Saurian - A Field Guide to Hell Creek

I saw the book “Saurian” on Amazon about a year ago, but was not able to obtain a copy until now. While I generally like paleoart by itself, I usually buy books that have a reasonable amount of scientific information, so the subtitle “A Field Guide to Hell Creek” is what sold it. At the time, I had a fairly vague idea of the Hell Creek Formation, knowing only that it is found around the state of Montana, and that it has a very good fossil record of Late Cretaceous dinosaurs. Now I know a lot more. The Hell Creek Formation is found in Montana, the Dakotas, and Wyoming and spans the Latest Cretaceous to the Earliest Paleocene. That makes it an excellent place to study the extinction of the dinosaurs. The climate in that area was semi-tropical, much like that of Florida today, despite the high latitude (55 degrees N at the center of the Formation; Copenhagen and Moscow are at 55 degrees). The Formation contains paleoenvironments ranging from deep forests to the shore of the Western Interior Seaway. The dinosaurs Tyrannosaurus, Edmontosaurus, and Triceratops are most abundant, but the range of dinosaurs found there is impressive (dromaeosaurs, pachycephalosaurs, ankylosaurs, etc.). Also, there are many other types of animals: pterosaurs, birds, mosasaurs, turtles, lizards crocodiles, fish, insects, etc. In terms of plants, there are ferns, palms, ginkgos, cycads, conifers, laurels, etc. Truly, an amazing locality.The text of “Saurian” is written by Tom Parker, and the illustrations are by Chris Masna (short for Masnaghetti) and R.J. Palmer. None of these authors are professional paleontologists, but are science communicators, illustrators, sculptors, or animators. (This reminds me of Silvia and Stephen Czerkas, artists who where writing very scientifically respectable popular books on dinosaurs in the 1990’s.) There are five chapter headings:The World of SaurianLocal HabitatsFloraFaunaGuest ArtworkEach of these chapters are divided into several subchapters. For example, “Fauna” has 10 subchapters. The longest one is “Dinosaurs," and that is subdivided into a dozen sub-subchapters based on the classification of dinosaur. There are several dinosaurs in Hell Creek I have never heard of, which is pretty unusual (in a good way) since I have followed paleontology as a hobby for 35 years now. Each sub-topic gets two or three pages.As you might expect, 75% of the page area in “Saurian” is illustration, and 25% text. The majority are restorations of animals, plants, or environments, and as you might expect from the beginning paragraph, there are many types of each. Often there is a silhouette of a human for scale with the restorations. (A man and woman appear equally frequently. The woman is pretty generic, but the man has a stout build, a vest, and a wide hat—are they trying for Bob Bakker?) There are many informative diagrams as well. The illustrations are outstanding, about what you might expect in one of those books dedicated to paleoart. There is a common style of art, very detailed and realistic (probably using digital paint techniques), except in the “Guest Artwork” section, where there is more variety due to over a dozen artists contributing.I did not expect that he last page of “Saurian” would have a “disclaimer” that this book is a companion piece to a video game “Saurian”. That game was not yet released when the book was put together in 2019, but seems to be in an “early adopter” state now. You can check out the game at sauriangame.com. That site also has a semi-scientific blog, and many other illustrations and diagrams. Apparently, the idea for all this study is to make the game as scientifically accurate as possible. I have never been a gamer, and a book that was merely “the art of” a game would normally not be attractive to me. However, the value of “Saurian” as a stand-alone popular book on paleontology is so high, the fact that it is a companion book to a game is irrelevant.

This book arrived quickly and was a thrill to look at and read for my child.

