Right, let’s get the obvious bit out the
way first. I’ve known Mark Witton for more than 5 years now and while we’ve
never published a paper together, have certainly worked together, reviewed each
other’s papers at times, and spent much time talking pterosaurs and of course
doing things like Pterosaur.net. In short, he is both friend and colleague, and
some people reading this review may not know that. However, I do also do my
best to be fair and this is as honest a review as I feel I can produce. Added
to that, while I’ve known this was in production for a long time, I can’t
recall more than a couple of very minor conversations with Mark about the book
– I really knew very little about what he had done, how and why, before I saw
it, so I was coming to the book from a pretty unbiased standpoint in that sense
at least.
Anyone familiar with pterosaurs will know
that, kids books aside, there have barely been a handful of pterosaur books,
well, ever. We have Seeley’s 1901 effort that is still fascinating for the
professional, but just a wee bit dated. Wellnhofer’s 1991 Encyclopedia is a
classic but again has faded a bit in recent years with so many new forms coming
out and much more research, though it’s still a ‘must have’ for any serious
pterosaur researcher or enthusiast. In 2004 David Unwin had his Pterosaurs of
Deep Time which was a major update from Wellnhofer, but very different in style
to that one consisting of a lot more text and relatively few figures, though
lots of photos of key specimens. There has also recently been Andre Veldmeijer’s
one (illustrated by Mark as it happens) which is (so I understand, I have only
the Dutch and not the English version) relatively non-technical and aimed at a
more general audience. So right off, Mark’s tome joins a pretty sparse
collection, and any serious contribution is therefore going to be most welcome
to this band.
I’ll do the criticism bit first and get it
out the way as there’s not much to criticise. In addition to the relatively
limited number of photos, the introductory and concluding parts of the book are
relatively short, and so while the main bulk is well done, there is a feeling
that the overall picture of pterosaur evolution and the wider context of them
in the Mesozoic is not given much space. It was also odd that there were no
‘further reading’ bits or a list of websites – one hopes that this book will
inspire more people to read up about pterosaurs and while I obviously hope
P.net will be a source for that, given the real problems pterosaurs do have
online (there’s some really major and problematic sites out there) something
that would help guide people to the good stuff would have been a useful
addition.
My one real criticism would be that it’s a
bit of a mix of styles and while Mark’s writing is generally breezy and very
readable (and with little sarcastic comments, fun asides and generally friendly
tone) but there are quite a few technical terms that get thrown at the reader
from time to time that’ll have people reaching for a dictionary. That’s not
necessarily a bad thing – I like being challenged, but I’m sure a few general
readers will struggle at the first go to follow a few points and the odd
paragraph without going to the bookshelf (or more likely, google, some of that
anatomical stuff won’t be in your typical paper edition). It does mean though
that in places it feel a bit odd with a very readable style littered with words
you have to look up - a short glossary would certainly have been a help.
Overall it’s not a huge issue though and again, given word limits and the (I
assume) intended broad appeal of newbies through to real experts, there is a
very difficult balance to strike here and it’s not going to stop people reading
it or getting what they want from it.
To be fair though, one cannot cram
everything about everything into a book of a limited word length, and so these
comments are perhaps more of an observation of the route taken rather than an
actual problem that could necessarily have been addressed while keeping the
rest of the book the same. To add anything at this word length other stuff
would have course have to go, and I’m sensitive that authors have their own
intentions (and have to bow to the publishers) and the constraints of the
formats.
Right, with that out the way, let’s get
onto the good. It is well written, and should appeal and be educational to
those who know little to nothing about pterosaurs, as well as being a generally
excellent summary of all things pterosaurian for experts. I found a few nuggets
in there I didn’t know about or had long forgotten and the layout of the book
is very easy to navigate as a reference piece. It is also accurate and about as
up to date as it can be and while already there are new taxa and papers that
affect things (such is life) this really will stand for a good few years to
come as pretty close to cutting edge. Certainly this is the first book to include
Darwinopterus and kin and to bring
forwards some of the more recent developments and advances in our understanding
of pterosaur biology. At the end of the book Mark argues something parallel to
my own paper on the ‘pterosaur renaissance’ – pterosaur research is
accelerating in complexity and detail and this book really helps trumpet that
and bring it forwards.
The controversial issues are handled really
well. Pterosaur research has some major splits within its ranks over some
serious issues (origins and phylogeny especially) and Mark is careful to point
out where things are contentious and what the alternates are, and why he (or
the community) comes done on one side or another. However, he also deals with
this pretty efficiently and avoids getting bogged down in details or the
endless arguments that afflict some coverage of this kind of stuff. He’s also
pretty clear as to what is already in the literature and which ideas are
supported by what evidence (the book is superbly well referenced throughout) and
when something is new and his own (i.e. this is the first appearance of an idea
in the literature) he also makes that clear. Some of these are things various
people have been knocking around for a while and if you’ve spoken to
researchers or seen discussions online they will be well familiar, but it’s
good to see them in print as more formal ideas and some of the evidence that
may support them laid out.
The little reviews of each clade are very
useful, and each section is broken down into sections on anatomy, locomotion
and ecology, with key specimens of details illustrated and a map of the
locations of major fossils. Each clade comes with a full skeletal
reconstruction and a full life reconstruction alongside, so it’s very easy to
get an idea of how each group differed and their diagnostic features and
lifestyles. Some of the chapters are very short indeed, but it does make them
easy to read and follow and with the subheadings it’s also easy to pick out key
data – I think I’ll have an easier time dipping into this to re-read key points
or check things that I would with any of the other previous pterosaur entries.
Although I have said I’d have liked to have
seen some more photos, the book is very well illustrated. In addition to the
skeletals and basic life reconstructions, most chapters have a full-page image
or even two of pterosaur palaeoart. Although Mark regularly posts stuff on his
blog, almost all the art in the book is new, so there’s no extensive recycling
or anything like that. While hardly in ‘All Yesterdays’ territory, there are
plenty of images of pterosaurs doing things not normally illustrated and
interesting and new approaches to things like colour patterns and layouts of
the images – there’s no memes here to be had. The technical figures are even
better and are very well done with some nice stylistic flourishes in the
phylogenies especially, but overall being very clear and really conveying the
key points.
So, summing up. Whatever the intent of the
author, the book does succeed at a number of levels. While probably a tricky
read for those very unfamiliar with fossils, it should be easily accessible for
anyone with a passing interest in palaeo as well as providing a solid review of
the whole of the Pterosauria that’ll be genuinely useful for researchers for
many years. I’m sure I’ll be typing “Witton, (2013) stated….” quite a lot in
the future and that, if anything, should be a good measure of how I rate this as
a scientific text. Now go buy a copy and read it, it really is very good.
Mark P. Witton, 2013. Pterosaurs: Natural History, Evolution, Anatomy. Princeton University Press. 291pp.
