"From cover to cover, this openly invites the reader to discover the delights of dinosaurs. The visual appeal is impressive. The text is informative. Fossilization, skeleton reconstruction, and a superb time scale round out a stunning and compelling book. Complete, authoritative, exact, and imaginative, it is sure to survive when other dinosaur books become extinct."--(starred) "Science Books & Films."

    the flying reptiles of the Mesozoic Era, were contemporaries of the dinosaurs, but whereas dinosaurs were the masters of the land, pterosaurs secured the air as their ecological niche. In this exciting new book Peter Wellnhofer provides a thoroughly up-to-date and comprehensive study of the appearance, lifestyle, and relationships of all known pterosaurs, the first vertebrates to develop the power of active flight in evolutionary history.Opening chapters explain what pterosaurs were, analyzing their origins and relationships, their place in the animal family tree, and reveal the narure of their body forms and the way in which their physiology was adapted to flight. The discovery of pterosaur fossils worldwide, from the time of the identification of the first pterosaur remains from Solnhofen by Cosimo Alessandro Collini in 1784 to the present day, is provided in a succinct history.The central chapters of the book describe all known pterosaurs from the three Periods of the Mesozoic Era: the Triassic, the Jurassic, and the Cretaceous. These chapters are lavishly illustrated with color photographs of fossil specimens, black and white skeletal drawings, and most spectacularly, with 16 superb color artworks of the major genera painted by John Sibbick. These paintings may be recognized as some of the finest restorations of pterosaurs in their landscapes yet published. Additional color diagrams reveal the location of fossil finds, the length of time that each pterosaur flourished, and its size in relation to man.The conduding chapters treat the reader to a thorough exploration of the likely lifestyles of the pterosaurs and the possibie reasons for their extinction, a history of all the major pterosaur reconstructions and models that have been created around the world, and a comparative analysis of the other vertebrates that have mastered flight - birds and bats. The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Pterosaurs combines autoritative text for the general reader with perhaps the finest selection of artworks and photographs assembled on these fascinating animals. This fabulous volume is sure to become an essential populär reference book for many years to come.

    Updated and revised, this new edition includes a chapter on the Sternberg Museum of Natural History, which opened in Hays, Kansas, in March 1999.

    Along with the laws of geography, they get lively doses of geology, botany, zoology, climatology, archaeology...all in terms that are particularly appealing to kids. Along with detailed maps, the extra large pages are packed with splendid four-color pictures of the big boys themselves, the world they lived in, the way a 'dino' dig is conducted, and all the info that makes you grateful they vanished in a puff of meteor smoke about 64 million years ago. Color illus. 14 x 10 3/4 inch.