Dean famous dinosaur artists and fleas

It's difficult to imagine now, but there was a time when the cover star of a book on prehistoric animals wouldn't inevitably have been a (Mesozoic) dinosaur.

In our post-post-Dino Renaissance world, we're used to fast-moving, feathered theropods, ankylosaurs with legs and necks worth a damn, sauropods not just wandering around on terra firma but brontosmashing each other in the process, and Bob Bakker's face replacing that of Santa Claus so slowly, no one even noticed.

The term "Dinosaurabilia" was coined in by Dean Hannotte, a Manhattan computer expert whose passion is collecting anything connected with dinosaurs.

The term "Dinosaurabilia" was coined in by Dean Hannotte, a Manhattan computer expert whose passion is collecting anything connected with dinosaurs.

These Dressed Fleas, or Pulgas Vestidas, were popular trinkets for tourists to buy, often from nuns in Mexican monasteries.

These Dressed Fleas, or Pulgas Vestidas, were popular trinkets for tourists to buy, often from nuns in Mexican monasteries.

Two famous mural paintings by the artist.

This next layer of rock is the most famous dinosaur graveyard in the world: the Morrison Formation, named for a tiny Colorado town south of Boulder.

Back in the day, however, dinosaurs were seen as mere failures of evolution, twiddling their stupid fat reptilian thumbs until they were all wiped out and the superior mammals could saunter in and take over. Picture yourself now in 1961, thumbing your own way through Life Through The Ages.

It might not feature a (Mesozoic) dinosaur, but the cover is certainly arresting.

Front-and-centre is a freakishly large bird with a giant beak, lashing out at a big cat-like animal in an exciting battle scene. Yeah, there's so