for your inner dinosaur kid
Nonfiction about prehistoric life guaranteed to reawaken the child within who couldn't get enough of it all, when the end of the Cretaceous felt as far away as when their designated adults were grade schoolers.
created by deathprobably
last updated April, 2026
Comments
As always, I'm accepting suggestions and critiques of what's included! Feel free to share thoughts and recommendations.
Scope of this list will be nonfiction books about prehistoric life, especially its most iconic critters. Book recommendations should focus on covering life before the Holocene.
Thanks in advance!
absolutely iconic. thank you for compiling this!
It's my pleasure! Lord knows I've been ripping through enough lists to find things I want to read, lol!
I never was a dinosaur kid. I was incredibly terrified of them as a child. But due to my siblings having all gone or currently going through at least one dinosaur phase, I'll take a lot of inspiration from this list 🙂↕️
You might try starting with The Rise and Reign of the Mammals! There is a fair bit of dinosaur coverage as Brusatte talks through how very early mammalian ancestors lived concurrently with them, but it continues forward into talking about the history of people too in the last chapter or so. Happy reading!
Excellent list! Dinosaurs an prehistoric life are a special interest of mine, so I will definitely be checking some of these out! I know Steve Brusatte is working on a new one about birds as a follow up to his other two, but I don’t know how early he’s going with it. Either way, I’m excited. I love his work.
BRUSATTE?? BIRDS??
AYOOOO I'm stoked. His work is so delightful. I love that it combines the information I came for with glimpses into what it's like to be in the field and who the major players are, and I love how much effort he puts in to share credit with as many people as possible for finds. Like it's never just one person who did it all by themselves. He seems to go out of his way to mention the people who figured out more foundational information, which I love.
Yes! And his writing is so accessible.
It’s called The Story of Birds: A New History from Their Dinosaur Origins to the Present, and I can’t wait. It comes out in a few weeks!! He’s doing a book tour to promote it, but only in the US. cries in Canadian
I checked. It's out on Tuesday. The way I'm about to become such a problem because I freaking LOVE birds. They're one of my favorite categories of animal. Especially parrots??? like UHG caiques and conures and cockatoos??? sobsob BABIES
omg, death, i love this!!! i definitely had a major dinosaur phase as a kid (i think it actually may have been my first major obsession, before moving on to Ancient Egypt and then The Titanic lol). i can't wait to revisit it reading through this list ☺️🦕💚
Yay!! I too had a dinosaur phase, but I was mostly just an earth sciences kid. Anything science related that I could get my hands on was go. Ancient Egypt was a late grade school/early middle school obsession fueled by The Kane Chronicles LOL
as supplementary material may i recommend the podcast I Know Dino: The Big Dinosaur Podcast 🧐😄
Yes actually this is exactly what I needed. Thanks for making this!
My pleasure! I was digging them up for myself, why keep them just for me, you know?
This list came at a perfect time. The other day I was just talking with my friends that if I like dragons so much then I need to learn about dinosaurs 🤭 Thank you for the list~!
Absolutely! I hope you enjoy!!
Great list to break misconceptions around Paleontology! I was looking to read something about prehistoric life also, glad this list contains that.
I know so many dinosaur kids or people who’ve been through that phase as kids. Something about dinosaurs really fascinates kids, I was one too but for a very brief period. Awakening an old phase is gonna fun, I think…?
Yes!! Dinosaurs might be star of the show, but there’s so many interesting beasties. I’m a Carboniferous era and Devonian oceans (and armored fish) girlie personally! 💕
