Prehistoric Animals

Following the age of dinosaurs, mammals became the next dominant species, from which latter-day mammals (including humans) are descended. Cohen focuses on these and smaller creatures of the Cenozoic erae.g., birdsand attempts to give simple but complete descriptions of them, from the ancient opossum to the giant ground sloth, which is said to have been the size of an elephant. The book is almost a series of small articles on each of the animals, so that readers may learn only about those that interest them rather than proceed chronologically. But, after speculating that, with his new discovery of fire, primitive man made some species of animals extinct, the author preaches conservation for the present. That message seems out of place, given the scope of the rest of the material, but does not detract from an otherwise intriguing look at the past. Ages 7-12. (May)