Grimlock ♥ Ultra Magnus

This book starts with: "Dinosaurs were ruling this planet millions of years ago.   They were an entire species of of animals which lived on this planet millions of years ago, but they have become extinct today."  

I just don't know where to start with what is wrong with this.   "Dinosaurs ruled this planet millions of years ago, although they have long since become extinct."   The phrasing is awkward, 'become extinct today' implies that they have become extinct just this day, and dinosaurs are not a 'species'.   There are many species of dinosaurs.   Classifying dinosaurs as a species makes me cringe.   (My sister argued that she thought of dinosaurs as a species in the whole.  By definition, not so.  There are hundreds of different species of dinosaurs, and I did research on classification.  I can see no evidence of the dinosaurs - all of them - being classified as a species.)

More fail under the page break.  

"The fossil was discovered in England in 1676 but described in 1824."   No clue.  None at all.   Was the fossil really not described for over a century?   Nope, no clue.   I still have no idea what that sentence was trying to tell me.

"Scientists believe that most of the hatchlings were able to survive as soon as they hatched from the eggs."   Nope.   She means the babies are self-sufficient.   There's a word for this, and I can't remember it... or a phrase...   Help anyone?   But the way this is phrased makes it almost seem as if most living things die as soon as they're born, but not the dino-babies!   Whereas a human child needs to be taken care of, spiders have babies that are pretty much self-sufficient and do things like create webs though an instinct they're born with.   I know there's a word or phrase to describe this and am having trouble finding it online. 

"Brachiosaurus is one of the most popular dinosaur names because of its weight."   Reeeally?   Then surely when you say this: "However, Argentinosaurs seem to have been heavier," then you don't mean to imply that they're more popular than the Brachiosaurus since it's heavier, do you?   Or perhaps there's a reason other than how weighty the dinosaur is that could account for it's popularity?

"Although dinosaurs were beautiful and intelligent creatures..."   Intelligent?   On what scale, because everything I've read seems to indicate while some species are smarter than others, and while some may have been moderately adaptive or sensory smart, there doesn't seem to be any indication that they were truly intelligent.   Or at least, such a broad statement isn't factual, and it really seems like the author is throwing around emotive statements as facts. 

This was a short book that didn't really impress me.   Some facts - estimated weight and so forth - seemed fairly well-resaerched, while the writing itself was fairly shoddy and some basics seemed to be lost, right from the beginning.   I kept reading hoping the book would redeem itself.  It did not.