This spring, Daniel Loxton published his third and final children's book in the
Tales of Prehistoric Life series:
Plesiosaur Peril, the story of the dangerous life of a young
Cryptoclidus in the Jurassic. It was proceeded by
Ankylosaur Attack (2011) and
Pterosaur Trouble (2013). Today I'll cover all three. The TL;DR version: they're great.
Daniel Loxton's name is probably recognizable to the portion of our readers who also follow skeptical media. He cowrote
Abominable Science with Donald Prothero as well as writing and illustrating the children's book
Evolution: How We And All Living Things Came to Be. Loxton is also well-known for his work editing the
Junior Skeptic section of
Skeptic Magazine. Illustrator
Jim WW Smith, who has also worked for
Junior Skeptic, provides work on the models for the
Tales of Prehistoric Life series. Loxton provides the finishing textures and colors, as well as photographing environments.
I especially appreciate Loxton's series for taking up the mantle of
the Rourke titles we've covered so many times during the Vintage Dinosaur Art series. Like the Rourke collection, each
Tales of Prehistoric Life book is a narrative story, detailing interactions between temporally and geographically appropriate animals. I love this approach. When grounded in modern paleontological understanding of the life and times of the animals involved, it's both engaging and educational. Like the Rourke titles of yesteryear, each book in this series also wraps up with a brief explanation of the scientific grounding of the story.
The Cryptoclidus family swims through a teeming Jurassic sea. � Daniel Loxton.The animal interactions are firmly in the realm of plausibility. There are moments that seem a bit of a stretch, such as a veritable army of
Saurornitholestes laying seige to the
Quetzalcoatlus hero of
Pterosaur Trouble. However, there's nothing more outlandish than
Dinosaur Revolution's more slapstick moments. Since I'm on the record of admiring much of what that series did, you can predict my reaction here. When the
Quetzalcoatus quad-launches to escape his attackers, one of them inadvertently hitches a ride before being flung onto the head shield of a
Triceratops, and I couldn't help but crack a smile.
3D dinosaur art is too often only mentioned when picking out the worst offenders, so it's easy to forget that it is often done very well, and Loxton's work here is a prime example. For the most part, the animals are integrated into their photographic environments very smoothly, and interact with them believably - there is a sense of weight and heft to the animals as they walk on sand, browse vegetation, or fall into water. The experience is an immersive one, with illustrations filling entire spreads. The point of view is often right in the middle of the action. Loxton's attention to detail rewards free exploration of the environments and their inhabitants. Feathers float on the air in the midst of combat. Age and experience are obvious, as in an old ankylosaur with battle-damaged armor or a pycnofibre-covered pterosaur.
Quetzalcoatlus soars over the late Cretaceous world. � Daniel Loxton.
An Ankylosaurus couple browses in the forest. � Daniel Loxton.Coloration is handled conservatively. There are no Rey-style color schemes. Proto-birds and dromaeosaurs are given the most colorful integument. I particularly liked the ruddy tones of
Saurornitholestes, reminiscent of the Brown Thrashers who inhabit a similar woodland habitat in my neck of the... er, woods. I also enjoyed touches like subtle sexually dimorphic coloring on the
Triceratops, and a seaweedy-green on the
Cryptoclidus family at the heart of the most recent book. The tyrannosaurs who appear in
Ankylosaur Attack and
Pterosaur Trouble could do with some plumage and a splash of color (as well as some more neck musculature, which to my eye looked a little skinny). On the other hand, it's refreshing for the tyrant king to step out of the spotlight.
A Saurornitholestes pack smells something big and tasty on the wind. � Daniel Loxton.Loxton's choices in depicting behavior are the strongest aspect of the stories, as pains are taken to focus on details of Mesozoic life lent us by recent paleontological research.
Quetzalcoatlus falls prey to small dromaeosaurs because of tooth marks found on actual fossils of the great azhdarchid. It bears repeating that the pterosaur is depicted performing a quad-launch, too (a touch
which pleased Mark Witton greatly). The family unit in
Plesiosaur Peril is based on evidence that these marine reptiles were viviparous. It's a stretch to lump Loxton's book series in with the All Yesterdays Movement. But it is certainly complimentary in its dedication to anatomical fidelity and reasonable inference, while offering views of prehistoric life which reflects the way extant animals act rather than what Hollywood dinosaurs are asked to perform for the masses. There's no need to layer on excessive personification or spectacle after spectacle. Loxton's adherence to this is the main reason the books succeed.
The Cryptoclidus family feeds on belemnites. � Daniel Loxton.My only major critique is that a more readable typeface for the body copy of the books could have been chosen, but that's a small quibble in the big scheme of things. This is as good as prehistoric fiction gets. The life restorations are exactly the kind that the new generation of paleontology fans should have access to: contemporary, not stuck in decades-old knowledge. All books in the series are available at major booksellers
or via Skeptic.
Around the web: Check out
Loxton's post about Plesiosaur Peril at SkepticBlog. Darren Naish
wrote a detailed post about the book at TetZoo - fitting since he served as technical consultant for the whole series. Adam Stuart Smith
reviewed Plesiosaur Peril at Plesiosauria.com. Dispersal of Darwin's Michael Barton
reviewed Plesiosaur Peril in March (and reviewed
the other titles in the series previously).
Ankylosaur Attack recieved positive reviews from
Quill and Quire,
Kirkus, and
SkepticDad.
