Dinosaurs and Other Prehistoric Creatures Part 1

Today I will be reviewing a book called The Illustrated Directory of Dinosaurs and Other Prehistoric Creatures. Published in 2000, this volume is a treasure trove of outdated and unintentionally hilarious paleoart. There is really too many to list all of them, but I have narrowed it down to a few highlights. This should still take a few posts. Please excuse bad quality.

Let's start with the cover. I love how it looks like Parasaurolophus was just nicely posing for the picture, and T. rex just stuck his face in the frame.

 T. rex is a major troll, as we will see later.

On the second title page we are greeted by a jolly-looking Brachiosaurus who seems totally cool with being the first of many dinosaurs to get stuck in the gutter.

The first group of dinosaurs we meet are the Coelurosaurs, a group that at the time included practically every small theropod "as a matter of convenience". At least this book is honest about it. The Coelurosaurs are oddly represented by an already outdated flippered Compsognathus:

This is one of my favorite outdated theories. I liked it so much, I drew my own version:

The first genus profiled is a more accurate (for the time) Compsognathus. Note the classic "T. rex" hands.

Moving along, we find a creepy, beady-eyed Ornitholestes snacking on a gory hunk of meat.

I have a feeling this picture caused it's fair share of nightmares.

Next we meet the Ornithomimosaurs and Oviraptorosaurs who were considered close relatives at the time.

This picture (below) is undoubtedly one of the worst depictions of Oviraptor I have ever seen. Retro scaley, nose-horned, tail-dragging egg-snatcher:

To make matters worse, the opposite page has some perfectly normal Oviraptor skulls.

Skip ahead to Segisaurus: The official dinosaur of Gay Pride.

On the next page, we find a retro lizard-faced Avimimus chasing a dragonfly. I've noticed a tendency in old paleo-art  for small theropods to pick on dragonflies.

The next family of dinosaurs we meet are the "Saurornithoidids" (Now known as Troodontids). Here represented by Dale Russel's infamous "Dinosauroid". A regular character in dinosaur books of the time, who me and my brothers affectionately dubbed the "Weirdo Goof".

Why did the authors of this book think it was a good idea to use ridiculous speculative creatures to represent dinosaur clades? This is the second time!

Edit: Unfortunately the above image was deleted off of ImageShack. Apparently ImageShack is offended by the sheer ridiculousness of this creature.

After that embarrassing introduction to the "Saurornithoidids", we meet the Dromaeosaurids, represented by a pack of  Deinonychus doing what they do best: Ganging up on poor Tenontosaurus.

 If you go by paleoart memes, you'd think Tenontosaurus existed for the sole purpose of being viciously attacked by packs of Deinonychus. Seriously, it's like his only claim to fame. He's like the Butt Monkey of the Mesozoic.

Then there's this:

D: Really, anything I say will only distract from how chilling this picture is.

Moving on... The first Dromaeosaurid profiled is Velociraptor. Rather an interesting depiction. On the one hand: It's naked. On the other hand: Note they didn't screw up the hand position!

Next we get to know a lizard-faced, bunny-handed Deinonychus who shares a page with a derp-faced Dromaeosaurus who seems to be hiding it's face in shame.

And then there's the worst skeletal restoration ever:

D':

On that note, I'm going to have to end Part 1 of this review. Next up: We meet the Carnosaurs, grouchy Iguanodontids, and "Other Prehistoric Creatures".