Book Description

Blending history and fantasy, science and art, the story of how dinosaurs were discovered and reimagined comes to life through splendid illustrations in this handsome slipcased volume. Stegosaurus, Triceratops, Brontosaurus, Tyrannosaurus…these exotic prehistoric creatures continue to fascinate more than 200 million years after they last roamed the earth. Dinosaur skeletons have been reconstituted, reconstructed, and interpreted by scientists and artists since the first fossils were uncovered near Cañon City, Colorado, in 1877, sparking the Bone Wars. In 1907, the Carnegie Museum of Natural History mounted “Dippy” the Diplodocus, which sparked dinomania, igniting the imagination of popular culture and Hollywood. From the Morrison Formation to Montana’s Hell Creek, and from Mongolia’s Gobi Desert to Argentina’s Patagonia, new discoveries and excavations have uncovered a lost kingdom that has inspired myriad homages. This volume enriches our understanding of dinosaurs through rich visual iconography—from paintings, drawings, and sketches to new photography, film stills, reconstructed skeletons, and archival documents—along with detailed descriptions and anecdotes from great nineteenth-century explorers, artists, and writers such as Benjamin W. Hawkins, Charles R. Knight, Zdenĕk Burian, and Jules Verne, and from filmmakers including Walt Disney and Steven Spielberg. This book is published in partnership with the Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle in Paris to coincide with a traveling exhibition of the exceptional Trix T. Rex and the international release of Jurassic World.