DK's First Dinosaur Encyclopedia


Ah, books. For many a palaeonerd my introduction to prehistory. So many encyclopedias, picture books, so many across libraries. Where should I start? How about with the venerable Dorling Kindsesley books from Britain, who have published plenty of education books that have helped fuel interest and love for the subject. And in particular is today's subject, DK's First Dinosaur Encyclopedia (2007), written by Caroline Bingham with input from the noted Dougal Dixon. I borrowed it from my local library, an edition from 2007. It has a few tears here and there, but otherwise is in good condition.

I remember reading it at (one of) my uncle's house, with various images placed into my memories: Brachiosaurus in the desert, zebra-striped Therizinosaurus, a fishing Baryonyx, a rainbow-coloured t. rex among others.

Two typical spreads of the book

The book is a general overview of dinosaurs, from their biology to the Mesozoic, with a few detours for specific groups and taxa. Since this is for fairly young readers, the book is made up of short sentences or simple paragraphs. Most of the information is for the time pretty well, barring a few moments where its 2000 nature shows, such as saying dinosaurs may have had feathers rather then had, or times models are way off, like one Trceratops from at least from before the 80's that tail-drags. That's the flaw of using a whole swath of pre-existing models instead of drawing up original ones.

The linup is fairly standard, featuring just about most of the well-known genera. However, you also have more obscure ones, like theropod Poekilopleuron and ankylosaur Panopolosaurus.

The book uses a mixture of the classic physical models seen in previous DK media and then-new CG models, and even elsewhere (like from one museum in Dorchester and even Dinamation's Allosaurus in one example). You can tell there's a bit of a gulf of quality between the two, and pretty much everyone I know agrees they are inferior to the former, both to look at and ironically in aging. The theropods have slit eyes that seem way too hard to make then KEWL and badass.


There are also some blatant copies for the worse: Allosaurus is one of the Trilogy of Life's right down to colour, and Spinosaurus is one of Jurassic Park's, as indicated by the double head crests rather then one.

One particular problem is that sometimes the same taxa are represented by different models, and I swear the same models are labelled as different taxa in different spreads, like Herrarasaurus on one and Staurikosaurus on another. Either way, its not fooling anyone.

However, I admit the CG ones have a lot of nostalgia for me as much as the physical ones since I grew up with both. By having a mixture, I think we get the best of both worlds, which simply put, appeals to both 90's kids and 2000's kids. 


The designs can oten be pretty good too. The best of the CG in my humble opinion is the zebra-striped Therizinosaurus I mentioned earlier. Designed by legendary palaeoartist Luis V. Rey, it is quite the striking design, that loks both big and powerful snd yet a little goofy, and is one of the better aging dinosaurs in the book (save the wing feathers). Not far behind is the Caudipteryx, bright blue. I legit thought the tail was a head crest as a kid due to the perspective.

Another of my favourites is that of a physical model, "Troodon". They have feathers, but its of the shaggy, kind. The best part is they have sexual dimorphism here: as you can see, the males have blue in the head while the females don't.
  • Accuracy - 7/10
  • Aging - 7/10
  • Presentation - 8/10
  • Text - 7/10
  • Models - 6/10
  • Rereadability - 8/10

Overall, DK's First Dinosaur Encyclopedia is a solid read despite its young target audience and not aging the most gracefully, not just appealing for kids, thanks to its colourful array of designs and models and short but informative text that actually aged reasonably well, while the art is tender and nostalgic; at the very least, its an inoffensive read. I can see why 8-year old me loved the book, and no doubt even kids today and you likely you will.

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