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| View Larger Image | The Pterosaurs: From Deep Time
by David M. Unwin
| | List Price: | $39.95 |  | | 11 New starting at: | $7.85 | | 12 Used starting at: | $4.15 | | | | | Sales Rank: | 188324 | | Studio: | Pi Press | | | Binding: | Hardcover | | Number Of Pages: | 352 | | Publication Date: | August 25, 2005 | | Publisher: | Pi Press |
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EDITORIAL REVIEWS |
Product Description
Here is the first complete portrait of the legendary flying dragons of deep time–the pterosaurs–designed for non-specialists, yet founded on the real science of these bizarre creatures. Presented lucidly and accessibly by one of the world’s leading experts, David Unwin’s book is built on a mountain of new fossil discoveries and the latest research. About 220 millions years ago, a group of reptiles took to the Earth’s vast and open skies. No longer tethered to the ground, the earliest pterosaurs evolved into a multitude of diverse forms, spread around the globe, and ruled the skies until they went extinct along with the dinosaurs about 65 millions years ago, rarely leaving fossils as a record of their existence. What they did leave was a mystery for paleontologists to solve; an enigma so difficult to crack that it took centuries of false starts and missteps before the path to a true understanding of pterosaurs was uncovered. Now, an understanding of the fundamental nature of these strange creatures is finally possible. In the last 15 years, stunning new fossil finds and significant advances in technology have led to a breakthrough in our knowledge of pterosaurs. New fossils of the earliest species were discovered in Italy, a remarkably well-preserved and complete wing was found in Central Asia, and, most extraordinarily, a pterosaur embryo inside an egg was unearthed in China. CAT scanning has let researchers glimpse inside pterosaur skulls and construct three-dimensional images of their bodies from crushed bones, and modern techniques for analyzing relationships between species have revealed surprising insights into the evolution of the group. Drawing on these and other advances, David Unwin, caretaker of Archaeopteryx and curator at the Museum of Natural History in Berlin, paints pterosaurs and their world more vividly than has previously been possible. He eloquently reconstructs their biology and behavior. Pterosaurs weren’t scaly like dinosaurs, but hairy; most were brightly colored and adorned with remarkable head crests; they were excellent fliers with physiologically sophisticated wings; they walked on all fours; and varied in size from eight inches to forty feet in wingspan. He shows how they lived their lives, raised their young, and interacted with the different environments of Mesozoic Earth. Then, building on his thorough examination of their anatomy and lifestyle, and using the powerful technique of cladistic analysis, Unwin unravels the evolutionary history of pterosaurs and establishes their place in the one great tree of life. Packed with 95 color and 30 black and white illustrations–including 10 full-page original color paintings that are scientific recreations of different pterosaur species–The Pterosaurs From Deep Time takes readers on an wondrous expedition back through the lost world of the Earth’s deep past. |
CUSTOMER REVIEWS (Average Customer Rating: 4.0 based on 9 reviews)
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Too Dumbed-Down 
I could only read this book for so long before "gasping for air"; it was way too dumbed-down for my taste, even as a non(but aspiring)-scientist. It is really a children's book. My bad. The illustrations are striking, though.
June 24, 2008 | |
Well written, illustrated, even witty book on pterosaurs 
_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.
May 19, 2008 | |
Great work 
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.
December 16, 2006 | |
The Gold Standard
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!
March 21, 2006 | |
Best Pterosaur book in print
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.
November 27, 2005 | |
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