With six years of phd work on theropod dinosaurs behind him, Darren Naish mostly spends long hours in the library, hunched over his laptop. But he gets out sometimes, and picks up litter and pursues exotic lizards across the British countryside, aiming all the while to publish his technical work on obscure Cretaceous dinosaurs. He also messes around with pterosaurs, swimming giraffes, British big cats and stuff like that. He has given up on the stupid idea of being a dedicated academic and ekes out a living as a technical consultant, editor and author. He can be contacted intermittently at eotyrannus (at) gmail dot com. For more biographical info go 
Regular readers will know that my new book, The Great Dinosaur Discoveries (A & C Black in UK; UCP in US), was released over the last few weeks. By all accounts, it's currently selling well and the reviews that have appeared so far have all been outstandingly positive [example]. Things are looking good. But I work hard, and over the last couple of weeks I've received the news that a second book I completed at about the same time is also now out. Today I received my copy, so can at last talk about it.
Titled Prehistoric here in the UK (and Prehistoric Life in North America), the book is an enormous, sumptuously illustrated, 512-page encyclopedia, published by Dorling Kindersley. It basically charts the entire history of life, starting with the formation of the planet and ending up with the evolution of modern humans. The bulk of Prehistoric is devoted to the fossils of the Palaeozoic, Mesozoic and Cenozoic, and, yes, that means plants and invertebrates as well as dinosaurs and big mammals. It looks awesome; a lot of people will want it for Christmas. And don't be put off by the fact that there's a freakin' FISH on the cover. A non-tetrapod, oh the shame...
As is usual for big DK encyclopedias, this was a multi-authored effort with a team of something like 24 authors, 12 consultants and a substantial number of artists, designers, editors and so on. I tackled dinosaurs and Mesozoic mammals, but didn't do all of them; Roger Benson, Steve Brusatte, Dave Hone and Xu Xing are on the authorship too, so may have done some of the dinosaurs that I didn't, and I think Dave also did pterosaurs. Roger did Palaeozoic synapsids. Jason Anderson, Jenny Clack and Andrew Milner (the British one) dealt with Palaeozoic and Mesozoic non-amniotes and other creatures, and Don Prothero did Cenozoic mammals. Other authors produced the many spreads on plants and invertebrates, the section openers, and the introductory spreads.
Perhaps the most satisfying and impressive section is Fiona Coward's 'The Rise of Humans', and I suppose I say this because it looks comprehensive and includes brilliant diagrams. Just about every hominin gets coverage. I mean, there's even reference to Homo georgicus and H. sapiens idaltu [Neanderthal spread below, from DK site].
As you might guess from a book subtitled 'The Definitive Visual History of Life on Earth', the book is a visual feast, with numerous gorgeous photos of fossils as well as a huge number of CG reconstructions. My favourite features are the 'visual tours' where close-up annotated photos provide detailed information on the skeleton of a particular dinosaur [yeah, sorry: dinosaur. Nothing like this for mammals or other non-dinosaurian animals. One is shown above, © DK]. Some of the art is really good: favourite pics of mine include an Effigia group crossing a stream, a Quetzalcoatlus doing the trademark baby sauropod thing (homage to Witton), and a garish red-spotted Dimetrodon. I worked hard with Andrew Kerr, Peter Minister and Francisco Gascó to produce reasonably accurate dinosaurs: time was a constraint, as it always is when doing books like this, and various errors (such as pronated hands on theropods, an absence of dermal spikes on one or two diplodocoids, and the usual overly-broad beaks on ceratopsians) made it through for this reason. In cases, errors also made it through because I didn't get to see the final version of the art and someone else then gave it the green light (terrible terrible terrible Archaeopteryx on p. 264, I'm looking at you. Consultant concerned: j'accuse). Some of the art is really not so good, but I'll refrain from discussing it - or the individuals who produced it - here. For previous discussions of the problem I'm referring to - we'll call it the Pixel-shack Experience - go here, and hopefully this will now make a bit more sense.
Anyway, it's good to see Prehistoric in print at last, and I hope people like it. Just remember that I'm not responsible for the really bad bits. Congrats to co-authors and the art and editorial team - when and where is the party?
You can find Prehistoric on amazon here, and on amazon.co.uk here.
Oh yeah: sorry, slight hiatus in the toads toads toads schedule.
Comments
Sexy book! Looking forward to it.
Posted by: Kevin Schreck | October 16, 2009 10:16 AM
Is that what I saw in the local bookshop a week ago? Is that possible, in the middle of the desert at the arse end of the world? I'll check in the morning, and buy it if I'm not mistaken. Cheers.
Posted by: John Scanlon, FCD | October 16, 2009 10:45 AM
Im not a big dinosaur person but i would love to have a reference for the dermal spikes on diplodocids as it sounds really cool. Anyone know what the refs are?
