National Geographic Prehistoric Mammals

National Geographic has produced another beautiful book, packed with information and detailed, gorgeous illustrations. I bought this book for my 5 yr old grandson who wanted to know what animals came after the dinosaurs. There are too many and some difficult words to read it all directly to him, but I found it easy to paraphrase. He always asks how big animals are, so the comparisons of animals to the size of a man (his daddy) are just what was needed. This will be a book he can return to for many years to come. I'm so impressed with this book I may have to buy one just for me.

This is an excellent overview of mammalian evolution for the general reader. In no way would I consider this a "children's" book. The book covers representative species of the major mammalian orders, which include range maps, a colored species time mark on a geological time line, a species size graphic, and a basic narrative. This is all the information that is necessary to get an overview of mammalian evolution. Each species is covered on a two page spread using the same format making it easy to locate items of specific interest. If I have one issue, it is that the geological is often not linear, such as the 2 million year long Pleistocene era being shown as 3 inches long, and the 3 million year long Pliocene being shown below the Pleistocene as 1 inch long. However, I don't know if a linear scale would be practical. In the normal National Geographic fashion, the graphics are excellent.

I own "walking with prehistoric beasts" and this book goes further in depth on some of the animal shown in the dvd.

Though it is definitely a book for young readers the illustrations are a pleasure to peruse even for those who are no longer so young.

A high-quality resource of ancient megafauna has been lacking for decades - that situation comes to an end with the publication of National Geographic Prehistoric Mammals. If you're a paleoartist or fan thereof, with interests extending beyond the age of dinosaurs, this is the book for you. The information is not painstakingly in-depth and there are some mistakes -- the smilodon did not go extinct 100,000 years ago; it was only 9,000, and humans certainly DID encounter them. The artwork, however, would be tough to improve on.