Customer Reviews

Neptune's Ark: From Ichthyosaurs to Orcas

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I looked forward with anticipation to reading this book, since the topic is of great interest- origins of the many marine animals that came from land. While it has been very interesting to read, it is a great regret that I can only give it three stars, due to its writing and editing. The publishers weekly review given above is correct in mentioning that the reader has to be prepared to come to this project with a lot of her own armamentarium- such as ready internet access and interest in the field. There is no diagram of geological time, even though the author mentions ancient geological eras by name in virtually every other sentence. (A useful one is [...]
.) There are no diagrams of fossils, only a few beautifully rendered yet speculative drawings of extinct creatures. While these drawings are valuable (as seen on the dust jacket), the discussions about the history of the field and of life generally turn on comparisons of the fossils- ear bones, jaw bones, leg bones, etc. which are not presented. This is rather surprising in a book put out by the University of California Press, which one would think has higher standards of scientific communication.

Unfortunately, worse than the missing media is the writing itself, which is laden with non sequiturs and oddly presented stories which put me in mind of the compulsive intrusion of King Charles's head into the writings of Charles Dickens' character, Mr, Dick. The author tries to liven up the book with descriptions of the 19th century conflicts between paleontologists Othniel Marsh and Edward Cope, who intrude at odd moments and have conflicts that are neither clearly explained nor convincingly resolved. I have no problems with the author's personal reminiscences and connections (dreams are wonderful sources of art & insight)- they are some of the more lively parts of the narrative. But they all seem to turn on only one location- one point on the Point Reyes seashore, which might be a metaphor of sorts for the modest amount of research that went into this book. More substantive parts of the narrative are also plagued with headscratchers, which may or may not be explained at some later episode. One example is the claim that sexual dimorphism was ruled to be minor or absent for Enaliarctos, when only two partial skull fossils had been found to the time. Another is the frequent refrain that some ancient group or other originated in the pacific, when only one fossil had been found world-wide. One might conclude that editing was either very lax, or was so severe as to impair the original sense- either way it can be a chore to figure out what is going on. What can be said is that this book is inspiring enough that this chore is gladly undertaken.

Author just can't keep his mind on the subject. It's all very well to go into the history of this or that find. But don't drone on and on. I was hoping for more about the animals themselves instead of the sad story of whoever discovered the bones. When you buy a book about prehistoric life you want to learn about prehistoric life. If these paleontologists aren't fossilized I don't want to know that much about them. I am sure I can find their bio elsewhere. I want to know how the creature looked. How big was it. What did it eat. What did it do. Etc etc etc. Not that the bones were discovered by X, bought or stolen by Y and forgotten by everybody else. Ellis' book is much much better. At least it sticks to the point.