This work was a bit tedious, as any book of this magnitude can be, especially to someone without a PHD, like me. If, however you are aspiring for that PHD, or are a very serious amateur paleontologist, this book is great. It is the most in-depth book I have ever found on the subject. Most books are significantly watered down, as their intended audience is often teenage or younger. This book supplies enormous quantities of information in a fairly usable format. I just wished that there had been more illustrations, perhaps some pictures of different excavation sites and more actual fossil examples, instead of mere drawings. Perhaps this was done for cost effectiveness, as this book is very expensive for someone on a budget. The bone anatomy is very well shown though, and can be studied with the help of this book. I would recommend it for anyone who is serious about paleontology, but please, if you are not, check out another book, as this one may be a dissapointment with a! big price tag.

What more can I say for this book than has already been said? The first book of it's kind (that I know of), The Dinosauria is the perfect introduction into SERIOUS paleontology. If you want to know more about dinosaurs than you learn from Jurassic Park, this is the place to start. Be warned though, a basic knowledge of the science of paleontology is needed as the book does go deeper into the realm of true science than in other popular books. The Dinosauria layed the foundation for works that would follow, and again this is the perfect introduction for someone who wants to get more serious about the real science of the Dinosauria.

Since this book represents a first synthesis ever of dinosaur biology and evolution, it is inveluable reference source for any professional vertebrate paleontologist, geologist, student and interested amateur.
The recent explosion of knowledge based on the more and more spectacular finds of dinosaurs throughout the world has been channelled into this book and revized in full scale. Dinosaur taxonomy has been trimmed by elimination of more than 250 genera and almost 500 species making the data usable for further research purposes.
Each of the world's experts on dinosaurs, write on its on speciality and a group of dinosaurs.
The book is very detailed, comprehensive, with a lot of illustrations (there might have been more) and a massive bibliography containing more than 2,500 entries.
This book is a "must" for every expert and dinophile as well

Anyone who was fascinated by the PBS program on these two polar bears will enjoy this book. It tells the story of their early years before being transfered to the Florida zoo. The photos are amazing! I've used this book as a resource with K-6th graders, and all ages have loved it. The text under the photos is very small and in blue, making it difficult to read, but the main text is fine, and otherwise the book is wonderful. I highly recommend it to anyone with an interest in these two very special bears.

Although I did not see the television documentary on these two little darlings, I nevertheless loved the book. Although they are now big bears, the story of little Klondike and Snow's early years is interesting, educational and touching. Abandoned by their mother as cubs, the two bears were raised by humans. This book clearly illustrates the love and devotion of the Denver Zoo towards the cubs' care and development. Klondike and Snow are now thriving at Sea World's Wild Arctic exhibit, were they have plenty of living space and attention!

This book is wonderful for any animal lover and people interested in animal/human interaction.

I was truly fascinated by the special program on Klondike and Snow and will watch it every time I see it. I have not yet found the video to purchase. If you loved watching these two bears grow up, then this will be a great book to purchase to remember them when they were cute and cuddly. I recommend this book to help teach children to love and respect animals. When we see how truly beautiful they are you could never harm them. Children learn these values early in life.

Light in the Sea is a book that revolutionized the techniques of underwater photography. It belongs to the most beautifull books I`ve ever seen. Doubilet is a photographer that has done a pair of other good books and written a lot of articles for National Geographic. His photos looks more like paintings than photos and that`s what`s making the book so good. Among my favourite pics are the Izu Peninsula coral reefs and also the Caribbean which is my favourite underwater area. His ways to capture the animals is unique,although there are other good photographers too,such as Roger Steene and Chris Newbert. But Doubilet is the best. The only thing which made me disappointed is that it is so short,just 160 pages. A 400-page photo book would be better. Fortunatley,I also own his other book that has 240 pages of beautifull photos. But don`t forget this,it is fantastic,I promise you that!

It is very easy to mention David Doubilet in the same breath as National Geographic as though that says it all. Of course his work has appeared in that illustrious magazine for many years and, well, perhaps it does.

Light in the Sea is a large coffee-table book measuring 12in x 12in and is packed with a collection of photographs taken in, on, around, above and, of course, below the surface of the sea. It is, however, far more than just another collection of photographs of fish, corals and other sea creatures - this is an complete exercise in what to aim for when taking similar photographs.

