Dinosaurs A Visual Encyclopedia

Dinosaurs: a Visual Encyclopedia covers virtually everything that lived during prehistory. It begins by showing how life began, and ends with early man. It has comprehensive coverage of key curriculum topics — geography, biology, history, and science. Content is completely up-to-date and includes the latest discoveries and interpretations of prehistoric life.

Dinosaurs: a Visual Encyclopedia is not a catalog of facts and photos–it is a visual celebration of early life on Earth with particular emphasis on dinosaurs. The book showcases the wonders of the world from the beginnings of existence.

Contents

Prelims (3 pages)

Introduction (2 pages)

Chapter 1. Earth — the beginning, including:

How the Earth formed more than 4 billion years ago

Continents and oceans

Changing climates

When life began

Evolution of life

Classifying animals — how it works

Mass extinctions

Chapter 2. Exploring the evidence, including:

Types of fossils

How fossils form

Where is the world' — key fossil sights

Layers of earth — what they tell us

Geological timescale explained

Chapter 3. First signs of life — Precambrian age, including:

Archeaneon and how the atmosphere changed

Proterozoiceon — time of the first simple animals and plants

Chapter 4. Early Paleozoic era, including:

Cambrian period, when new family groups appeared, from worms to the first vertebrates — fish

Ordovician period, when animals first began to colonize the land and the first mass extinction occurred

Silurian period — when enormous coral reefs began to flourish in tropical seas

Chapter 5. Late Paleozoic era, including

Devonian period, called the "Age of Fish" as fish groups diversified. First forests appeared

Carboniferous period was swampy (lots of our modern-day coal started then). It was also an age of ice. Shelled eggs evolved.

Permian period when advanced synapsids (mammal-like reptiles) evolved, paving the way for mammals and eventually humans. Permian period ended in another mass extinction

Chapter 6. Triassic Period, including

Recovery from the mass extinction. The Triassic is the FIRST AGE OF THE DINOSAURS

New groups of ferns and seed plants emerged

New kinds of marine invertebrates emerged

Many new kinds of vertebrates evolved, including pterosaurs (flying reptiles), ichthyosaurs (swimming reptiles), mammals, and dinosaurs

Close-up look at Plateosaurus, Eoraptor, Thecodontosaurus and more

The Triassic period ended in another mass extinction

Chapter 7. Jurassic period, including

The MIDDLE DINOSAUR AGE — large dinosaurs roamed the land and the oceans were dominated by giant reptiles

Jurassic plants including ferns, conifers, cycads, ginkgos

Jurassic invertebrates included the squid-like Cylindroteuthis, the starfish Pentasteria, the dragonfly Libellulium, the lobster Eryma and more

Vertebrates included shark-like Hybodus, Loch-ness-monster-like Plesiosaurus, crocodile-like Protosuchus, bird-like Pterodactylus and more

However dinosaurs were the animals that dominated the Jurassic ie meat-eating Allosaurus, Dilophosaurus, Monolophosaurus and more

Jurassic long-necked sauropods included Vulcanodon, Barapasaurus, Brachiosaurus, Diplodocus, Barosaurus, Apatosaurus, Lesothosaurus and more

Armour-plated stegosaurs included Huayangosaurus, Tuojiangosaurus and more

Chapter 8. Cretaceous period, including

The LAST AGE OF THE DINOSAURS — high global temperatures and sea levels were up to 300 m (980 ft) higher than they are today. This was the world of the most diverse and dominant group of dinosaurs

Flowering plants made their first appearance during the Cretaceous