Short description
Since the dinosaurs died out over 65 million years ago the Earth has been dominated by mammals. A succession of bizzare evolutionary specimens have come and gone, from walking whales to sabre-toothed cats. This book recreates spectacular and unfamiliar creatures in the context of their world.
Long description
Since the dinosaurs died out over 65 million years ago the Earth has been dominated by mammals. A succession of bizzare evolutionary specimens have come and gone, from walking whales to sabre-toothed cats. This book recreates spectacular and unfamiliar creatures in the context of their world. The book reveals the ancestors of modern mammals and the arrival of man, and transports the reader to the icy plains of the mammoth, dark forests stalked by giant carnivorous birds and deserts dominated by 15 tonne Indricotheres.
Review
Walking with Beasts aims to bring the Cenozoic age of ancient mammals to life. In the 15 million years after the extinction of the dinosaurs the earth reforested itself, our present continents formed and mammals diversified to become rulers of a new tropical world. This is the dramatized true story of nearly 50 million years of mammalian supremacy with the artistic interpretation typical of the genre. The main narrative relates fictitious encounters between an array of exotic creatures, including precursors to today's horses, elephants, dogs, bears and humans. Much of the drama focuses on predator-prey interactions, sometimes of a surprising nature as when a hatching chick of the ancient giant Gastornis bird is mercilessly overpowered by a swarm of red ants. Zoologist Haines and animator Daren Horley use the same style and technology as their previous hit Walking with Dinosaurs. Inevitably, a book cannot achieve the same atmosphere as the television series it accompanies. Numerous large colour illustrations add to the action but many have a disappointingly blurred or superimposed quality that takes away some of their impact. The action is interspersed with annotated diagrams and illustrations offering scientific evidence for the scenarios described and interesting descriptions of the world's most important fossil sites and their early explorers. Just knowing that the Sahara desert contains remains of early whales and mangrove swamps could arouse the imagination every bit as much as sophisticated visual imagery. (Kirkus UK)
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