Dinosaurs were animals, not movie monsters

By Helen Gordon

For over 150m years dinosaurs were the dominant group of land animals, occupying every landmass and evolving into hundreds of different species. Sixty-six million years ago many of them disappeared in a mass extinction event, the cause of which is still unknown. Did death come via a comet or asteroid crashing into what is now south-eastern Mexico? Or did that extraterrestrial collision merely administer a coup de grâce to an already declining population, stressed by climate change and violent volcanic activity?

These and other questions are explored in an updated edition of “Dinosaurs” from the Natural History Museum in London. Written by palaeontologists Darren Naish and Paul M. Barrett, this is an intelligent, beautifully illustrated and comprehensive guide to all things dinosaur-related. A fascinating early section charts the history of dinosaur research from the Victorians to the present day, followed by chapters on, among other things, dinosaur anatomy, ecology and behaviour.