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Sea Dragons: Predators of the Prehistoric Oceans
In the days when dinosaurs dominated the earth, their marine counterparts—every bit as big and ferocious—reigned supreme in prehistoric seas. In this entrancing book, Richard Ellis, one of the world's foremost writers on the denizens of the deep, takes us back to the Mesozoic era to resurrect the fascinating lives of these giant seagoing reptiles.
Working from the fossil record, Ellis explores the natural history of these fierce predators, speculates on their habits, and tells how they eventually became extinct—or did they? He traces the 200-million-year history of the great ichthyosaurs, plesiosaurs, and mosasaurs who swam the ancient oceans—and who, according to some, may even still frequent the likes of Loch Ness.
Picture if you will seventy-foot dragons with foot-long serrated teeth, or an animal that looked like a crocodile crossed with a shark the size of a small yacht. With its impossibly long neck, Plesiosaurus conybeari has been compared to "a giant snake threaded through the body of a turtle." At a length of nearly sixty feet, Mosasaurus hoffmanni boasted powerful jaws and teeth that could crunch up even the hardest-shelled giant sea turtle. And Kronosaurus queenslandicus, perhaps the most formidable of the lot, had a skull nine feet long—more than twice that of Tyrannosaurus Rex—with teeth to match.
The first book about these amazing animals in nearly a century, Sea Dragons draws upon the most recent scientific research to vividly reconstruct their lives and habitats. Their fossils have been found all over the world—in Europe, Australia, Japan, and even Kansas—in lands that once lay on the floors of Jurassic and Triassic seas. Along the way, the book also provides intriguing insights into and entertaining tales about the work, discoveries, and competing theories that compose the fascinating world of vertebrate paleontology.
Ellis also graces his text with a set of incomparable illustrations. Widely hailed as our foremost artist of marine natural history, he depicts vividly how these creatures probably appeared and, through these likenesses, invites us to speculate on their locomotion, their predatory habits, their very lifestyles.
A genuine book of marvels and wonders, Sea Dragons will certainly stir one's curiosity about our planet's prehistoric past.
Working from the fossil record, Ellis explores the natural history of these fierce predators, speculates on their habits, and tells how they eventually became extinct—or did they? He traces the 200-million-year history of the great ichthyosaurs, plesiosaurs, and mosasaurs who swam the ancient oceans—and who, according to some, may even still frequent the likes of Loch Ness.
Picture if you will seventy-foot dragons with foot-long serrated teeth, or an animal that looked like a crocodile crossed with a shark the size of a small yacht. With its impossibly long neck, Plesiosaurus conybeari has been compared to "a giant snake threaded through the body of a turtle." At a length of nearly sixty feet, Mosasaurus hoffmanni boasted powerful jaws and teeth that could crunch up even the hardest-shelled giant sea turtle. And Kronosaurus queenslandicus, perhaps the most formidable of the lot, had a skull nine feet long—more than twice that of Tyrannosaurus Rex—with teeth to match.
The first book about these amazing animals in nearly a century, Sea Dragons draws upon the most recent scientific research to vividly reconstruct their lives and habitats. Their fossils have been found all over the world—in Europe, Australia, Japan, and even Kansas—in lands that once lay on the floors of Jurassic and Triassic seas. Along the way, the book also provides intriguing insights into and entertaining tales about the work, discoveries, and competing theories that compose the fascinating world of vertebrate paleontology.
Ellis also graces his text with a set of incomparable illustrations. Widely hailed as our foremost artist of marine natural history, he depicts vividly how these creatures probably appeared and, through these likenesses, invites us to speculate on their locomotion, their predatory habits, their very lifestyles.
A genuine book of marvels and wonders, Sea Dragons will certainly stir one's curiosity about our planet's prehistoric past.
326 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2003
9 people are currently reading
172 people want to read
About the author
Richard Ellis
29 books58 followersRichard Ellis is a celebrated authority on marine biology and America’s foremost marine life artist whose work has been exhibited worldwide. His nine books include The Search for the Giant Squid (a Publishers Weekly 1998 Best Book of the Year), Great White Shark, Encyclopedia of the Sea, Men and Whales, Monsters of the Sea, Deep Atlantic The Book of Whales, and Imagining Atlantis.