I am studiously avoiding such words as "Outstanding" or "Excellent" when describing the pictures contained in this book. This is because there are many outstanding and excellent photographers out there - but David Doubilet is a cut above the rest and in a class of his own. His photographs need no such description.

There is far more to Underwater Photography than taking good photographs underwater and, having studied the many images in this book, I would suggest "Light in the Sea" is the template on which any aspiring underwater photographer should model their own abilities.

Sea Creatures are photographed from every position - with wide-angle lens and with macro-lens, from above the surface, from below the surface - and even from half in and half out of the water. Islands are shown with rows of coconut trees along the shores in the background and rows of corals underwater in the foreground - and all in a single photograph. Even that well-known rocky promontory in Egypt called Ras Mohammed is photographed from a new and exciting angle.

This is a book where every photograph is an abject lesson in photography with each one making the statement; "this is what you should aim to achieve when taking a photograph like this." This is a book where the Master has demonstrated his art to the student and I salute the author.

NM

This book was a gift, and one I'm eternally grateful for. David Doubilet takes you on a photographic journey from the cold waters of British Colmbia to dive with giant octopus to the waters of the Great Barrier Reef, Palau, the Red Sea and the underwater volcanic sands of the Izu Penninsular, Japan. Amazing shots of Great White sharks and WWII wrecks, the incredible compositions and imagination of his photography will pluck you out of your chair and dunk you in the ocean! The supporting text just adds to the effect and compliments the photos beautifully. It's so real that I use it as a substitute for diving when I can't get out there. This man knows how to use a camera, and has a real feel for the sea. If you find it, grab it!

Pacific Coast Pelagic Invertebrates covers the common gelatinous pelagic invertebrates, more commonly thought of as jellyfish, that are encountered on the Pacific coast from Alaska to Baja California. There is really no comparable source for this information and certainly none that is so well written and illustrated.

The beginning of the book provides a description of the advantages of a gelatinous lifestyle, the role of gelatinous animals in marine ecosystems, and the range of habitats in which they occur. This provides the reader with an appreciation for the diverse and successful patterns these animals have evolved to live in a variety of habitats and niches. There is also an excellent section on observing, collecting, and photographing specimens.

Wrobel and Mills have provided a glossary of terms and black and white photographs of each major group identifying various body parts. The description of how to distinguish the major groups gives readers an entree into the descriptions of the species.

Species from four phyla are included: Cnidaria, Ctenophora, Mollusca, and Chordata. The descriptions of the organisms are arranged taxonomically. Information on identification, natural history, range and habitat, and other remarks as appropriate are included in each description. The most striking feature of the book has to be the photographs that accompany each species description. The photographs are truly gorgeous.

An excellent book. As a Marine Biologist and diver I found this book an excellent complement for both my work and recreational diving. Photographs are very good and descriptions accurate yet simple enough.

This book has excellent pictures with comprehensive descriptions. From the pictures in this book, I recognized many of the species that I have personally seen while diving. I was able to read and learn more about them from the descriptions next to each picture.

Although I found the book simple and intellectually unchallenging, its sincerity, freshness and admiration for the wilderness and being a part of it were emotionally stirring. It reminded me of the importance of being able to step away from comitments to work, banks and acquaintances to experience something larger than all of us. We need this to remind us of the essence of being alive and human.

Most of us dream of adventures when we are young ... but the responsibilities of the world often derail them. David Scott's story is a tale of the dream of adventure fulfilled.

I love outdoor adventure books and this book is a great one. This is a story of living and thriving in the Canadian wilderness. I was fascinated with the authors adventures of building a cabin, hunting moose, and exploring. If you like outdoor books I recommend this as a must read.

This is an excellent source but one must be accurate about the copyright date. This book has been reprinted several times but the date of copyright is 1984. There has been much new information and research that would be available in a more current text.

This book was great in helping to identify the different animals that I'm able to see on a daily basis. I'm able to tell what mammal I'm looking at and tell people something about them.

After acquiring the Encyclopedia of Mammals, I went out and bought the others in the series. A great thing about the Facts on File animal encyclopedias is the excellent color photos - I am amazed they can give so many photos at such a low price; each page is packed!

