The New Dinosaurs: An Alternative Evolution

Summary: What If the Dinosaurs Never Went Extinct?
Rating: 5

I absolutely love this book. I have a well-read, well-loved copy that I've owned since my parents bought it for me back when I was seven or eight years old, and I wouldn't trade it for the world. In this book, Dougal Dixon (known for his alternate evolution scenarios like 'After Man: A Zoology of the Future' and 'The Future is Wild') posits a world where the dinosaurs never died out. He opens up with a nice introduction to dinosaurs and mass extinctions, and then goes on to give charts detailing his alternate evolution, information on continental drift, different biomes and regions of the earth, and how lifeforms adapt to everything from tropical rainforests to open deserts and grasslands to the seas. Then we get into the REAL meat of the book.

Arranged by region, we get to see richly illustrated creatures that might have evolved, had the dinosaurs not vanished 65 million years ago. We are introduced to ground dwelling pterosaurs on the African savannah, sleek theropods that stalk the great herds of hadrosaurs on the North American plain, armored ankylosaurs on the Asian steppe, giant ammonites and the pleisosaurs that adapted to eat them, and armless, scavenging descendants of the tyrannosaur in Patagonia. These, and the countless other fascinating, yet believable, creatures all show parallels to contemporary animals like pandas, flamingos, whales, jerboas, pelicans, woodpeckers, and so forth. And, not all dinosaurs survived Dixon's either. He mentions the last stegosaurs as dying out on the Indian subcontinent 2 million years ago, for instance.

Creationists and other such types will probably find the whole concept a bit objectionable, but those of us who accept evolution can look at this book as a fascinating read, an alternate look at the potential creatures that may have evolved were the dinosaurs with us today. Its really sci-fi in the strictest sense of the word, and a fun read to boot, so I definately recommend getting your hands on a copy when (if) you can find it.