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CLOUDSLEY-THOMPSON, J. L. 2005. Ecology and Behaviour of Mesozoic Reptiles.

xii + 219 pp. Berlin, Heidelberg, New York: Springer-Verlag. Price Euros 149.95 (+ VAT at local rate), SFr 254, £115.50, US $149 (hard covers). ISBN 3 540 22421 1.

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Ever since the earliest scientific descriptions of plesiosaurs, ichthyosaurs and dinosaurs, the biology of Mesozoic reptiles has been the subject of intense interest. This fascination has been fuelled by the often-bizarre morphology of these animals, their gigantic sizes and, in many cases, the lack of informative extant analogue taxa. Many early studies were little more than informed guesswork, but recent years have witnessed the emergence of a wide range of quantitative techniques, driven by the development of new technologies and methods, which are now permitting the testing of palaeobiological hypotheses with unprecedented analytical rigour. An enormous literature has been generated by palae-ontologists working on the diverse array of Mesozoic reptiles, but relatively few attempts have been made to provide overviews of this work, whether it be on locomotion, feeding, social behaviour or some other aspect of palaeobiology. In this volume, John Cloudsley-Thompson attempts the almost Sisyphean task of collating information on all groups of Mesozoic reptiles in order to provide a synthetic account of their behaviour and evolution. However, although this aim is admirable, the resulting volume cannot be regarded as a definitive, or . . . [Full Text of this Article]