Customer Reviews

The Pterosaurs: From Deep Time

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is by far the best book on pterosaurs for the non-technical reader in print. Only the 1990 or 1991 extremely well-illustrated _Illustrated Encyclopedia of Pterosaurs_ by Peter Wellenhoffer has better photos and artwork; it is out of print and dated in many ways (and difficult to find at a reasonable price). Unwin discusses a number of recent fossil finds, including discoveries of pterosaur eggs with embryos from the Upper Jurassic/Lower Cretaceous Lianong Province of China, and eggs from other deposits as well. I was particularly impressed by the specimen that had the fragment of plant material lodged in the lower jaw of the animal, keeping the pterosaur from being able to feed or close its mouth properly. In spite of the fragile and often fragmentary nature of the fossil record for pterosaurs, there are some really fantastic specimens turning up from time to time.

Giving this book less than 5 stars is shameful!

If you are interested in pterosaurs, BUY THIS BOOK!

The only problem I had with this book was that the Publisher originally set a publication date in the spring of 2005. I ordered well in advance, but was dismayed to see that the date of publication was continuously pushed back; everytime I checked the date was moved. I didn't get my copy until the end of August/early September.

An outstanding work, David Unwin's book 'The Pterosaurs from Deep Time' should be considered the standard by which other popular (and even textbook!) books on paleontology should be compared. If only something similar could be written about the various sea-reptiles of the Mesozoic! Very well researched, excellent diagrams, photos and artwork, all the latest information, truly brilliant!

My credentials. I work on pterosaurs (among other things) at the University of Portsmouth, UK.

I'm a pal of Dave Unwin (he looks like Bill Clinton). I have worked with him on ocassions on problems of pterosaur anatomy. He borrowed my house to write part of this book and I was one of several so-called 'experts' invited to read the book as he wrote it. I read every single word two or three times and even read one chapter while flying over his mum's house in Uttoxeter. I chuckled at some of the jokes, and deleted a few in case they trivialised his case. A wry sense of humour and a vivid imagination are a part of the charm of this book. Anyway, just in case you think I am biased by association, I can assure you that this brief review is heartfelt and honest.

This book is an excellent, entertaining and highly informative account of the biology of a group of animals that are (were), without doubt among the most fascinating creatures to have walked and flew the planet. Unwin's style is relaxed and makes reading a pleasure. Pretty well every aspect of pterosaur biology and evolutionary history is touched on. He makes good clear arguments for our deductions about these wonderful animal's behaviour, physiology and locomotion. Where the evidence is vague, or absent he says so.

One exciting aspect is the case Unwin makes for precocious flight in pterosaurs. Rare examples of fossil pterosaur eggs with embryos inside (if there were no embryos we wouldn't have recognised them as eggs) show that just bgefore hatching pterosaur babies had all of their skeleton fully formed and had wing bones with pretty well the same ratios as found in adults. Along with very rare examples of fossilised baby pterosaurs found in deposits formed miles away from land, this suggests that pterosaurs could fly soon after hatching. That might not be so remarkable, but when one consider that a baby pterosaur with a wing span comparable to a thrush then goes onto to achieve a wingspan greater than a Spitfire it seems to be quite remarkable.

I am recommending this book to anyone with an interest in natural history or flight.. it certainly is not just for dinophiles.

And if anyone reads the acknowledgments in this book, you might like to know that we no longer use flea spray, but instead drop that funny stuff on the back of the cats' necks now... it does the trick.

The pterosaurs were the group of flying reptiles (probably) that lived during the time of dinosaurs. Little was known about them until the last three decades when numerous fossil finds on multiple continents cleared up many things about them such as their reproduction (eggs), skeletal structure (hollow bones with air sacs), development (continuous growth), etc... This book summarizes all of this knowledge into one work that is easy to read, very informative, and well organized. The text is interspersed with numerous figures ranging from photos and micrographs of fossils to color illustrations. The book's chapters focus on specific parts of the pterosaus such as their flying skills, walking skills, childhood, etc... The author does a great job of describing what is known about pterosaurs, what is unknown, and how scientists have arrived at these conclusions. The use of science is quite liberal as the author refers to physics, aerodynamics, biochemistry, taxonomy and other fields in the explanation of the book's concepts. As such, I would not recommend it for anyone without a high school diploma at least. But for those with a good general background in science, this book is quite enjoyable.

_The Pterosaurs From Deep Time_ by David M. Unwin is a well-written even witty book, one of a very few books on the subject ever written for the general reader. It comes complete with an extensive bibliography, endnotes, and many illustrations, including full-color life restorations, photographs of fossils, and many diagrams illustrating pterosaur evolution, anatomical features, and movement.

The first chapter was a general introduction to these "dragons of the air." These reptiles first took to the air 215 million years during the Triassic and thrived for 150 million years, vanishing with the dinosaurs at the end of the Cretaceous. Unwin recounted some of the difficulties of studying pterosaurs; many of their fossilized remains consist of only scattered, broken bones (saying little more than "here be pterosaurs"), even complete skeletons are often extremely distorted by geological processes owing to the hollow-tube bones of these animals (forming what he called "picture fossils" or "road-kills"), researchers are often trapped in their thinking by following birds and bats too closely as analogues, and sometimes people are guilty of "temporal chauvinism," the notion that somehow pterosaurs were inherently inferior to modern fliers. Unwin wrote that "pterosaurology" has really taken off starting in the 1990s thanks to remarkable new finds in South America and China, new imaging techniques like CAT scanning and photographing in UV light, and computer modeling of pterosaur movement.

Chapter two was pretty basic, discussing the Mesozoic world in general.

