Mark P. Witton's Pterosaurs: A Comprehensive Guide to Their Natural History, Evolution, and Anatomy

Davetheliontamer: Mark Witton is undoubtedly my favourite paleontological artist, I even support him as a patreon on Twitter and if it has his name on it, I buy it.
Never disappointed, his art is amazing and the research he puts into every piece is just staggering, he does not just do a drawing of how he believes they look, he measures and analyses every bone, does the research on muscle thicknesses, tendon attachment points, skin impressions that have been recorded and a thousand other perameters so what he finally draws is a picture of a long extinct animal that is as close to what the animal truly looked like as is possible to replicate.
Some of these flying reptiles were some of the most outlandish things to ever defy earths gravity with crests and beaks and even such incredible size you would hardly believe they really were capable of flight.
A great gift for any dinosaur lover or just treat yourself as I did, you will not be disappointed.
Highly recommended.

United Kingdom on Sep 07, 2023

Cliente Amazon: This, and Wellnhofer's Pterosaur encyclopedia are possibly the only good technical books on the subject, and are equally good. This one being more recent is more up to date, with an initial section about the evolution and phisiology of pterosaurs, and then a deep descrition by family group. Expect some anatomical jargon and a lot of notions to be learnt, it's absolutely fantastic and written by an actual specialist (not by a divulgative writer like in many entry level books)

Italy on Mar 15, 2021

Clara: Es grande y las ilustraciones a todo color quedan muy bonitas. Un libro estupendo para mi colección de libros de mesa. El papel se ve de buena calidad.

Spain on Jan 20, 2021

Denis-Armand: Un livre scientifique magnifique en version papier d'une très grande richesse de documentation à lire absolument pour les passionnés par les reptiles volants de l'époque des dinosaures. Etude et présentation très riche et fournie en espèces et descriptions agrémentés de très beaux dessins de reconstitutions. Le livre à ne pas manquer sur les ptérosaures.
Denis Armand

France on Apr 06, 2019

kiwihunter: Amazing illustrations, paintings and skeletal diagrams. Handsome coffee table book that has enough text to call it a reference book. Just the best rendering of these prehistoric beasts (One as tall as a giraffe!) and fuzzy little creatures that I don't know what to compare to. these animals were not dinosaurs and not he predecessors of birds (believe it or not). Recommended.

Canada on Apr 21, 2017

eagseags: Pterosaurs, flying reptiles from the Mesozoic, have always taken a back seat to dinosaurs in terms of popular books. I own three books on pterosaurs:
“The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Pterosaurs” by Peter Wellnhofer from 1991.
“The Pterosaurs: From Deep Time” by David Unwin from 2005.
"Pterosaurs" by Mark Witton from 2013.

These are all excellent books. The last is the subject of today's review. You should not confuse the Witton book "Pterosaurs" with a book from 2012 "Pterosaurs: Flying Contemporaries of the Dinosaurs," of which Witton is one of three coauthors.

By the way, the first popular book on pterosaurs "Dragons of the Air" (1901) by H.E. Seeley is available as a free e-book at [...]

Witton is at the School of Earth and Environmental Sciences at the University of Portsmith. He is a freelance artist as well as a paleontologist and has a blog at [...] .

I will start with a little background on pterosaurs, which will make further discussions more understandable. Pterosaurs are the first vertebrates that learned powered flight. Compared to most vertebrates, pterosaurs tend to have extremely large heads and extremely small legs...

United States on Jun 22, 2014

LastRanger: There once was a time that dragons flew through the air. Not the dragons of myth and legend but real flying reptiles that prospered and diversified during the Age of Dinosaurs. They didn't breathe fire but they were magnificent, marvelous creatures non the less. In Pterosaurs, Author/Paleontologist Mark P Witton has written what is probably one of the most comprehensive treatment of these unique animals to date. Although this well written book is accessible to the lay reader, I think it was meant primarily for the professional or student paleontologist. In depth and up to date (as of 2013), Pterosaurs delves into the anatomy, evolution and behavior of these "Dragons of the Air". Parts of the book are quite technical, the chapters on skeletons and soft tissue are rather daunting but Witton does a good job, giving the reader a kind of "Anatomy 101". Chapters 10 through 25 spotlight the various kinds of pterosaurs and the author pulls no punches when it comes to naming body parts and the scientific names of each species, so be prepared. Over the years since their discovery in the mid 1700s professional interest in pterosaurs has waxed and wained but some new discoveries in the early...

United States on Jun 02, 2014