structure and complete complete fleshed out dinosaurs giving the reader a full grasp of what a dinosar looks like from the inside out. Also, questions as to what dinosaurs ate, how they raised their young, and the question that was the turning point that made the movie Jurassic Park... can we isolate dinosaur DNA are just some of the many questions that have answers in this book.

All in all, the technical jargon is at a minimum and there is a glossary of terms making your reading much more fruitful. I found the narrative easy to read and the information from this book to be exceptional.


Outstanding introduction to dinosaur science   June 29, 2005
Manuel Parrado (MI, USA)
6 out of 6 found this review helpful

Do you want to get "into" Dinosaurs? This is the place to start. The Complete Dinosaur is a comprehensive introduction to what is currently known about dinosaurs and how it is known. From the history of the earliest fossil hunters to dinosaur biology, paleogeography and even an overview of dinosaurs in the media throughout the years.
The book is organized into chapters, each of which contains a deep look at its subject and yet is perfectly readable by laymen (such as myself). Even though many contributors wrote for this book, there is a sense of cohesiveness through the entire book. At a massive 768 pages, it is a very long read but seldom does it get tedious except perhaps a few chapters on dinosaur biology that get a bit too technical.
The book contains abundant references at the end of each chapter and a huge index a the end so it serves as a very useful reference on your library.
Other books that compare to this one are "The Scientific American Book of Dinosaurs" edited by Greg Paul and "Encylopedia of Dinosaurs" edited by Phil Currie, both renown paleontologists. "The Complete Dinosaur" is more comprehensive than the first one and is arranged in a more readable format than the second one which arranges its articles in alphabetic order.
The only weakness of the book is its age. Written in 1997 it is probably due to a revision given that the fiels of paleontology has been progressing by leaps and bounds in the last few decades.

Highly recommended.



Great breadth of topics, great quality.   May 7, 2006
Dean Welch
5 out of 5 found this review helpful

This is a great intermediate level dinosaur book. It has a lot of details, but not enough to prevent non-experts from following it. It has 43 chapters divided into six parts. The chapters were written by experts in the individual subjects. This has the nice feature of making the chapters fairly independent, however it also makes the presentation a bit disjointed at times.

The first part deals with the process and history of discovering dinosaurs. The history of science isn't my favorite topic, so I just skimmed this part and can't really comment on it.

The second part describes the tools and techniques used to study dinosaurs. This includes excavations, the study of bones, taxonomy and cladistics, morphology, biomolecular techniques and exhibiting dinosaurs. There is a lot of interesting information, this material is fairly fundamental to the study of dinosaurs. Some of it is pretty easy to follow, some (like data management techniques) is a little more difficult to follow (for me anyway). None of it is prohibitively difficult.

Part three is a collection of chapters covering archosaurs, early dinosaurs and the various dinosaur families. Given that they were written by different authors, there is no consistent format for the chapters. I would have liked to have seen more material on how the families are related to each other. On the whole, I liked the level of detail.

Part four describes dinosaur biology. It contains a fascinating set of topics. A partial list of them is: plants in the Mesozoic, dinosaur diets, dinosaur dynamics, dinosaur eggs (covered in a nice amount of detail) and dinosaur paleopathology (a topic that doesn't often seem to get covered in this level of detail). In my experience many of these topics are somewhat neglected (either covered only lightly or not at all), this, and the quality, made it my favorite part of the book.

The fifth part deals with dinosaur evolution, including the way their environment changed thru time. It concludes with a discussion of dinosaur extinction, presenting both gradualist and catastrophist arguments.

The final part is one chapter covering how dinosaurs are portrayed in the media and how they are perceived by society.

Although the book had many authors, the quality is uniformly excellent. I generally liked the selection of topics. I wouldn't consider this an entry level book, but it's definitely readable by non-experts, I enjoyed the level of detail.