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Ecology and Behaviour of Mesozoic Reptiles
This richly illustrated book clothes the skeletons of dinosaurs and other Mesozoic reptiles with flesh, and shows how these fascinating animals evolved and probably lived. Expert author John L. Cloudsley-Thompson synthesizes current views on ecology, physiology and behaviour, and outlines the various hypotheses that have been proposed to explain their extinction. Numerous beautiful drawings of the animals and their environment illustrate this exciting monograph.
231 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2005
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September 13, 2018
This was a pleasant return to an old hobby, as a child and teenager I was somewhat obsessed with dinosaurs. When I got older my mind and attention went to different subjects but I could never really get myself rid of that old fascination. Who can blame my younger and contemporary self? Giant monsters with huge teeth, swimming beings, flying creatures, armored and spiked leaf eaters, huge herds of massive long necked titans on a never ending pilgrimage for food and small peculiar nimble beings that lived in the shadow of all those behemoths. Truly there is something for everyone when discussing Mesozoic reptiles. Having visited a chance special exhibition of recently discovered Chinese fossils in Nottingham last year, afterwards rematching the amazing BBC series walking with dinosaurs and having visited one of the best collections of dinosaurs the Berlin natural history museum this year, I was all up for reading books on the subject. Perhaps not as easy as it sounds, for sure you can find a lot of kid oriented dinosaur stuff and some popular works, these were not what I was looking for.
This book however does deliver. It is an accessible book on the various types and genus of reptiles in the Mesozoic period and the author diligently traces their possible origins in the Permian period. Not only is this not a Dino exclusive book either! marine reptiles were not dinosaurs and neither were the impressive pteranodons but he also gives as much time to other families of huge and less huge reptiles that went extinct or have left a few survivors up until this day (crocodile, turtle, snake, Lizard). The author is as diligent when it comes to analysis, he never shies away from discussing theories that have been deemed less probable nor acknowledging what has still not been confirmed or disproven. Never does this come more to the fore then at the end. the end is off course the mass extinction of dinosaurs marking the end of the cretaceous period. As most people I have internalized the astroid theory but as Thompson points out, several of the big and formerly successful dinosaurs and related reptiles (the ichthyosaurus) had become extinct or were barely clinging on (the sauropods) millions of years before the impact! So surely something else must have been brewing making the astroid more a final blow then the ragnorok event it has been portrayed to be.
Yes it was a real joy to read but I do have two remarks. First the drawings used in the book felt often times to be a bit to silly or basic ( most of these are by Thompson himself) escpially since there are some people out there who have made an art of drawing prehistoric life. It really brings the book down at several points and lets face it, if these animals did not look as awe-inspiring as they do, they would not get even a quarter of the research funds they do. So Thompson should have swallowed his pride or perhaps he lacked the funds to pay for a real artist. Secondly Having a background that included a lot of interest in dinosaurs from an early age did help in grasping the content, for a person new to the subject; this book might be a bit to challenging. Even so it still was a fun read and was great catching up with a childhood interest.
This book however does deliver. It is an accessible book on the various types and genus of reptiles in the Mesozoic period and the author diligently traces their possible origins in the Permian period. Not only is this not a Dino exclusive book either! marine reptiles were not dinosaurs and neither were the impressive pteranodons but he also gives as much time to other families of huge and less huge reptiles that went extinct or have left a few survivors up until this day (crocodile, turtle, snake, Lizard). The author is as diligent when it comes to analysis, he never shies away from discussing theories that have been deemed less probable nor acknowledging what has still not been confirmed or disproven. Never does this come more to the fore then at the end. the end is off course the mass extinction of dinosaurs marking the end of the cretaceous period. As most people I have internalized the astroid theory but as Thompson points out, several of the big and formerly successful dinosaurs and related reptiles (the ichthyosaurus) had become extinct or were barely clinging on (the sauropods) millions of years before the impact! So surely something else must have been brewing making the astroid more a final blow then the ragnorok event it has been portrayed to be.
Yes it was a real joy to read but I do have two remarks. First the drawings used in the book felt often times to be a bit to silly or basic ( most of these are by Thompson himself) escpially since there are some people out there who have made an art of drawing prehistoric life. It really brings the book down at several points and lets face it, if these animals did not look as awe-inspiring as they do, they would not get even a quarter of the research funds they do. So Thompson should have swallowed his pride or perhaps he lacked the funds to pay for a real artist. Secondly Having a background that included a lot of interest in dinosaurs from an early age did help in grasping the content, for a person new to the subject; this book might be a bit to challenging. Even so it still was a fun read and was great catching up with a childhood interest.
Displaying 1 of 1 review