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Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews
January 18, 2018
I really enjoyed this exploration of "sea dinosaurs". It's amazing how much information can be deduced about how they lived and hunted just from fossilized bones from hundreds of millions of years ago. Ellis describes Icthyosaurs (porpoise-like deep sea hunters), Plesiosaurs (shallow-water ambushers with long necks and squat four-flipper bodies), Pliosaurs (sleeker than plesiosaurs with shorter necks), and Mosasaurs (terrifying sea serpents), each more terrifying than the next.
I pictured a plesiosaur in comparatively shallow coastal water, motionless, with its head 20 feet up among the trees ready to strike at passing fish like a cobra the size of a Chevy...
I pictured a plesiosaur in comparatively shallow coastal water, motionless, with its head 20 feet up among the trees ready to strike at passing fish like a cobra the size of a Chevy...
July 2, 2021
This was published nearly 20 years ago, so of course some of the information is out of date, but this is a very informative and accessible book detailing marine reptile predators.
January 12, 2025
Great primer to marine reptiles, good writing - but some of the illustrations are a little "off".
February 8, 2013
Sea Dragons is not for everyone. I wanted to know more about these marine reptiles and the book helped me accomplish that goal. However at times, it was tough sledding! I had to persevere through many dry, dull, and confusing paragraphs to get there.
It seems to me that the author wrote the book as follows: he did an extensive literature search, took notes on 5 X 7 cards, sorted the cards by topic (kind of) and wrote the book from the card information. The result is a ton of detailed information but not without its problems. There are contradictions throughout the book. There are vast differences of opinion between the experts cited. They remain unresolved. The author seldom, if ever, weighs in to settle the disputes. Also, the technical jargon can be a huge obstacle to comprehension (at least for the layman readers). The author is keenly aware of this and tries to massage the problem. However he doesn't consistently do it nor does he always do it at the introduction of new terminology.(e.g., He never defined "pinniped" until after numerous pages of using the term).
It is hard to come away from this book with many generalizations about marine reptiles that seem firmly grounded. There is far too much equivication. For example, just how the marine reptiles used their four flippers to propel themselves is still a big mystery to me. The paleontologists can not seem to agree on this according to Ellis. Surely, some ranking of importance of the different theories could be made.
One observation I made and the author seems to have missed is the important difference in the tails of these creatures. The ichthyosaurs have a fishlike tail, the pleiosaurs and pliosaurs have a reptile-like tail (round in cross-section and tapered), and the mosasaurs have an oar-like tail. Knowing this, I can tell from the pictures, what the animal is.
The ichthyosaurs seemed to me to be the best adapted because they were most fishlike. Yet they went extinct first. The author says that new fish had evolved which ate the ichthyosaur young. Wouldn't those also be able to eat the plesiosaur, pliosaur and mosasaur young?
To the author I say, " You have done a lot of good goundwork but this book isn't finished. You need to thoroughly revise this book and deal with the contradictions, try to form some conclusions and generalizations from all the data, and do more to solve the jargon problem. The illustrations were vital. You need even more of them. Why? because the binomial names are meaningless babble without the picture of the animal. Also, provide some graphics to show order, family, genus and species of these animals. I can't see the forest for the trees.
Ralph Hermansen May 3, 2008
It seems to me that the author wrote the book as follows: he did an extensive literature search, took notes on 5 X 7 cards, sorted the cards by topic (kind of) and wrote the book from the card information. The result is a ton of detailed information but not without its problems. There are contradictions throughout the book. There are vast differences of opinion between the experts cited. They remain unresolved. The author seldom, if ever, weighs in to settle the disputes. Also, the technical jargon can be a huge obstacle to comprehension (at least for the layman readers). The author is keenly aware of this and tries to massage the problem. However he doesn't consistently do it nor does he always do it at the introduction of new terminology.(e.g., He never defined "pinniped" until after numerous pages of using the term).
It is hard to come away from this book with many generalizations about marine reptiles that seem firmly grounded. There is far too much equivication. For example, just how the marine reptiles used their four flippers to propel themselves is still a big mystery to me. The paleontologists can not seem to agree on this according to Ellis. Surely, some ranking of importance of the different theories could be made.
One observation I made and the author seems to have missed is the important difference in the tails of these creatures. The ichthyosaurs have a fishlike tail, the pleiosaurs and pliosaurs have a reptile-like tail (round in cross-section and tapered), and the mosasaurs have an oar-like tail. Knowing this, I can tell from the pictures, what the animal is.
