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| View Larger Image | If Dinosaurs Were Alive Today
by Running Press
| | List Price: | $15.95 | | Price: | $10.85 | | You Save: | $5.10 (32%) |  | | Available: | Usually ships in 24 hours | | | | | Sales Rank: | 225694 | | Studio: | Running Press Kids | | | Binding: | Hardcover | | Reading Level: | Ages 4-8 | | Number Of Pages: | 96 | | Publication Date: | November 05, 2007 | | Publisher: | Running Press Kids |
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EDITORIAL REVIEWS |
Product Description
Dinosaurs, the first and only real-life giant reptiles of our world, never cease to amaze. We obsess about them as children and continue to be fascinated even as adults. This book gives shape to a dream every dinosaur lover has whimsically had: what if dinosaurs were alive today? What would our world be like? Using extensive research, dinosaur experts have put together an amazing range of dinosaur interaction scenarios. Incredible images of photo-realistic dinosaurs are blended with distinctive photography, and fact-packed pages explore all aspects of dinosaur research, from their extinction to the latest fossil discoveries. Even kids who may think they’re outgrowing dinosaurs won’t be able to resist this extraordinary journey across oceans, skies, and land to find out if dinosaurs could live in our world. |
CUSTOMER REVIEWS (Average Customer Rating: 3.5 based on 2 reviews)
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More silly than science! 
This book is obviously meant for 10 year olds, who are always concerned about the size of anything. I bought this for my 9 year old grandson in order to perk his interest is science (but, of course, I read it first). He was duly taken by the pictures rather than the text. And therein lies the problem. The pictures of a number of prehistoric animals are exaggerated in size compared to their modern counterparts, either purposely, or out of naivety. A striking example is the book cover showing Liopleurodon about to devour an orca. The jaws of Liopleurodon are shown to be as long as the entire orca , maybe 25 feet long, while the text and description inside the book belies this size. Furthermore, neither the text or description comport with recent science, which says that Liopleurodon was likely a much smaller animal (still large but not gargantuan; see www.plesiosaur.com). There are apparently several other genera of plesiosaurs/pliosaurs which were considerably larger than Liopleurodon. But none are the size of the behemoth pictured on the cover.
Another example of out-sized illustration is the Tyrannosaurus attacking the cattle. Tyrannosaurus skulls are known to be about 4-5 feet long; this illustration shows them to be about twice that long.
I can understand the desire to emphasize the great size of some of these creatures in order to promote excitement, and sales of the book (and some of the descriptions of size are pure speculation). But this book also pretends to have a basis in factual fossil evidence. We all have fun speculating about things that could never be, but it's not appropriate to confuse silliness with science, especially in a book aimed at impressionable young minds.
June 26, 2008 | |
Amazing and Astonishing 
My six-year old girl LOVES dinosaurs, so we got her this book for Christmas this year (2007). She loves this book and so do I! The graphics are incredible and make you think that the Orca is really about to get eaten! Then there is the brachiosaurus tromping through the herd of elephants at the waterhole. Page after page the dinos are put with their modern-day equivalents, and a sidebar tells you more about the dino and displays them on a size scale. Who knew the Liopleurodon was bigger than a sperm whale (and 100+ tons)??
January 20, 2008 | |
SIMILAR PRODUCTS |
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