Land of Lost Monsters: Man Against Beast: The Prehistoric Battle for the Planet

In a companion volume to his BBC series of the same name, zoologist and television producer Oakes presents a dramatized account of prehistory, when modern man met the""lost monsters"" of the title. Taking the reader on a journey over the past 1.8 million years, Oakes begins in Africa, the home of homo erectus, and follows the migration of homo erectus and the later homo sapiens into Eurasia, charting their encounters with""megafauna""--the now-extinct large animals of Australia, Europe, the Americas and various islands. The stunning photos of still-living animals in their habitats stresses the marvel of beasts like hippopotamus, bears and ostriches, while the computer-generated images of bizarre extinct animals make clear the struggle early humans faced co-existing with terrifying beasts. Oakes looks at the climatic shifts that induced indigenous peoples' pioneering colonization of Australia and the Americas, as well as the mass extinction of many big animals. The author devotes an entire chapter to the human conquest of the Pacific islands and Madagascar, showcasing some of the world's strangest animals, such as the recently extinct moa, a gigantic flightless bird that stood twice the average human height. Oakes also includes fascinating sidebars on extinct animals, such as the giant short-faced bear: an 11-foot tall""horse-sized hyena"" that weighed up to 2,205 lbs. and spanned five feet across the shoulders; the largest mammalian land carnivore was also ""probably the most terrifying creature that humans ever met."" The author's clear and clever prose sprinkled with delicious, prehistorical facts is geared toward young naturalists and amateur zoologists, rather than serious science buffs. Photos.