Posted by: Ross Barnett | October 16, 2009 10:49 AM
Ross...
Czerkas, S. A. 1992. Discovery of dermal spines reveals a new look for sauropod dinosaurs. Geology 20, 1068-1070.
- . 1994. The history and interpretation of sauropod skin impressions. Gaia 10, 173-182.
Posted by: Darren Naish | October 16, 2009 10:52 AM
Ah, I passed this one in B&N last week and thought "Another encyclopedia of ancient life? Sheesh." Clearly I should have looked a bit more closely. Well done, Darren. I look forward to reading this one, as well.
Posted by: Laelaps | October 16, 2009 10:57 AM
Thanks Brian and others. John (comment 2): you in particular might be amused by the entry on the mekosuchine Trilophosuchus, described as a 'drop croc' and actually said in the text to capture prey by dropping out of trees!!! I have no idea who wrote this. Paul Willis has, of course, suggested that some mekosuchines were scansorial but, so far as I know, (1) no-one in croc-land agrees with him, and (2) he said this for Mekosuchus, not Trilophosuchus.
Posted by: Darren Naish | October 16, 2009 11:10 AM
Is your amazon.co.uk link pointing to the wrong (US?) edition?
Posted by: Al | October 16, 2009 11:22 AM
oh, I just saw and skimmed trough that book at our local bookstore the other day. Really impressive selection of excellent photos of fossil specimens.
Posted by: Ville Sinkkonen | October 16, 2009 11:48 AM
My friend bought this book for me, and I must say, it's a great gift. I was looking at it in a coffee shop and I was the envy of everyone.
Posted by: Jason J Brunet | October 16, 2009 12:02 PM
Ross Barnett - If you give me your email address, I'l send you photos of the spikes, as well as the paper itself if I can find it.
Posted by: Michael O. Erickson | October 16, 2009 12:52 PM
I'll have to run out tonight and snag a copy. Congrats, sir! This is exactly the kind of book I like.
Posted by: Zach Miller | October 16, 2009 1:34 PM
Finally it came out!
I totally agree: time was constraint... but we made it!
I can't wait to have mine in my hands... :)
Posted by: Francisco Gascó | October 16, 2009 2:27 PM
Thanks Darren!
Michael, my email address is barndad at hotmail dot com.
cheers!
Posted by: Ross Barnett | October 16, 2009 5:01 PM
Drops crocs and drop bears...Aussies sure do have a fear of death from above!
Another book? How do ever get the time to put up these awesome articles on your blog?! Congrats again Darren and all.
Posted by: Sebastian Marquez | October 16, 2009 5:05 PM
I saw this book the other day and it looked impressive. I think I will wait until after Christmas to obtain it (I'll see if I get any more bookstore gift cards and I'm swamped with books at this time).
Looking forward to more toads...
Posted by: Rob | October 16, 2009 6:02 PM
Was looking for it today in Waterstones near UCL but didn't find it, bought a field guide to western Palaearctic mammals instead.
Posted by: Mo Hassan | October 16, 2009 6:32 PM
Ooh...
Nooooo!
Funny thing is I pointed out their Tyrannosaur to a prospective palaeoartist today. "Whatever you do, don't do it like that," I said.
Someone at DK needs a good shake. But if most of the spreads in the book are like those you posted, I don't think it'll be too long before it's on my bookshelf. (after being thoroughly pored over)
Posted by: Warren B. | October 16, 2009 7:17 PM
All of a sudden you're more prolific than Stephen King!
I'm putting this one on my greeding list.
(That's my term for a rather ambitiously acquisitive reading list.)
Posted by: Stevo Darkly | October 16, 2009 7:28 PM
My god!! I'd love to put my hands on that book!!
Its a shame that here in Argentina it represents like 2 months of my salary!
Congrats
Posted by: Willy | October 16, 2009 8:04 PM
Don't we have it on good authority that you're a lazy sort, piles of evidence notwithstanding? :-)
Picked up the book on the way home at Chapters. It was being given a nice end-of-shelf display, with four copies facing anyone heading toward the science and nature section in the shop. Very nice so far. Though they aren't tetrapods, or even vertebrates, I was pleased to see a good number of nice trilobites and pleased to see I have examples of most of them!
Posted by: Mike from Ottawa | October 16, 2009 8:35 PM
Congrats, Darren!
PS. you look totally happy on this photo!
Posted by: Jerzy | October 16, 2009 8:53 PM
That was indeed the book I noticed almost subliminally while scanning the shelf for something else in particular. I spent a while browsing it in the shop today and decided to ask them to hold the copy for a couple of days while I see if I can get work to order a few for sale. Not only that I'm cheap, but things like the 'drop croc' Trilophosuchus entry - in the Quaternary vertebrates section, no less - do affect the value (as they say on the 'Antiques Roadshow' when someone has dropped the vase or used Brasso on the Rodin).