It troubles me to no end that books that are to be taken as scholarly would stoop to using FAKE photographs....in this case none other than the famously fake tornado on the cover....to sell the books. I wish I knew if a) the author, being well-versed in the topic he has written about, KNOWS the photo is fake and is trying to hype his product or; b) he is ignorant of such? I am not sure which is worse? Until consumers cite their disgust with such ploys we are doomed to not knowing what is real and what is FAKE even in so-called non-fiction or "scientific" text. The publisher should be ashamed.

"Braving the Elements" is a breathtaking trek from the Ice Age to the 'Old World' of Native American North America, from the European invasion of the 'New World' through colonial times(both Jefferson and Washington kept daily weather journals and Franklin 'discovered' Nor'easters); from Lewis and Clark's journals to the hottest decade (1980s) and year (1995) on record to the Storm of the Century (1993) - the virtual history of North America all through the window of weather.

From unprediactable weather in the western U.S. (half the continental US is "classified as deficient in moisture" or practically desert!) to the greenhouse effect; from lethal storms and the people who try to predict them, all aspects of weather are covered.

It is an engaging and hard-to-put-down read which weaves facts, history and science into a really fascinating book. Campers, naturalists, history and weather buffs will all enjoy this engaging story.

Every other day we get some weather disaster on cnn then forget it. This book gives the larger picture, over time: the patterns and changes, as well as a fascinating history of how weather was viewed and recorded. You'll find lots more here than you would think.

Dr. Hamburg, during a TV interview on 10/8/02 thought a good place to begin changing the world on a path toward peace would be through -- The United Nations, Pres. Jimmy Carter & CNN cable news -- Here we go again. We'll just put all the intellectuals together, few of whom have earned dollars in the free competitive market, and have little working knowledge of how the human world functions outdoors of a classroom or library or gov. office, and we'll have them write a book on how to solve the worlds problems. They do this by thinking while their heads are way out of the classroom, and way up in the clouds. Turn everything over to the do nothing UN to get us into deaper trouble - to Jimmy Carter to, well-- - and to Jane Fonda's husband. I quit. P.S. I DO RATE THIS BOOK THREE STARS. I found I just had to pick my way carfully through it.

Dr. Hamburg shows us the way to resolve conflicts and to prevent them. George Bush, Dick Cheney, Rumsfeld, Rice and Tony Blair need to read this book ASAP!!

...this book is needed now more than ever. Dr. Hamburg shows us how World War II could have been prevented, and how we can prevent future deadly conflicts from occurring. ...

David Toomey's well researched book has an astounding wealth of information that is both stunning in detail and fascinating in every aspect. This book drew my attention because of my own obsession with hurricanes, having been through several in North Carolina,(to include Fran, Bonnie,and Floyd ). During Floyd we were in the eye of the storm at night and went out and looked up into a clear, silent sky and watched as suddenly a hurricane hunter flew overhead, the only sound at all.
David Toomey details the thoughts that went into the changing views of weatheras a philosophy and the evolution into the science of meteorology. This transformation from philosophy to science is interesting. Weather phenomena was thought to be only a local event and the idea that weather traveled from one area to another was not even imagined. The idea of weather patterns was a foreign concept as well. Toomey details this transformation which spans the continents, including battles of very differing ideas. The leap in the quantity of scientific data and reliability of it's use from the the 1950's to present time is amazing.
This scientific evolution was also a big push in the development of computers, originally called a "calculating clock"(in 1623), then "stepped reckoner" (1673), and then a giant leap to the "Difference Engine" in the 1830's. This subject in and of itself would have been a great subject.
Throughout all of this history of meteorology, the key aspect of this book centers on the people that flew into the hurricanes to obtain the data that would revolutionize hurricane forecasting. Their lives are opened and the picture that is viewed is of normal, everyday men. They saw their mission in life and pursued it, even in the face of daunting odds and tremendous danger. David Toomey has written a book that covers the world of hurricanes from the science to the very human and intimate aspects that surround them and has done so in a way that both educates and captivates your attention.

This glimpse into 1940's and 50's Navy airmen's exploration of hurricanes is fascinating reading, from a scientific and a human perspective. I've never read nonfiction that captured my imagination and attention so well. It's amazing to me that this story hadn't been told before. How did we come this far into the space age without knowing that people have been flying into hurricanes to study them since the 1940's? And why did those particular people believe they could, without sophisticated instruments, fly into hurricanes and come out again? This book provides suspense while informing the reader of historic events surrounding the world of weather forecasting. I look forward to reading what David Toomey writes next.

