THE DINOSAUR BOOK: Facts and Fictions About the World’s Largest Creatures <i> by David Lambert & the Diagram Group (Avon: $12.95, illustrated) </i>

Intended for ages 12 and up, this attractive, large-format book makes a handy addition to the library of an adult amateur scientist. The more useful chapters include a catalogue of dinosaur exhibits in museums around the world and an alphabetical list of dinosaur genera. The sections devoted to various aspects of life during the Mesozoic Era are more readable, but David Lambert tends to present largely unproveable theories about dinosaur behavior as fact. Male Pachycephalosaurs may have butted their thickly domed heads in fights over females, but it is by no means certain that they did. A useful book, but one to be taken with a grain of rock salt.