One of the strangest things I noticed in it was the restoration of Leedsichthys, which has been discussed on Tet Zoo before although it's not a tetrapod. Is that freaky thing one of the good reconstructions, or really bad ones? Just doesn't look streamlined enough to be real.
But there's obviously a lot of great stuff in there and I do need to get a copy. A book that covers plants, invertebrates and vertebrates and the whole history of life and is up-to-date and mostly fairly accurate... is something I want my kids to be able to read. After me.
Posted by: John Scanlon, FCD | October 16, 2009 8:56 PM
To provide an Illustrators perspective on said bad illustrations, most are really just time constraints, I imagined.
The Anomalocaris is perhaps the worst, and with some really good reconstructions on the Anomalocarid homepage, I dont see why it got through. The three mezozoic mammals featured all use the exact same model, for metatherian, eutherian, and multituberculate. The Dinosaur stuff I can forgive, as I find Dinosaur anatomy unforgiving too.
Posted by: Tim Morris | October 16, 2009 9:19 PM
Oh yeah, the other thing: the Charles Darwin 'quote' on the back cover, hasn't that been discredited?
Posted by: John Scanlon, FCD | October 16, 2009 11:02 PM
Any idea why UC Press give Scott Sampson twice as many pages for Dinosaur Odyssey (which they're hyping alongside) as you got for Dinosaur Discoveries? Should we hate Scott? I'm all ready to hate Scott, just give the word.
BTW: http://xkcd.com/650
Posted by: Nathan Myers | October 17, 2009 4:20 AM
Darren, could you possibly give a synopsis of how a writer writes in a book like this? Did you write just the text bits, or the captions and annotations too? Do you write with a note on what sort of illustration you need, and they fit it to that, or do you have the illustrations (or drafts) that you write to? Do you submit a list of taxa you can cover, and get assignments from the editor? I'm curious about the process.
Posted by: Darby | October 17, 2009 9:45 AM
Congratulations Darren! Looks like good stuff.
Posted by: Zach Hawkins | October 17, 2009 2:45 PM
Looks cool! Will definitely check it out. Congratulations!
Posted by: Dr. Nick | October 17, 2009 8:45 PM
As to climbing crocodiles, I see no problem that a small enough crocodile could climb. Some turtles are adept climbers, and noone would be able to ascertain that from fossils.
Posted by: Tim Morris | October 17, 2009 9:11 PM
Darren, my credit card hates you.
Posted by: Andreas Johansson | October 18, 2009 3:42 AM
Indeed, extant crocodile hatchlings can climb.
However, Trilophosuchus wasn't that small.
Posted by: David Marjanović | October 18, 2009 7:07 AM
No time to reply to all comments, sorry (especially comment 26, which would take ages)...
-- Leedsichthys is indeed criminally bad (comment 22). Shame shame shame on the expert and consultant concerned. I hate to sound like a stuck record, but I hate the fact that many palaeontoogists are still absolutely clueless when it comes to evaluating life restorations.
-- Don't hate Scott (comment 25). He emailed me a few weeks ago to say congrats on the book, though I haven't seen his yet.
-- Yeah, maybe some crocs and turtles can sometimes clamber around on low-sloping trunks and branches (comment 29). I've stated this myself in papers. But that's a long way from saying that an animal was a regular climber that used trees on a daily basis. As noted, some mekosuchines have some features that might suggest scansoriality, but the problem is that these features (they're forelimb features, like claw and ulnar shape) also match other modes of life (like digging), and other details of anatomy (like snout shape) suggest terrestrial foraging in these animals (as in, picking up objects from the ground).
Posted by: Darren Naish | October 18, 2009 8:35 AM
I got it yesterday, and it's titled differently here: Prehistoric Life. It's quite good, but you guys are right, there are some hideous creatures in there. Also, there are some interesting disconnects between the stated size of the given animal and the GIGANTIC sillouhette next to it. And there are also some giant errors, like Teratornis being only 30 inches long. Hilarious!
Posted by: Zach Miller | October 18, 2009 4:37 PM
I got and read through The Great Dinosaur Discoveries last week. Very impressive, Darren!
Posted by: Greg Morrow | October 19, 2009 10:09 AM
shoot..i saw one of these at a waldenbooks saterday, but i passed on buying a copy because of the $40 price..i'd been looking for a book of that quality for a while too. stupid shoestring budget.
Posted by: mithril | October 19, 2009 1:21 PM
Darren, one prehistoric puzzle.
Here
http://www.paleo.ru/forum/index.php/topic,2564.new.html
people discuss the strange jaw of prehistoric animal. It in found in Eocene deposits of Krasnodar region (Southern Russia, near Black Sea).
The another photo is lower jaw of orca (killer whale) just to compare. So, what is your opinon, what is the animal owned this jaw?
Posted by: Pavel Volkov | October 22, 2009 11:16 PM