The ichthyosaurs seemed to me to be the best adapted because they were most fishlike. Yet they went extinct first. The author says that new fish had evolved which ate the ichthyosaur young. Wouldn't those also be able to eat the plesiosaur, pliosaur and mosasaur young?
To the author I say, " You have done a lot of good goundwork but this book isn't finished. You need to thoroughly revise this book and deal with the contradictions, try to form some conclusions and generalizations from all the data, and do more to solve the jargon problem. The illustrations were vital. You need even more of them. Why? because the binomial names are meaningless babble without the picture of the animal. Also, provide some graphics to show order, family, genus and species of these animals. I can't see the forest for the trees.
Ralph Hermansen May 3, 2008
August 18, 2011
Absolutely fascinating information on creatures from the age of dinosaurs. I've never had a chance to learn much about the prehistoric ocean reptiles (although I loved Plesiosaurs as a kid), and this book was a good introduction. The only thing that could have really improved it would have been some more illustrations.
November 22, 2019
prachtig bondig diepgaand doch zeer toegankelijk werk over de grote mariene reptielen uit het Mesozoïcum. Het boek begint met een hoofdstuk over de evolutie van landreptielen naar zeereptielen in het Trias en zelfs nog een stukje daarvoor.
Na dit opbouwende hoofdstuk worden de grote ordes besproken: Ichtyosauriërs, Pliosauriërs, Plesiosauriërs, Elasmosauriërs en Mosasauriërs. Van iedere orde worden volgende zaken besproken:
- eerste ontdekking en beschrijving van de fossielen
- evolutie
- speculatie over de levenswijze
- anatomie en hoe de dieren zich voortbewogen, voeden, voortplanten, ...
- verwantschap met nog levende dieren
- uitsterven
Ellis baseert zich op verschillende oorzaken en geeft ons de verschillende meningen van verschillende onderzoekers. Soms lijkt de discussie tussen wetenschappers zich in het boek verder te zetten. Hij duwt ons niet in een richting maar geeft de verschillende visies weer.
Op die manier spoort Ellis de lezer aan om een eigen mening te vormen.
Aangezien er heel wat Mosasaurus fossielen gevonden werden in de Krijtafzettingen van België en Nederland worden ook de vondsten uit onze streken besproken.
Een aanrader voor iedereen die meer wil weten over deze fascinerende dieren.
Na dit opbouwende hoofdstuk worden de grote ordes besproken: Ichtyosauriërs, Pliosauriërs, Plesiosauriërs, Elasmosauriërs en Mosasauriërs. Van iedere orde worden volgende zaken besproken:
- eerste ontdekking en beschrijving van de fossielen
- evolutie
- speculatie over de levenswijze
- anatomie en hoe de dieren zich voortbewogen, voeden, voortplanten, ...
- verwantschap met nog levende dieren
- uitsterven
Ellis baseert zich op verschillende oorzaken en geeft ons de verschillende meningen van verschillende onderzoekers. Soms lijkt de discussie tussen wetenschappers zich in het boek verder te zetten. Hij duwt ons niet in een richting maar geeft de verschillende visies weer.
Op die manier spoort Ellis de lezer aan om een eigen mening te vormen.
Aangezien er heel wat Mosasaurus fossielen gevonden werden in de Krijtafzettingen van België en Nederland worden ook de vondsten uit onze streken besproken.
Een aanrader voor iedereen die meer wil weten over deze fascinerende dieren.
August 22, 2017
_Sea Dragons_ is a companion volume to author Richard Ellis' earlier work on the evolution of life in the sea, _Aquagenesis_. During the course of research for the earlier book, he uncovered so much material about Mesozoic marine reptiles that he made a decision to actually leave them out for the most part. He wrote that the material for _Sea Dragons_ came from the "scrap heap," a statement I find remarkable as they are among the most interesting - arguably the most "charismatic" - extinct marine organisms ever. I also think this book is better written, researched, and illustrated than _Aquagenesis_.
