More than 125 dinosaurs, many of them seldom heard of, are featured in this "Who's Who" of the amazing creatures that ruled the earth for about 140 million years. Covering the Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous periods, the book's chapters each begin with an artist's panoramic depiction of prehistoric life during that time. Next, there is a general introduction of the period, a miniature version of the panorama (suitably labelled), a pie chart of the various eras, and a world map which compares the relationship of the continents as they were then to how they look now. The remainder of the chapter is devoted to individual dinosaurs whose coloured illustrations appear in bordered fact boxes which describe the dinosaur in two or three sentences. Tiny silhouettes of the dinosaur and a human figure indicate whether the animal was larger or smaller than 3'3". (This is not very effective because it does not show the human figure in proportion to the dinosaur.) Pastel-coloured bands differentiate between the periods. These bands appear along the top of each page and match the background of the fact boxes, thereby unifying the chapter. The bands also list the continent on which the dinosaurs were found. Each chapter has a special section focusing on an interesting group of animals from that period. The book's layout is quite attractive - the inclusion of the panorama, the introductory pages of each chapter and the "Focus On" sections breaks the monotony of the fact box format. An index and a list of recommended reading are provided.

Recommended.