Mesozoic Sea Dragons: Triassic Marine Life from the Ancient Tropical Lagoon of Monte San Giorgio (Life of the Past) Hardcover – Download: Adobe Reader, April 24, 2019

Most people would consider ‘Mesozoic Sea Dragons’ a boring, technical read (right down my alley). It drove me a little crazy that the author couldn’t make up their mind whether picture captions went above or below them. My biggest disappointment was that about half way through the eBook, the fossil picture quality became poor with images that were slightly blocky without zooming in on the picture at all. I don’t understand why authors or publishers use inferior pictures.

Serious text for museum libraries & the book shelves of those with more than a passing interest in the life forms that existed in Europe just before the dinosaurs. Not light reading.

University if Indiana 'Life of the Past' series is excellent and this is a worthy addition. If I had one teensy quibble it was that they should have included some skeletal reconstructions to clarify the text, but other than that it was splendid.

When the book arrived, first I was astonished about the rather small dimensions of the book. It is definitely smaller than a normal sheet of paper (A4) which is a bit unusual for the "Life of the Past" series, especially at this price tag.Unfortunately this strange layout also continues inside the book. 1/3 of each page is basically a blank column while text and images are pressed into the remaining 2/3 of each page. Therefore, the potentially interesting photos of the actual Monte San Giorgio fossils as well as the great artworks by Beat Scheffold appear so small, that details are barely visible. Why?Beside that, the (small printed) text appears very readable for both, the general dinosaur enthusiast but also the scientific community. A little bit of history followed by chapters on the different classes of reptiles described from the area. A more detailed description of the paleo-environment of Monte San Giorgio is unfortunately not covered by the book.All in all, for me this is a very disappointing publication of a potentially very interesting paleontological area. It could have been much more, if the design of the book would have been chosen wiser. Because I do not understand the sense of publishing a book with such a terrible layout and at a price tag of 75$, mine will go back.

The book is well written, well illustrated and very informative. If you are interested in the Triassic or prehistoric life I recommend this book. It is well worth the money.