The first section of the book provided an introduction to Mesozoic marine reptiles in general, detailing the history of research into these animals and briefly detailing some extinct marine reptiles that are not explored in greater detail later, notably the mesosaurs (marine reptiles up to 3 feet long that lived in the Permian, about 300 million years ago), sea turtles (including extinct species), nothosaurs (Triassic animals that may be ancestral to plesiosaurs and possibly had a seal-like ecological niche), and placodonts (somewhat turtle like reptiles that fed on shellfish). The idea of endothermic marine reptiles is discussed, Ellis noting that not only marine mammals and birds are endothermic but also that several species of fast-swimming pelagic sharks and tuna as well as the leatherback turtle maintain temperatures higher than the waters in which they swim. Also whether or not marine reptiles were viviparous (meaning they bore live young rather than laid eggs) or not is discussed, a subject explored at greater length with each group in its respective chapter.
The first group of animals explored at length is the ichthyosaurs, a remarkable group who bear a great deal of resemblance in form to fast swimming shark, dolphin, and tuna species. They were a group of marine reptiles that were highly adapted to a marine existence, existing from the early Triassic (about 250 million years ago) and perishing well before the end of the Cretaceous (about 93 million years ago). Their ancestors a mystery, early ichthyosaurs were long and slim, somewhat eel-like in form, though later species were highly streamlined. The group is fairly well known, with one locale in Holzmaden, Germany, yielding about 35 ichthyosaurs a year and having produced all told over 3,000 specimens; from these and other fossil sites we know that they gave birth to live young and it is highly unlikely that they possessed echolocation but instead were highly dependent upon vision. Ellis reviewed many ichthyosaur species, notably _Shonisaurus_ (at 50 feet the largest described ichthyosaur to date though Ellis noted that an undescribed specimen from British Columbia is 75 feet long) and _Temnodontosaurs_ (a 30 foot long species with eyes 9 inches across, the largest eyes of any animal that ever lived).
Next Ellis examined the plesiosaurs, a group that is found from the uppermost Triassic to the very end of the Cretaceous (they were around for about 140 million years). Completely unlike ichthyosaurs in form, they possessed long necks with small heads (one species, _Elasmosaurus_, had a neck 47 feet long with 70 neck vertebrae). Much of his chapter on this group noted the many controversies that surround them. How they swam is subject to a great dealt of debate; did they paddle (the limbs moving in the vertical plane, like a human doing a crawl stroke or the movement of a waterwheel in a mill), row (moving in the horizontal plane, in a manner similar to how oars are used on a boat), or "fly" (the limbs moving roughly in a figure-eight pattern, much like modern sea turtles, sea lions, and penguins; and if they did fly did they have two "wings" in use or four)? Did they lay eggs or bear live young? How did they hunt; did they hunt from the surface or well beneath it and what sort of motions were their necks capable of?
The next group are the pliosaurs, a group that some feel is somewhat artificial, either believing the distinction between small-headed, long-necked plesiosaurs and large-headed, short-necked pliosaurs artificial to start with or noting that the pliosaur body plan may have arisen independently several times from ancestral plesiosaurs during the Mesozoic. This group possessed some of the largest predators ever, notably _Liopleurodon_ (most believing it 50 feet in length though Tim Haines, author of the book _Walking With Dinosaurs_ and producer of the BBC TV program of the same name was accused by others of being "irresponsible and sensationalistic" in claims that it was over 80 feet long). Ellis noted several remarkable specimens, such as a pliosaur (_Leptocleidus_) from Australia, "Eric," an almost complete skeleton comprised entirely of precious opal, and one dubbed by detractors "Plasterosaurus," a _Kronosaurus_ specimen that required massive amounts of reconstruction and liberal use of plaster.
The last group examined is the mosasaurs, a kind of marine lizard that appeared in the fossil record 90 million years ago. Not exactly small-sized animals (_Mosasaurus_ reached 58 feet in length), they were arguably the dominant marine predator for about 25 million years, existing after the extinction of the ichthyosaurs (some say there is a connection, though others think that faster, more evasive fish evolved, making ichthyosaur pursuit tactics too metabolically costly and that mosasaurs were ambush not pursuit predators) and during the decline of the pliosaurs. Like the ichthyosaurs, the mosasaurs are relatively well known with many fossils from locations as far apart as Africa, Belgium, Alabama, and Kansas (the Niobrara Chalk formation of Kansas has yielded 1,823 mosasaur specimens, many of which were collected by O.C. Marsh and E.D. Cope in a collecting and naming frenzy that produced such a taxonomic muddle that experts are still confused). I thought Ellis did a very good job in discussing mosasaur physiology and behavior as well as what evolutionary relationship they have (if any) with snakes and found this section particularly enlightening.
