Mark Jeffs's Reviews > The Dinosaurs: New Visions of a Lost World

Really great book on Mesozoic life. Benton focuses on a few different exceptionally preserved fossils including species of birds, marine reptiles, mammals, pterosaurs and dinosaurs to paint a picture of the animals in colour and how they lived. The science of melanosomes is introduced well and used throughout to explain the colour. How we can get such exceptional fossils is discussed. Finally the coverings of the animals be it scales, feathers or pycnofibers are discussed and what this means for the evolutionary tree of dinosaurs as a whole.

I learnt alot from this book and the photos and illustrations really help bring these animals to life. It can be a bit heavy on the scientific terminology but being familiar with Benton's other works this wasn't an issue for me. This book should have had a different title as dinosaurs are not the sole focus here. My recommendation is "Mesozoic Life Colourised".