Chapter three, titled "Considering Medusa," discussed how pterosaurs became fossils and showcased some of the most remarkable fossils ever found (my favorite was "the tree-biter", a _Ludodactylus_ from Lower Cretaceous Brazil that apparently got a yucca leaf lodged in its throat sac and starved to death; one can even see the frayed end of the yucca leaf, where the pterosaur may have tried to dislodge it by rubbing it against the ground). Only around 5,000-6,000 pterosaur fossils are known and only 100 have preserved soft parts.

Chapter four looked at the pterosaur family tree, how the approximately 100 species described thus far are related to one another. There were eight main branches, ranging from the dimorphodontids, the least derived of all pterosaurs to the azhdarchoids, the last pterosaurs of the Mesozoic and whose numbers include the largest flying creature of all time, _Quetzalcoatlus_, which may have had wingspans of 10 meters (33 feet) or more. A key point in this chapter is understanding the difference between the earlier rhamphorhynchoids and the later, more diverse pterodactyloids.

Chapter five examined pterosaur head anatomy, which like further anatomical discussions was both informative and not too hard for the interested layperson to follow as his discussion was well-supported with illustrations and helpful definitions. He looked at pterosaur teeth (with few rare exceptions, they had no cutting edges to dismember prey or cut off bite-sized chunks or anything to grind or pulp food, though one group became filter-feeders and another was able to crush clams and crabs in its jaws), how at least one group, the insectivorous anurognathids, had short bristles rimming the edges of their mouths like modern nightjars, helping it to catch insects, and the weird world of pterosaur crests (check out the extraordinary forked crest of _Nyctosaurus_).

Chapter six looked at other features of pterosaur anatomy. It is important in particular to understand the pteroid (there is debate over whether it is equivalent to a thumb or a bone unique to pterosaurs), a bone that had a huge role in pterosaur aerodynamics and the notarium (unique to the larger pterodactyloids). Also discussed are pterosaur body covering ("hair" that wasn't really hair) and issues of pterosaur metabolism (how things like hair, a largish brain, and fibro-lamellar bone tissue are "consistent with an active physiology" but "do not necessarily demand it").

Chapter seven looked at pterosaur young. In 2004, after 200 years, not one but three pterosaur eggs were found in the space of six months. Pterosaurs laid soft-shell eggs, showed no evidence of taking care of their young, and apparently could fly and fend from themselves very shortly after birth (if not immediately). Interestingly, it would seem that pterosaurs at different life stages fed on different prey items and filled different ecological roles (something prevalent in the Mesozoic) and there were few "small" species of pterosaur to compete with young, as the young were the "small" species in effect. Owing to how pterosaurs laid their eggs and issues relating to how big they could get and when they reached sexual maturity, pterosaurs appear to still have much in common with other reptiles.

Chapter eight looked at how pterosaurs flew. Were they passive gliders or active fliers? This chapter showed that they were clearly active fliers and in some ways may have been more efficient than birds or bats. Key points in this chapter are understanding the microscopic structure of wing membranes (particularly the presence and role of wing fibers), the overall arrangement of the flight membranes (the patagia, divided into a propatagium or fore-wing, cheiropatagium or hand-wing - the biggest membrane - and a leg-wing or cruropatagium, which crucially for purposes of ground locomotion and available ecological niches was split up the middle in the pterodacytloids), the role of the pteroid and the notarium, and the role that the webbed feet of pterosaurs played (working much like twin tail fins).

Chapter nine looked at one of the most contentious of issues, how pterosaurs moved upon the ground. The rhamphorhynchoids were excellent climbers but were barely crawlers while the pterodactyloids were quite capable walkers.

Chapter ten looked at the overall history of pterosaur evolution, of when different groups arose, their ecological roles, and when and why they eventually went extinct. Interesting facts include that the rhamphorhynchoids were extremely conservative, evolutionary speaking, changing little in 75 million years; pterosaurs reached their greatest diversity in lifestyles and in numbers of species in the Early Cretaceous (slightly more than half of all known species come from this time), and that only toothless forms survived until the Late Cretaceous.

David Unwin's new introduction to pterosaurs brings the unsung flying reptiles of the Mesozoic from backstage of the dinosaurs into the spotlight. His coverage of their natural history and biology reveals that they were not somewhat awkward gliders (as they have at times been portrayed) but reptiles truly adapted for efficient (if not elegant) flight. Unwin's coverage of recent pterosaur discoveries (including embryos, eggs, and footprints) is also revealing. Engaging and interesting (but not overly technical) text and informative artwork and photographs make this an accesible book for anyone interested in the dinosaurs' flying cousins. (This review by John Mark Beam, husband of Constance Garrett, for whom the book was ordered)

This book is great!! It gives an in depth vieu on these animal evolved and functioned, without getting the reader bogged down in dry technical descriptions. I recommend the book to any interested well read dinophile.

Unwin's book is a short and easy introduction to paleontology using the pterosaurs as the selected fossils. He introduces the whole science - which is only about 200 years old - and the 'way' of science with pro and con arguments of various hypotheses concerning dinosaurs which have unfolded over time. Were the pterodactyls warm blooded? How did they get as big as a Piper Cub? Did they raise their young? What evolutionary trends does their fossil record show? What group of dinosaurs did they evolve from? How does a reptile learn how to fly? The only thing the book lacks is a fold out diagram giving a complete pterosaur skeleton with the proper anatomic name for each of the bones and comparing it to a skeleton of a modern bird.

This is a truly superb treatment of a neglected group of flying amniotes. The writing sparkles, the illustrations are lush, and the level of discussion is perfect for the intelligent reader. Every popular book on paleontology should aspire to this level of artistry.

Paleontologists only recommend three books as really worth reading about pterosaurs, and this is the most recent. Good clear explanations for someone like me who is curious but not a specialist. (And I suspect if you are a specialist, you'll still find it interesting.)

Bought from Any Books, arrived in superb condition.