The first section of the book provided an introduction to Mesozoic marine reptiles in general, detailing the history of research into these animals and briefly detailing some extinct marine reptiles that are not explored in greater detail later, notably the mesosaurs (marine reptiles up to 3 feet long that lived in the Permian, about 300 million years ago), sea turtles (including extinct species), nothosaurs (Triassic animals that may be ancestral to plesiosaurs and possibly had a seal-like ecological niche), and placodonts (somewhat turtle like reptiles that fed on shellfish). The idea of endothermic marine reptiles is discussed, Ellis noting that not only marine mammals and birds are endothermic but also that several species of fast-swimming pelagic sharks and tuna as well as the leatherback turtle maintain temperatures higher than the waters in which they swim. Also whether or not marine reptiles were viviparous (meaning they bore live young rather than laid eggs) or not is discussed, a subject explored at greater length with each group in its respective chapter.
The first group of animals explored at length is the ichthyosaurs, a remarkable group who bear a great deal of resemblance in form to fast swimming shark, dolphin, and tuna species. They were a group of marine reptiles that were highly adapted to a marine existence, existing from the early Triassic (about 250 million years ago) and perishing well before the end of the Cretaceous (about 93 million years ago). Their ancestors a mystery, early ichthyosaurs were long and slim, somewhat eel-like in form, though later species were highly streamlined. The group is fairly well known, with one locale in Holzmaden, Germany, yielding about 35 ichthyosaurs a year and having produced all told over 3,000 specimens; from these and other fossil sites we know that they gave birth to live young and it is highly unlikely that they possessed echolocation but instead were highly dependent upon vision. Ellis reviewed many ichthyosaur species, notably _Shonisaurus_ (at 50 feet the largest described ichthyosaur to date though Ellis noted that an undescribed specimen from British Columbia is 75 feet long) and _Temnodontosaurs_ (a 30 foot long species with eyes 9 inches across, the largest eyes of any animal that ever lived).
Next Ellis examined the plesiosaurs, a group that is found from the uppermost Triassic to the very end of the Cretaceous (they were around for about 140 million years). Completely unlike ichthyosaurs in form, they possessed long necks with small heads (one species, _Elasmosaurus_, had a neck 47 feet long with 70 neck vertebrae). Much of his chapter on this group noted the many controversies that surround them. How they swam is subject to a great dealt of debate; did they paddle (the limbs moving in the vertical plane, like a human doing a crawl stroke or the movement of a waterwheel in a mill), row (moving in the horizontal plane, in a manner similar to how oars are used on a boat), or "fly" (the limbs moving roughly in a figure-eight pattern, much like modern sea turtles, sea lions, and penguins; and if they did fly did they have two "wings" in use or four)? Did they lay eggs or bear live young? How did they hunt; did they hunt from the surface or well beneath it and what sort of motions were their necks capable of?
The next group are the pliosaurs, a group that some feel is somewhat artificial, either believing the distinction between small-headed, long-necked plesiosaurs and large-headed, short-necked pliosaurs artificial to start with or noting that the pliosaur body plan may have arisen independently several times from ancestral plesiosaurs during the Mesozoic. This group possessed some of the largest predators ever, notably _Liopleurodon_ (most believing it 50 feet in length though Tim Haines, author of the book _Walking With Dinosaurs_ and producer of the BBC TV program of the same name was accused by others of being "irresponsible and sensationalistic" in claims that it was over 80 feet long). Ellis noted several remarkable specimens, such as a pliosaur (_Leptocleidus_) from Australia, "Eric," an almost complete skeleton comprised entirely of precious opal, and one dubbed by detractors "Plasterosaurus," a _Kronosaurus_ specimen that required massive amounts of reconstruction and liberal use of plaster.
The last group examined is the mosasaurs, a kind of marine lizard that appeared in the fossil record 90 million years ago. Not exactly small-sized animals (_Mosasaurus_ reached 58 feet in length), they were arguably the dominant marine predator for about 25 million years, existing after the extinction of the ichthyosaurs (some say there is a connection, though others think that faster, more evasive fish evolved, making ichthyosaur pursuit tactics too metabolically costly and that mosasaurs were ambush not pursuit predators) and during the decline of the pliosaurs. Like the ichthyosaurs, the mosasaurs are relatively well known with many fossils from locations as far apart as Africa, Belgium, Alabama, and Kansas (the Niobrara Chalk formation of Kansas has yielded 1,823 mosasaur specimens, many of which were collected by O.C. Marsh and E.D. Cope in a collecting and naming frenzy that produced such a taxonomic muddle that experts are still confused). I thought Ellis did a very good job in discussing mosasaur physiology and behavior as well as what evolutionary relationship they have (if any) with snakes and found this section particularly enlightening.