To say this book is excellent is an understatement. Here is perhaps the best depiction of a lost ecosystem ever written... and all for the most accurate dinosaur simulator game thus far created. While the game is still in development, and playable for anyone wanting early access, the book is available here and now. Everything within this book is accurate to the most current knowledge of paleontology, and the game's developers did their work and research exceedingly well, talking with all the experts on the Hell Creek Formation, specifically the Bone Butte site in South Dakota. While you might not find every animal in Hell Creek in this book (Torosaurus is from earlier in the Formation, and the small dinosaurs Triarchunchus and Leptoceratops were not known from South Dakota, instead being found elsewhere, such as the parts of the formation in Montana) it is still an amazing guide to the animals of this well-known fossil formation. While the animals are real, some facts regarding their behavior have been given liberties for the game, such as Anzu, one of the six playable dinosaurs in the game, being able to mimic the sounds of other animals, as we don't have any way of knowing if they could do that in reality. The same is true for Dakotaraptor being able to glide as a juvenile, as we have no baby specimens of this rare giant dromaeosaurid (raptor) that was one of if not the only midsize predator that lived alongside Tyrannosaurus rex. Other facts seen in this book are indeed true, such as Anatosaurus (referred to as Edmontosaurus in real life as it is the name that takes priority) being able to grow to 50 feet and weighing more than an adult T. rex. Two specimens from the Museum of the Rockies vindicate this, and if you have any doubts, feel free to look it up to see the proof. Whatever the case, the book is worth getting for another reason; the artwork! Lavishly illustrated by Tom Parker, RJ Palmer and Chris Masna, with entries by multiple other guest artists, I can guarantee you will be left spellbound by this wonderful book if not for the facts and imaginative musings than for the amazing and dedicated work done here by the artists. I know I was. My rating: a full 5 stars, though if it were 10 stars, I'd give it that higher rating if possible, because it's that good.

Whether it be their game or the book in hand, Saurian has definitely stepped up their came. With great artwork and excellent facts that are very interesting and detailed, it is definitely an amazing visualizer.

Like it says, this beautiful book arrived with the cover’s front nearly torn off! I was so upset but really confused. Book covers are sturdy and don’t just get parts of them tearing off. There were dings and a little puckering fromimpacts, sure, but this was like it got bashed really hard in shipping.When putting it back in the Amazon box (currently hoping I can at least exchange it), I felt how floppy it was, and looking inside the big tear, I notice the cover is not one solid piece, unlike other hardcovers I own. In fact, it’s three pieces for front, binding and back, and all three are held together by the paper the cover art is printed on!So sadly, the whole thing is incredibly delicate due to this cheap infrastructure, which is a real shame, as the artwork is breathtaking, the data accurate for it’s time (paleo science is always discovering new things, down to the month!), and everything else from a borrowed copy was very smartly organized and presented. I’d also forgotten how beautiful the cover is. The texture of our main theropod is coarse, yet the background is sharp and glossy, the rest of the cover a luscious satin. I just wish I didn’t have to be so delicate with it as a first experience of my own copy.I may reinforce my (hopefully bubble wrapped) replacement copy when it arrives. For now, this one is staying in the box so I don’t do more damage to it by breathing on it funny... Unfortunately just very disappointed.

The game is still not fully out, yet the developers have gone above and beyond to provide an artistic and scientifically accurate guide to the environment in which a few recognisable dinosaurs lived plus some ones I hadn’t seen before, their evolutionary family cage, the plants they lived with and ate and the behaviours they exhibited. Each dinosaurs gets two to four pages devoted to its background with a lot of sketches, images and size comparison during its four stages of development from hatchling to adulthood.Book arrived in perfect condition and even though I don’t play the game, I will cherish it as a beautifully created dinosaur book made by an enthusiastic team who consulted the right experts to help bring this vision of hell creek to life. There is even a fan art submission section at the end which shows a nice collection of images including of the old feathered t-rex design before they updated it to the version you see on the cover and within the book.Provides content more on the image side than the textual side but the diagrams and size comparisons help bring this location in the Late Cretaceous to life.

A great artbook with many fantastic pieces of flora, fauna and concept sketches for the game. Never played the game this book is for though I will definetly try!

Education

Written by Tom Parker the book is intended to present one of the most famous paleontological formations in the world – Hell Creek formation – with a wealth of detail never before seen.Along with its very well constructed texts, the book brings with it beautiful and extremely detailed illustrations made by a variety of artists who specialize in depicting our world, when it was not yet "ours".I never imagined I would be so intrigued to learn about every plant present in South Dakota 66 million years ago."Who would have thought that the cedars that dinosaurs fed on in the Cretaceous period would have similarities with the cedars of New Zealand?". No doubt this is the highlight of the book – transforming subjects usually considered "boring" into something really extraordinary.Chesterton once considered that "there are no uninteresting subjects, only uninteresting people" – I make his words my own.I couldn't finish this "review" without recommending this book, but I understand that not everyone likes dinosaurs as much as I do. Besides the fact that so far the book hasn't been officially published in Brazil.I'm not sure if the author is interested in translating the book into portuguese, but certainly if there is the desire I will be willing to make a possible translation he he

La calidad del libro, el arte y la información es simplemente espectacular. Realmente es un pequeño vistazo a lo que pudo ser este espectacular ambiente.