Customer Reviews

In Search of Prehistoric Survivors: Do Giant `Extinct' Creatures Still Exist?

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
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I first learned of Dr. Karl Shuker and his incredible book "In Search of Prehistoric Survivors" when I stumbled upon an issue of the British magazine Fortean Times. Noted cryptozoological researcher and author, Loren Coleman, referred to Shuker's book (reviewed Fortean Times #87 pg. 57) as "a straight forward examination of the idea that creatures from ancient times might have survived into the present" and "an excellent addition to the library of any zoologist, biologist or cryptozoologist." As a wildlife artist and avid reader of natural history subjects, I have always been drawn to the mysteries of nature. Prior to 1995 I had briefly heard of cryptozoology but had never known of the relentless pursuits of this subject by many outstanding scientists and researchers. I had mostly heard only the tired old legends of Loch Ness, Yeti and Bigfoot. I was pleased to find a book such as "In Search of Prehistoric Survivors" which introduces the reader to a myriad of unknown animals, far surpassing any I had come across in some of the popular natural mystery compilation books.Dr. Shuker's extensive bibliography alone is worth the price of the book. Dr. Shuker is sometimes chided for being a zoological romantic hopeful for his knowledgeable speculations as to the possible identities of these mysterious animals sighted around the globe. However, he is in good company in the category of scientific romantic hopefuls which would include Bernard Heuvelmans, the late Ivan Sanderson and Dr. Roy Mackal, who contributed a foreward to this book. So true are the words of the English preacher Charles H. Spurgeon answering anyone who would question if there really are inexplicable mysteries in nature. "Some things of nature must remain a mystery to the most intelligent and enterprising investigators. Human knowledge has bounds which it cannot pass." Understanding this undeniable truth, Dr. Shuker humbly provides an excellent guided tour of some of the world's most enigmatic zoological mysteries throughout this book. Author Loren Coleman concluded his review of "In Search of Prehistoric Survivors" declaring "Few books deserve a place on my cryptozoological 'classics' shelf, but this one certainly does". I must agree and also thank Dr. Karl Shuker for inspiring my own research with this meticulously written book.Wildlife Artist,William M. Rebsamen

Quite an interesting overview of the latest thinking in
cryptozoology, especially that of large animals. Divided
into chapters on land mammals, sea monsters, large birds,
modern dinosaurs, and so forth. Reading this book really
makes you wonder if there isn't a sauropod living in the
jungles of the Congo, or a thylacine hiding out in the
Australian outback. Shuker writes a cryptozoology column
in "Fortean Times", and has authored a number of books on
cryptozoology; unfortunately all but this one have gone out
of print (although there are cryptozoological elements in
his book on Dragons).

Dr Shuker's knowledge of cryptozoology is second to none, a fact acknowledged by other senior researchers in this field, and he is uniquely qualified to write this book. He keeps right up to date with new developments in his field, and his views on the creatures he writes about are based on careful consideration, rather than wishful thinking as so often occurs in the literature relating to mystery animals. Dr Shuker is a reliable commentator, and all his books are highly readable.

Karl Shuker is fast becoming one of the world's top cryptozoologists. A professional scientist, Dr. Shuker is not afraid to tread where other scientists dare not go. Although still on the fringes of science, cryptozoology is fast gaining respectability mainly through the efforts of people like Karl Shuker. 'Prehistoric Survivors' is a land mark in the pursuit and study of mystery animals, and is destined to become a collectors volume. With work of this standard, it is easy to see why Dr.Shukers book are become so sought after by serious scientists and lay-people alike.

In Search of Prehistoric Survivors constitutes perhaps the best overview of cryptozoological sightings of "prehistoric survivors" ever. From living dinosaur-like things to giant thunderbirds to the Nandi Bear, Shuker presents many sightings and discussions of the evidence pro and con for the existence of these creatures in a very readable way accessible to both professionals and novices. However, the almost complete lack of testing his hypotheses and scientific evidence for the existence of such creatures detracts from the folkloric accounts of what seem like genuine 'hidden' animals. The almost complete lack of paleontological knowledge displayed is a downside since we need this knowledge to base conclusions upon the identities of thecreatures. Shuker ignores the facts that basilosaurs (zeuglodonts), dinosaurs, and plesiosaurs (among many other things) disappeared abruptly 65 and 36 million years ago with little or no trace afterwards. Rather than providing evidence for survival past the proposed extinction dates, Shuker relies on the accounts that he so well details as evidence for post-extinction survival. In doing so, Shuker ignores the fact that a physical specimen must be needed to be absolutely sure of the identity of the creature. We are mostly talking about outside appearances in animals that have been extinct for a long long time. True, the mokele-mmbeme, if it exists, does call to mind a sauropod dinosaur, but without physical or even very good photographic evidence (which is still dubious) you cannot dismiss the possibility that it is really just a weird mammal with a long horn (which is sighted in many sightings) or even that the witnesses are viewing something that is not what they described (the large turtle hypothesis for sightings of the mokele-mmbeme is poorly discussed and the swimming elephant hypothesis is dismissed out of hand without proof, just a guilt trip without considering the great distances involved in such sightings). Readers must remember that the existence of most of these creatures is mostly involved with folklore and others could well be hoaxes, lies, or misidentifications. For example the thunderbird sightings could very well be just sightings of large vultures and eagles, which can lift large things. As another example, supposed basilosaur sightings are of creatures that are long and serpentine, but as Darren Naish points out basilosaurs are not long nor serpentine and do not undulate vertically. A simple review of the paleontological literature and neontological literature should have cleared out errors such as these (plus some bigs ones such as basilosaurs slithering across land, etc. etc. etc.) but Shuker does not cite any references and when he does he cites general reviews often decades old. This is unacceptable in a book about "prehistoric survivors". Although I agree that the existence of such creatures is not out of the realm of reality, most all of Shuker's animals are those that have went extinct millions of years ago and with no trace afterwards. He uses the coelacanth as evidence that creatures could live long after their supposed extinction dates but the coelacanth is the extinction date and coelacanths are extremely small and hard to identify (one coelacanth was identified as a mosasaur, another as a bird) as compared to plesiosaurs, basilosaurs, dinosaurs, etc. With all due respect to Shuker, his paleontology is out of date and his science needs work. He does make some good cases for survival in things like the thylacine and some other small things but his basic errors detract from the otherwise well-researched and conducted sections like these. The lists and description of sightings and his cryptozoology references are very good and constitute the best parts of the book. However, notwithstanding the errors, the book is entertaining, even in the poorly researched sections. The book could have been a 'five' but the errors and poor paleontological referencing detract from the high overall quality of the writing, the descriptions and the discussions

If Dr. Shuker is a scientist, he should know better than to present a subject such as this with utter credulity. Eyewitness testimony is most unreliable but it's the only evidence that exists for the subject of large, land-dwelling or lake-dwelling prehistoric survivors. Dr. Shuker makes no excuses - he believes that these anomalous descriptions are truly extinction survivors. However, the odds of plesiosaurs, sauropods, ceratopsians, etc. existing in the wilds of other continents is a ridiculous proposition. It's much more believable that some of the natives exaggerate their sightings and that the western explorers have fallen for it. I expected a better explanation than "Yes, dinosaurs survive!!".