My review of Recreating an Age of Reptiles by Mark Witton

It was my birthday last Friday, and the only things on my birthday list were books, books, and more books! The one that I was really looking forward too, though, was Mark Witton's new book, Recreating An Age of Reptiles. It did not disappoint.

This book is a nice mixture of paleoart and text, which describes his thought processes behind that particular art piece, and information on the creatures depicted. I personally very much like this style, as I like hearing about why people have constructed an extinct species a certain way. It means that this book is not only beautiful and satisfying to look at, but informative.

Mark Witton is my favourite paleoartist, as his art has a style which I particularly like, and he depicts prehistoric animals like real creatures, doing real things like sleeping, eating, displaying, or just hanging, out not really doing anything in particular (as you will find many present day creatures spending most of their time doing). Another thing that I like is that Mark Witton is very funny! His previous book, Pterosaurs (which is brilliant), is just the right mixture of informative and scientific, but also humorous in places. Recreating an Age of Reptiles was just as funny, right up to the first bit asking people not to steal his art.

Mr Witton's new book is organised into chapters such as 'Sauropods: the (second) best animals'. Subjects include tunneling animals, river creatures, and Mesozoic mammals. He devotes several large chapters to pterosaurs, including an art piece featuring Cuspicephalus sheltering from the wind behind vegetation on a mud flat, which I particularly like.
Some of the art in this book has previously been released in his other book, Pterosaurs, and on his blog, but much of it he has polished up to meet his current standard of excellency.
 In this book, Mr Witton covers subjects which are generally ignored in paleontology: for example, he devotes one chapter to the burrowing animals of the Mesozoic, which I found particularly interesting.
In the final chapter of the book, Mark Witton shows 2 art pieces featuring out-dated reconstructions of prehistoric animals. These are not old pieces of art: he has done them himself, and they feature Iguanodon, Megalosaurus, and some pterosaurs. I thought this was a nice touch, and indeed I have thought about such things before. I once had the idea for a field guide style book featuring outdated reconstructions of prehistoric life, but done in a more modern artistic way. I find old interpretations of extinct animals to be quite interesting, and sometimes even amusing (take the old theory that Stegosaurus used its plates to glide off cliffs!).

Above you can see some of my favourite art pieces from the book.

When planning this review, I did think that I would put some constructive criticism in here. However, now it comes to it, I cannot think of anything to criticise. I would have perhaps liked a few more marine animals, though this is more of a personal preference, and even Mark Witton did admit that he has never covered many marine animals in his art before. He does, however, say that he is hoping to change this sometime in the future.

So, well done to Mr Witton for creating such a beautiful and interesting book. I eagerly await what his next big plans are . . .