Before satellite weather photos, the main way of getting information on Atlantic and Caribbean hurricanes was to fly airplanes into them. It is still being done, for it is still the best means for getting the exact location of a hurricane and details such as its speed and direction. In the more than half century of countless such patrols, only one aircraft and crew have been lost. Their story is told in _Stormchasers: The Hurricane Hunters and Their Fateful Flight into Hurricane Janet_ (Norton) by David Toomey. Toomey has gone back to look at Navy documents, interviewed members of the former Weather Reconnaissance Squadron to which the flight belonged, and talked with members of the crew's families. The book has a framework of a reconstruction of the mission of the September 1955 flight, and does so with as much detail as could possibly be gathered so many years on. The story might in itself be a little thin, but Toomey has as well given a broader picture of the history of hurricane science and general meteorology.

Reports of hurricanes at sea began to become practical after ships got radios; the first wireless report of a hurricane was in 1909. The program of reporting storms was a victim of its own success; ships' captains so well knew the danger of hurricanes that one report would send all ships steaming away from the source, making further data collection impossible. No one seriously proposed flying an airplane into a hurricane, because no one knew what such a flying environment would be like. The first flight into a hurricane was performed on a bet, in 1943, and afterwards other pilots wanted to try, and meteorological data started being taken. By 1955, the Weather Bureau, Navy, and Air Force had been sending official flights into massive storms for about a decade. The mission led by Navy Lieutenant Commander Grover B. Windham into the dangers of Hurricane Janet in the Caribbean took place in a PV2 Neptune, which looked a little like the legendary B-17, and could take a similar amount of punishment. Toomey has recreated the flight from its beginning, out of the base at Guantanamo. He can only speculate about its end; there was a final transmission from the plane, "Beginning penetration," which meant they were entering the storm. No trace of the plane or crew was ever found, and Toomey has written three possible fatal outcomes.

The details of the flight itself are well presented (and may well remind readers of The Perfect Storm), but the digressions into the important history of meteorology are fascinating. We are invited to admire that genius of amateur science, Benjamin Franklin, who noted in 1743 that a storm seemed to have tracked from Philadelphia to Boston, and who was the first to speculate that such storms travel along the country but contain winds different from their overall direction of movement. There were attempts in the last century to track a hurricane by seismograph. The reduced pressure would lift up the Earth's crust of the ocean floor, and there was some success in triangulating earthquake-type shifts detected at different stations. We no longer call hurricanes exclusively by women's names, but even in 1955, the practice was not uncontroversial. Forecasters excused themselves by saying that "like women, every hurricane is different, they are generally unpredictable, and they can make men feel small and inconsequential." Besides, no flier wanted to declare that he had "penetrated Charlie;" but in 1979, men's names started being used as well. _Stormchasers_ nicely contrasts chapters recounting the sad fate of the fliers into hurricane Janet with chapters containing an often inspiring story of scientific enquiry.

While the info in this book seems sound it is a great shame that the book design takes so much pleasure away from reading it.

With too-small margins (no space to write your own notes), a chunky font, few photos or drawings, and no quotes or side bars to provide visual relief, reading through it was a chore.

I hope for a future edition that addresses these problems.

Half-marathoners will get everything they need from David Holt's newest book. Great starter program to move from 20 to 35 or more miles per week and your first half marathon; 10 to 20 weeks or more programs to become faster at all levels...all levels of both mileage and ability.
The pace tables show you the speeds to train at to reach your full potential and to avoid overtraining. The 40 pages of cross training insights will keep you healthy and running for years.
Great book, great motivation, beautifully organized and researched.

Best Half-marathons will take you to your first 5K and then to your first half-marathon, but gently with small increases in training.
He believes in no aches and no pain to avoid injuries and to keep your motivation yet you will:
Run up-hills, but starting with just a few easy repeats up gentle slopes;
Run at all paces which the half-marathon world record holder trains at...but at your speed, with the same heartrate intensity which the world record holder runs, and starting with a half mile and increasing gradually.
Holt includes motivation tips, stretching, weight and aerobic cross-training and how to peak for faster half-marathons.
Excellent and easy to read with training programs for everyone from jogger to experienced runners at 25 to 60 plus miles per week.