Dinosaurs: The Encyclopedia, Supplement 5 (Dinosaurs the Encyclopedia)

Here is the fifth supplement to Dinosaurs: The Encyclopedia, a 1998 American Library Association Outstanding Reference Book (ARBA called it "a reference legend...lavishly illustrated, cleverly written, and extraordinarily comprehensive"). Since the publication of the acclaimed first volume, a virtual explosion in the number of exciting discoveries in dinosaur paleontology has made supplemental volumes necessary and indispensable. Among the many dramatic events discussed in the fifth supplement are the discovery of what may be the largest Jurassic theropod specimen yet collected; the uncovering of evidence of a dinosaur possessing opposable fingers; and Robert M. Sullivan's reassessment of Pachycepholasauria. Like the previous supplements, this volume includes lengthy sections on dinosaurian schematics and genera and updates the encyclopedia's list of excluded genera.

If you think the title Dinosaurs: the Encyclopedia has a movie-sequel ring, you're only partly mistaken; editor Donald F. Glut has already authored The Dinosaur Dictionary and The Complete Dinosaur Dictionary. But you'll find no T. rex running amok here; this is a dense and rigorously scientific tome meant for only the most dedicated dinosaur lover. Part 1 contains an excellent background history of scientific findings in this rapidly changing field. (Also here is a wonderful, paragraph-long sentence detailing possible causes of the dinosaurs' demise, including "brains too small" and "inability to mate, sexual frustration, suicide.") Once into the alphabetical listings, however, it's easy for the layman to get lost. If the description "articular facets of prezygapophyses much enlarged in anterior caudals" makes your eyes cross, perhaps this is not the reference for you. But if your amateur paleontologist shows signs of getting serious, you won't get much more detailed, thorough, or reliable information than that contained here. And there's always the glossary in back, wherein you'll find words such as "ginglymus" and "astragalus" defined in everyday English.