Ecology and behaviour of Mesozoic reptiles /

Books on dinosaurs may soon be as numerous as the number of dinosaur genera. Cloudsley-Thompson (emer., zoology, Univ. of London), who has written several books and journal articles on aspects of the biology of living and extinct amphibians and reptiles, aims this slim volume to readers seeking some general picture of the diversity of dinosaurs, how they looked and lived. Chapters treat classification and an examination of the nondinosaurian reptiles (terrestrial, aquatic, and aerial, Paleozoic and Mesozoic). They discuss several important questions of reptilian biology including size, locomotion, thermal physiology, and geographic distribution; also considered are herbivorous and carnivorous dinosaurs and their means of obtaining prey, defending themselves, and reproduction. A closing chapter on extinction explores the diversity of hypotheses and evidence for them. However, the writing is choppy, composed of short statements with little effort to develop and connect themes. Many important ideas are treated tersely and many dinosaur names are cited, but the critical skeletal features are not illustrated. Also the illustrations, one on almost every page, are largely restorations of whole animals, with a somewhat puppet-like appearance. Concentration on the ecological and behavioral aspects of dinosaurs, rather than reference to structural features of so many different dinosaurs, might have made this book more readable. ^BSumming Up: Optional. General readers; lower- and upper-division undergraduates. D. Bardack emeritus, University of Illinois at Chicago