September 29, 2022
Like most pieces of scientific nonfiction, I wouldn't call SEA DRAGONS light reading. The book is packed with information about prehistoric marine reptiles, focusing primarily on: ichthyosaurs, plesiosaurs (and pliosaurs), and mosasaurs. If you're in the market for reading about these incredible animals, this is an excellent resource.
My favorite parts of the book, however, are when Ellis takes the time to "throw shade", as it were, on researchers, enthusiasts, or petty paleontological disputes. There's palpable sass to these moments, and it is--quite simply--delightful.
If I could change anything about this book, I would have preferred the sections on each scientific order to be written in such a way as to allow either chapter breaks within the larger 'book' sections, or section breaks to make it easier when one isn't settling in to read a 50-page chapter in one sitting.
My favorite parts of the book, however, are when Ellis takes the time to "throw shade", as it were, on researchers, enthusiasts, or petty paleontological disputes. There's palpable sass to these moments, and it is--quite simply--delightful.
If I could change anything about this book, I would have preferred the sections on each scientific order to be written in such a way as to allow either chapter breaks within the larger 'book' sections, or section breaks to make it easier when one isn't settling in to read a 50-page chapter in one sitting.
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July 8, 2017Just finished the book today. It was a bit dry as other people have told me. But one of the last chapters gave me pause. Ellis went into the mosasaurs-evolved-into-snakes theory that was apparently going strong when he was writing. I have never heard of that before. Since then I think fossils have pushed back the origins of snakes to many millions of years before mosasaurs appeared. http://www.prehistoric-wildlife.com/i...
June 18, 2019
I enjoyed this book, and I learned a lot from reading this book. It's in the genre of popular science books. It is also a reference book for an Online course: Paleontology: Ancient Marine Reptiles found on Coursera.
May 6, 2025
getting the ichthyosaur babies tattooed at the end of the month because i love them so much
February 10, 2012
Splendid Book on Mesozoic Marine Reptiles
Acclaimed marine illustrator and author Richard Ellis offers a splendid, long-overdue look on Mesozoic marine reptiles in his latest book, "Sea Dragons: predators of the prehistoric oceans". This is a slightly technical book that is aimed for those in the general public already familiar with Mesozoic vertebrate paleobiology after reading books from the likes of Robert Bakker, Gregory Paul and others. Ellis excels in incorporating the latest research on these extinct denizens of Mesozoic seas, often opting to quote directly from the published papers of the authors themselves. He begins with a splendid critique of the so-called "Loch Ness Monster", reminding us that it was a hoax perpetrated by several enthusiastic British in 1934. Then he offers a brief overview of the real monsters of the Mesozoic. In subsequent chapters he offers extensive overviews of Ichtyosaurs, Plesiosaurs, Pliosaurs, and Mosasaurs. Last, but not least, he muses on the nature of extinction, trying to explain why these elegant creatures - the marine counterparts of the nonavian dinosaurs - became extinct. My only criticism - and it is a relatively minor one - is Ellis's failure to describe phylogenetic systematics - better known to both its practitioners and critics as cladistics - which he refers to repeatedly in his technical descriptions of these creatures. Still, this is an important general overview of Mesozoic marine life which shouldn't be missed by those interested in Mesozoic vertebrate paleobiology.
(Reposted from my 2003 Amazon review.)
