of giraffes and kangaroos) and animals that are completely new. Dixon decided not to have any dinosaurs achieve human levels of intelligence (i.e. "dinosauroids") in The New Dinosaurs due to intelligence not having "[proven] itself as a feature that has any evolutionary advantage at all". According to Dixon's own website, "Dinosaur science has moved on since first publication in 1988, and the original introduction of the book has aged considerably." Dixon has worked to revise and update this information for more recent international editions of The New Dinosaurs. Reception The New Dinosaurs became a bestseller upon its release and like its predecessor After Man, The New Dinosaurs garnered positive reviews from critics. William F. Allman, writing for the U.S. News & World Report, praised the fact that Dixon had extrapolated his designs from real dinosaur ancestors and concluded that although whimsical at times, most dinosaur researchers would agree with the book insofar that had the asteroid that brought their extinction not hit the planet, dinosaurs would probably dominate the planet to this day. Reviews in Smithsonian, School Library Journal and Booklist were also positive, with reviewers calling the book an "alternative history of the world" and a "quintessential 'what if' book for dinosaur enthusiasts". Many of the animals featured in the book were criticized by paleontologists and science writers, particularly in that so many of the animals are entirely convergent with actual modern-day animals. In this capacity, the "lank", a four-legged, terrestrial and grazing pterosaur derived from the Cretaceous family Azhdarchidae, has been seen by some writers as perhaps the worst offender. In a 1990 review of the book, researcher Gregory S. Paul called the creature "perhaps the worst beast in the book" and "unbelievable", pointing out that he thought it was infeasible that pterosaurs would evolve into giraffe-like animals before the more dominant and already terrestrial dinosaurs. In 1992, researcher David Unwin echoed the same sentiment, viewing four-legged and grass-eating pterosaurs as highly unlikely. In 2008, British paleontologist and science writer Darren Naish offered a more redeeming look at the animal, pointing out that if pterosaurs were to become terrestrial, azhdarchids were the most likely group to do so and that azhdarchids would have used a gait similar to that of giraffes when walking. Paul, Unwin and Naish all pointed out that the sheer diversity seen in pterosaurs within the book is somewhat unlikely as the group was low