Tracking Tyrannosaurs

by Christopher Sloan

Published 24 September 2013
This book highlights a newly discovered T. rex relative in China with a coat of downy feathers! This one-ton predator is the largest known animal to ever have walked the Earth. This discovery was made public in April 2012, and is a timely addition that sets this book apart from other dinosaur titles. 

We meet 19 kinds of tyrannosaurs--including seven new species discovered in the last two years--that came before T. rex. The names are strange, like Bistahieversor and Zhuchengtyrannus. The creatures were strange, too, and many of the newly discovered ones caught scientists by surprise. 

Filled with engaging, lifelike illustrations by Xing Lida, Tracking Tyrannosaurs explains to kids how T. rex, the most famous, ferocious dinosaur of all-time was only one of many tyrannosaurs that lived on Earth for over 100 million years!

Bizarre Dinosaurs

by Christopher Sloan

Published 14 October 2008

With state-of-the-art, digitally modelled images, fantastic photos of fossils, and up-to-date scientific interpretations, Bizarre Dinosaurs introduces dino-lovers to a group of very strange creatures indeed.

The cast of characters includes Masiakasaurus, a fierce some beats whose mouth bristled with serrated, slightly hooked, forward-poking teeth; Deinocheirus with his ungainly long arms and huge triple claws; Epedendrosaurus with a tiny body and pinkie fingers as long as his arms; and flat-faced Dracorex hogwartsia, the "dragon king of Hogawarts", named after Harry Potter's School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Palaeontologist Josh Smith uses clear and informed text to tell kids what we know and what we are still guessing about this collection of odd-looking monsters, including how scientists think they used their individual bizarre characteristics. In his introduction, life-long dinosaur enthusiast John Updike gives young readers a new perspective on the sheer weirdness of dinosaurs by turning our relationship with hem on its head: "That thin and featherless skin, that dish-flat face, that limp upright stance, those fleeable clawless five digits at the end of each limb, that ghastly utter lack of tail–ugh.