Tracing the history of vertebrates, this interesting book provides good
information about animals and how they evolved. The illustrations are
also very good and interesting.This informative and well-illustrated book would be a useful adition to
any nature- or science-lover's personal library, or an interesting
coffee table book.
Basically this is a very good non-technical introduction to prehistoric
vertebrates (animals with backbones - fish, amphbians, reptiles, birds
& mammals). Although there are some pages that provide the basic
background - how fossils form, continental drift, etc - by the far the
most interesting, and indeed the bulk, of the book is the coverage it
gives to a large number of individual genera, each of which is
illustrated by a color painting. It is the sheer number and diversity
of creatures covered here, rather than simply a few dozen types of
dinosaurs, that makes this book so interesting. I find the realism of
the art work tends to vary - some drawings seem more realistic than
others, but I suppose that's just personal taste. The art work is still
of good quality thoughout though. The accompanying text is brief but
clear and informative, and gives a basic introduction to that type of
animal. The best thing about this book is that it's not just about
dinosaurs (although these are covered in detail) but also deals with
many other types of vertebrate creatures as well.