Acclaimed marine illustrator and author Richard Ellis offers a splendid, long-overdue look on Mesozoic marine reptiles in his latest book, "Sea Dragons: predators of the prehistoric oceans". This is a slightly technical book that is aimed for those in the general public already familiar with Mesozoic vertebrate paleobiology after reading books from the likes of Robert Bakker, Gregory Paul and others. Ellis excels in incorporating the latest research on these extinct denizens of Mesozoic seas, often opting to quote directly from the published papers of the authors themselves. He begins with a splendid critique of the so-called "Loch Ness Monster", reminding us that it was a hoax perpetrated by several enthusiastic British in 1934. Then he offers a brief overview of the real monsters of the Mesozoic. In subsequent chapters he offers extensive overviews of Ichtyosaurs, Plesiosaurs, Pliosaurs, and Mosasaurs. Last, but not least, he muses on the nature of extinction, trying to explain why these elegant creatures - the marine counterparts of the nonavian dinosaurs - became extinct. My only criticism - and it is a relatively minor one - is Ellis's failure to describe phylogenetic systematics - better known to both its practitioners and critics as cladistics - which he refers to repeatedly in his technical descriptions of these creatures. Still, this is an important general overview of Mesozoic marine life which shouldn't be missed by those interested in Mesozoic vertebrate paleobiology.
(Reposted from my 2003 Amazon review.)
November 13, 2012
I know, I'm uber-geek in the extreme. I'm adn adult, reading books about dinosaurs. Whatever, it makes me smile. :-) Actually, plesiosaurs, icthyosaurs, etc. were not dinosaurs any more than whales are elephants, but I doubt you care about that.
What I really liked about this book is that the author could actually write. A lot of the book is dry, with details about bone structures far over my head, but overall I think Ellis did a great job of making this accessible to the layman (Me). I didn't even know what Pliosaurs were, so obviously I needed a refresher course from my youth. Honestly, it's the non-dinosaurs that capture my imagination: mosasaurs, pterydactyls, and all manner of prehistoric mammals. Fascinating stuff. I love all the weird animals of today (tapirs, capybara, echidna, aye-aye, etc.), and the fossil record is just choked with them.
Ellis tends to write about aquatic creatures, with books out about Whales, Great White Sharks, etc., and I'm definitely willing to give these others a chance.
What I really liked about this book is that the author could actually write. A lot of the book is dry, with details about bone structures far over my head, but overall I think Ellis did a great job of making this accessible to the layman (Me). I didn't even know what Pliosaurs were, so obviously I needed a refresher course from my youth. Honestly, it's the non-dinosaurs that capture my imagination: mosasaurs, pterydactyls, and all manner of prehistoric mammals. Fascinating stuff. I love all the weird animals of today (tapirs, capybara, echidna, aye-aye, etc.), and the fossil record is just choked with them.
Ellis tends to write about aquatic creatures, with books out about Whales, Great White Sharks, etc., and I'm definitely willing to give these others a chance.
October 1, 2011
I've really enjoyed the Richard Ellis books I have read, but this one is my favorite. Possibly due to its subject matter (extinct marine reptiles), the art (spare, yet engaging, sketches done in black ink), how Ellis wrote this one (he not only covers the creatures themselves, but also deals with the historiography of paleontology as well), or all of it as well. I am pissed I lost this in a cross-country move. It is in sore need of replacement & a re-read.
April 28, 2014
Kind of dry reading. for the layperson not terriby accessable since many technical terms of morphology are used, and no illustrations of fossil bones mentioned are provided. also helpful would be the subdivisions of the epocs of earth's time, but don't exist. also almost unavoidably it gets bogged down (at least to a lay person) in nomenclatural mess. it lacked flow for all the above reasons.
February 27, 2008
I think my favourite is the plesiosaur.
Want to Read
October 26, 2012As heard on the Science Times podcast.
April 8, 2017
I think there are less than one percent as many books about ancient sea reptiles as there are about dinosaurs. I own probably fifty dinosaur books (if you include the ones for kids), maybe five pterosaur books, and this is the only book about sea reptiles I've been able to find that isn't for the juvenile market. It talks a little about the early discoveries, and quite a bit about the various types of icthyosaur, pleisosaur, pliosaur, mosasaur and so forth. The illustrations are carefully and accurately rendered in pen and ink, though a little dry. The text could maybe use a little editing and smoothing-- he had interesting things to day, both technical and popular, but the flow isn't really there.
I wonder if there is a recent scholarly book about giant sloths? Because I really want to know more about their digging habits.
A few facts you may not know:
Some sea reptiles bore live young.
An entire skeleton was found in Australia that had turned to opal.
Many species used four large flippers at once. We're still not sure how that worked.
I wonder if there is a recent scholarly book about giant sloths? Because I really want to know more about their digging habits.
A few facts you may not know:
Some sea reptiles bore live young.
An entire skeleton was found in Australia that had turned to opal.
Many species used four large flippers at once. We're still not sure how that worked.
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