Dinopedia: A Brief Compendium of Dinosaur Lore

I mentioned in my review of TetZooCon 2023 that I was embarrassed to realize I had featured very little content by Darren Naish before now, and so I think I will begin correcting that with a quick look at Dinopedia: A Brief Compendium of Dinosaur Lore. I actually got myself a copy close to when it came out two years ago, but I kept neglecting to review it for one reason or another. (For projects Darren has been involved in that I HAVE managed to cover, check out Prehistoric Planet, Build Your Own Dinosaurs Sticker Book, 199 Dinosaurs and Other Prehistoric Animals, and the Ultimate Dinopedia. EDIT: books I’ve managed to review since this post include Where On Earth? Dinosaurs.)

This first thing that jumps out at me when reading this book is how it fits the format of a “typical” or “classic” encyclopedia much more than any other so-called “encyclopedia” I’ve reviewed thus far, including Don Lessem’s similarly named Ultimate Dinopedia, which Darren also advised on. That’s despite this book’s small physical size allowing it to function as a sort of handbook, as well, making it highly portable. Indeed, some of the letters are already beginning to rub off the front cover of my copy due to how much I’ve carried mine around with me!

As the title implies, the book focuses exclusively on dinosaur science, without significant inclusion of any other animals. Darren looks not only on the hard science as it stands now, such as definitions of dinosaur groups and descriptions of important species, but also includes historical developments and concepts surrounding the subject of dinosaurs, such as brief biographical entries on famous paleontologists, or even discussions of topics like the contrarian “BAND camp” (AKA “Birds Are Not Dinosaurs”).

While Darren is well-known for collaborating with talented paleoartists, he is a decent illustrator in his own right, and for this title, he provides his own sketches for the occasional illustrations that pepper the book. Seeing them here, it occurs to me that Darren’s drawings actually look rather similar to the illustration style common to many “classic” encyclopedias, making them fairly fitting for the format of this book!

Darren Naish’s Dinopedia is a handy resource for those who want a quick guide to some of the more significant topics in dinosaur science. While perhaps not as comprehensive as Darren’s bigger work, Dinosaurs: How They Lived and Evolved, this one is perfect for quick but detailed descriptions of the most significant topics in the study of dinosaurs. Dinopedia comes highly recommended, and is very much Dino Dad Approved!