Re: Dino reference books

[Pieter.Depuydt@rug.ac.be]

Chris wrote:
> I'm interested that no one on the list has mentioned Robert Carroll's
> _Vertebrate Paleontology and Evolution_.  Though somewhat dated (pub.
> 1988) this is an exhaustive encyclopedia covering vertebrates from the
> time of their inception to the present.  I particularly like the book
> because it gives a great deal of info not only on dinos but also on
> their contemporaries, making it much easier to get an overall picture of
> what the Mesozoic looked like.  Does anyone else have this book and/or
> any thoughts on it?

Yes, Carroll's epic tome still has a prominent place on my bookshelf. 
It's quite incredible.  It indeed offers information about almost  
all fossil vertebrate 'groups', from captorhinids to therocephalians, 
antiarchs to multituberculates, microsaurs to mesonychids,  has a 
wealth of accurate illustrations, often from the primary literature, 
and is very well referenced. Yet in concept it is a bit in old 
style, such as a eighties version of Romer's Vertebrate Paleontology, 
with some kind of  a 'pre-cladistic' way of  grouping taxa, a kind 
of 'who is who' in fossil vertebrates; there's quite little phylogeny 
in it. But it still is the best place to start if you're looking for 
information about other vertebrates than dinosaurs. 
I personally love the book and  I'd very welcome a new edition.

Pieter Depuydt