Editorial Review:

Product Description:
The meat-eating dinosaurs, or Theropoda, include some of the fiercest predators that ever lived. Some of the group’s members survive to this day—as birds. The theropod/bird connection has been explored in several recent works, but this book presents 17 papers on a variety of other topics. It is organized into three parts. Part I explores morphological details that are important for understanding theropod systematics. Part II focuses on specific regions of theropod anatomy and biomechanics. Part III examines various lines of evidence that reveal something about theropods as living creatures.

The contributors are Ronan Allain, Rinchen Barsbold, Kenneth Carpenter, Karen Cloward, Rodolfo A. Coria, Philip J. Currie, Peter M. Galton, Robert Gay, Donald M. Henderson, Dong Huang, James I. Kirkland, Yoshitsugu Kobayashi, Eva B. Koppelhus, Peter Larson, Junchang Lü, Lorrie A. McWhinney, Clifford Miles, Ralph E. Molnar, N. Murphy, John H. Ostrom, Gregory S. Paul, Licheng Qiu,J. Keith Rigby, Jr., Bruce Rothschild, Christopher B. Ruff, Leonardo Salgado, Frank Sanders, Julia T. Sankey, Judith A. Schiebout, David K. Smith, Barbara R. Standhardt, Kathy Stokosa, Darren H. Tanke, François Therrien, David Trexler, Kelly Wicks, Douglas G. Wolfe, and Lowell Wood.

First, this is NOT A BOOK FOR A KID WHO IS INTERESTED IN DINOSAURS. This book is a scientific (should have put that in quotation marks) text designed for the serious researcher. The title implies that a review of the carnivorous dinosaurs will be provided, however the papers presented within are barely a sniff of the frosting of the multi-layered theropod cake. This book suffers from almost ever defect possible in a text. There are numerous typos, reflecting poor copy-editing. The illustrations have reproduced very poorly, but given the low-quality paper used in the printing, this is not surprising. Some of the figures submitted by the authors are also of low quality, so Indiana isn't wholly to blame. In summary, DO NOT PURCHASE FOR A KID OR ADULT WHO IS INTERESTED IN DINOSAURS. Get the Dinosauria instead, which has lovely figures and in-depth information that will stimulate minds rather than bore or frustrate them.

Average Rating:

Rating: - Poorly edited, largely uninteresting for the layperson
First, this is NOT A BOOK FOR A KID WHO IS INTERESTED IN DINOSAURS. This book is a scientific (should have put that in quotation marks) text designed for the serious researcher. The title implies that a review of the carnivorous dinosaurs will be provided, however the papers presented within are barely a sniff of the frosting of the multi-layered theropod cake. This book suffers from almost ever defect possible in a text. There are numerous typos, reflecting poor copy-editing. The illustrations have reproduced very poorly, but given the low-quality paper used in the printing, this is not surprising. Some of the figures submitted by the authors are also of low quality, so Indiana isn't wholly to blame. In summary, DO NOT PURCHASE FOR A KID OR ADULT WHO IS INTERESTED IN DINOSAURS. Get the Dinosauria instead, which has lovely figures and in-depth information that will stimulate minds rather than bore or frustrate them.

Rating: - Great literature
Not for beginners, but most people who are familiar with scientific journals will enjoy this book. A good find for either the casual scientific reader or the enthusiast.

The fact that it has a Carnotaurus sastrei on the front cover also certainly helps!

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Rating: - Good basis for theropods
Maybe I'm a bit biased, because I have a paper in this volume, but I think that this book presents a good grouping of papers to help understand modern theropod research. There's some serious cutting edge stuff in here, along with some new taxa being described. That said, its not for beginners. This is a professional volume, designed and written for paleontologists and serious amatures. If you haven't read other scientific papers about dinosaurs, this may not be the place to start.

Related Items:

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Thunder-Lizards: The Sauropodomorph Dinosaurs (Life of the Past)

Dawn of the Dinosaurs: Life in the Triassic (Life of the Past)

Jurassic West: The Dinosaurs of the Morrison Formation and Their World (Life of the Past)

Dinosaur Systematics: Approaches and Perspectives