Paleo Book of the Month: The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Dinosaurs

Hello everyone. Sorry I haven't posted in a while. I recently went back to school and have been extremely busy. Now that I'm back, let's get going with September's Paleo Book of the Month. This month, I'm going retro and reviewing The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Dinosaurs by David Norman. This is a book I'm sure most of you are familiar with, and indeed I'm willing to bet you probably own it. Written in 1988 (I think), it was probably one of the most popular books on dinosaurs for the next ten years or so. The encyclopedia covered the various groups of dinosaurs that were recognized at the time. In addition to the text, most sections followed a specific format. The first spread of pages would show an anachronistic illustration by John Sibbick of some representatives of each group, as well as a map showing the distribution of the major known genera of said group, a cladogram, and a timeline. The following spread contained illustrations of skeletons and bones, followed by a couple of pages showing photos and some miscellaneus illustrations. In addition, there were also sections covering some of the controversies of dinosaur science and a brief overview of some other prehistoric life.

Unfortunately, having been published over twenty years ago, this book is pretty outdated in some places. For one thing, some of the classification has not held up (i.e. Coelophysis is a coelurosaur, tyrannosaurs are carnosaurs, Triceratops is related to centrosaurs). In addition, John Sibbick's illustrations are quite inaccurate by today's standards. For instance, the raptors are featherless, all theropods have pronated hands, and some even show dinosaurs with dragging tails.

Still, despite being obsolete, The Illustrated Encyclopedia deserves to be well remembered. It was a highly influential book on the subject of dinosaurs, and was one of the key things that fed my early interest in the subject. In addition, it was a great dinosaur book for its time, and the information would have been considered top notch when it was first published. For it's influence and nostalgia, The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Dinosaurs is without a doubt a classic.