The Dinosauria.

Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1990. Folio. Original blue cloth, titles to spine gilt, dinosaur design blocked to upper board in blind, mottled cream endpapers. With the dust jacket. Illustrations and diagrams throughout the text. Ink ownership inscription to the half-title and occasional, neat annotations and underlining within the text. A little finger-soiling to the fore-edge, spotting to the top edge of the text block. A very good copy in the jacket that is lightly rubbed and scuffed with some small marks, creasing, and short closed tears. First edition, first printing of this key reference work described by reviewers as "monumental" and an "instant classic" (Padian, K. "The Dinosauria", Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, volume 11, number 2, June 1991). Though later printings are commonly available online, it is difficult to find first printings in nice condition. The Dinosauria was "a comprehensive, authoritative review of current knowledge and theory about the dinosaurs" that reflected the dramatic shifts in palaeontology during the previous two decades (Wilford, review in The New York Times, January 27, 1991). The first edition contains twenty-nine chapters on dinosaur anatomy, physiology, behaviour, and evolution by twenty-three contributors including leading palaeontologists J. H. Ostrom, Jack Horner, Teresa Marya ska, Halszka Osmólska, Michael Benton and Jacques Gauthier. It was so successful that a revised and expanded second edition published in 2004 and remains in print today.