Future archaeologists will dig this atlas

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By Emily Hemphill, age 14

Home-schooled, Edgewater, Md.

The "Dinosaur Atlas," written by John Malam and John Woodward, consists of almost 100 pages of information on every prehistoric creature you can imagine.

The book tells us how we know that the reptiles existed, going into detail about various fossil records. It then goes on to introduce many classes of animals: reptiles of the land, sky and sea.

They are categorized by location and era, the writing heavily influenced by the theory of evolution. Six overleafed pages close in on a specific dinosaur and show the bone structure and joint movement as well as the supposed outer appearance and habitat of the animal.

In the back of the book are several pages that speculate on the death of the dinosaurs and how they could have been "related" to animals such as dolphins and parrots. With two pages of questions and answers, information on the archaeology and display of dinosaur fossils, and a glossary, the book is complete even without the accompanying CD-ROM.

The CD-ROM, also titled "Dinosaur Atlas," is a lot of fun. It shows a three-dimensional view of the outer appearance and bone structure of six dinosaurs and includes videos that show the joints and skeletal movement.

I enjoyed reading "Dinosaur Atlas" and found it very interesting. However, I am skeptical about the statement that life on Earth "could have been" created by lightning and find it rather amusing because the statement is not well-argued, and there are lots of "must have been" and "something like" comments.

I would recommend this book for anyone with an interest in different types of dinosaurs and their anatomy. It is presented in a readable and comprehensible format, and most of the facts are believable.