Where On Earth? Dinosaurs

Where on Earth? Dinosaurs and Other Prehistoric Life is a 2019 book from Dorling Kindersley (DK) written by Chris Barker & Darren Naish (of TetZoo fame). This is one of those I’ve been meaning to get to for some time, but I kept getting distracted by other work until now! DK’s nonfiction picture books are staples of many a youngster’s bookshelf, and many more libraries. Many of their earlier books, such as older editions of the Eyewitness Guides (see Part 1 and Part 2 of Marc Vincent’s review of one particular edition at Love in the Time of Chasmosaurs) are particularly fondly remembered, along with other unique gems like Inside Dinosaurs.

Where On Earth? Dinosaurs is written in the form of a prehistoric atlas, with a typical page devoted to a single species of dinosaur, each of them organized by where they lived in the world. Maps are an important part of each entry, though somewhat uniquely compared to most prehistoric atlases, this book depicts the continents more or less in the form they would have appeared in during the time that each species depicted lived.

A chart across the top of each page depicts the changing continents of successive geologic ages, with the relevant one highlighted to place help readers figure out when the creatures in question lived, and where the main map on the page fits into the modern configuration of continents. This larger map has a highlighted area that roughly corresponds to the geographic range of each species in regards to the shape of the continents at the time. Most of these geographic ranges seem pretty sensible based on the fossil data, but a few had me questioning them just a bit, particularly those for species based on a single specimen.

The main portion of the book is organized by continent, and focuses almost entirely on Mesozoic animals, with the Permian animals Mesosaurus and Lystrosaurus getting mixed in with the lot. An extra section at the end called “After the Dinosaurs” includes a brief array of post-Cretaceous animals.

DK’s dinosaur books were unfortunately among the many casualties of the crummy CGI craze of the early 2000s, and many a paleonerd will complain about the poor reconstructions that filled out their books at this time. This book however is one of the fruits of a long behind the scenes campaign on the part of author Darren Naish in advocating for updating the CGI models that DK books use. Taken on their own, I’d say the models are just okay. They’re accurate, though not necessarily anything to write home about. Compared to what came before, though, these CGI models are a fantastic leap forward for DK books, and they are likely to remain relevant far longer than the previous models did.

There’s much to be said for the infographic-type books produced by DK, and I’m happy to see that their image library for their dinosaur books has been so satisfactorily upgraded. My more technically-minded son loves these sort of books, especially when he can compare and contrast stats about different creatures and items. Where on Earth? Dinosaurs and Other Prehistoric Life has certainly been a hit with us, and I would happily recommend it to others, giving it my Dino Dad Stomp of Approval. For other Darren Naish projects, check out my reviews of Dinopedia, Prehistoric Planet, and of course TetZooCon itself.