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“Unlike their dinosaur cousins, ptero− saurs have never really made a sensa− tional popular or academic splash”; Witton provides “an overview of the diversity and sheer awesomeness” of his subject (Preface), and some 200 il− lustrations. He begins with a “popular view of primordial Earth”, “But That’s All Hokum”, and pterosaurs “have suf− fered more than most” in being misun− derstood. Apart from powered flight, “they were also skilled walkers, runners, and swimmers”. The overview “is split into three parts”: their general palaeobiology is assessed, “looking at their anatomy, locomotion, and other gener− alities of their lifestyle”. Chapters 9 to 24 are per pterosaur group, often per family. Chapter 25 “ponder[s] their evolutionary story” and demise. Why extinction? “Late Cretaceous pterosaur stock was almost entirely invested in one, slowly adapting lineage and was therefore very vulnerable” (p. 263), although “diversity curves [...] reflect sampling biases” (p. 259). Witton has “made a case for pterosaurs as diverse, successful animals that are as far away from their stereotype of Mesozoic gar− goyles as could be imagined” (p. 259). He is rightly cautious about some taxonomical revisions (e.g., p. 174) or the state of nomencla− ture (e.g., p. 152). His own (re)positioning of taxa is well−argued (e.g., p. 188). So are his reinterpretations; e.g., he finds that only Pterodaustro, among pterosaurs, is a true filter feeder, pace such authors who consider other derived ctenochasmatids to also have been ones (p. 199): “their jaws lack the specializations required for straining food from the water column. Rather, their elongate, broad jaw tips and meshing teeth seem much better suited for tac− tile−feeding strategies” (p. 199). Witton discusses the evidence in detail. Also consider, e.g., his reasoning (p. 209) about why dsungari− pteroids developed shock−absorbing characteristics: the mass of their compact, hardy skeleton is a likely cause, not necessarily Fastnacht’s hypothesis that frequent landing on hard ground caused this. Witton is clever at explaining complexity. He conveys the state of the art, not infrequently with original insights. He also explains well controversies, e.g., the criticism of the skim−feeding hypothesis even in Thalassodromeus (pp. 242–243). Witton argues against a sail−like membrane extending be− tween the antlers of Nyctosaurus (p. 178). Contra Wang et al. (2008: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA 105: 1983–1987), Witton finds it “likely that Nemicolopterus is a very young, perhaps an even recently hatched, tapejarid” (p. 219). Also note Witton’s reasoning about the thermoregulatory crest hy− pothesis (p. 242); he denies that they were primarily developed for that role, his analogue being heat−loosing bird beaks (p. 242). Rather than proposing a complete taxonomy or a phylogen− etic tree (cf. p. 261) right away, Witton explains his approach as the exposition proceeds. Wisely, he does not bother to give in− termediate taxa between Pterosauria and the family level, a named rank: relative position suffices. Superordinate taxa ap− pear under chapter titles, e.g., pterosauria > monofenestrata > pterodactyloidea > lophocratia > azhdarchoidea > tapejaridae. Witton only quite seldom resorts to cladograms, but his dia− grams, and especially his biomechanical depictions, are sophis− ticated, eloquent, and pleasing. He is a really gifted illustrator, with in addition a talent for interspersing dense technical text with apt humour. A full−page life restoration facing the opening of Chapter 25 has this caption: “Realizing that the next chapter is about pterosaur extinction, a flock of the Maastrichtian Roma− nian pterosaur Hatzegoteryx thambema tries to fly back to an earlier part of the book to avoid the chop.” The presentation is often light−hearted, but always rigorously sound. Sporadic informal expressions include: anurognathids are “Muppet−faced” (p. 105); “a heck of a lot” (p. 109); “Oops.” (p. 128); “The eyes of tapejarid aficionados were turned east in 2003, when” (p. 219); “Recycling, Mesozoic style” (p. 144); “No one messes with the 6 m wingspan Ornithocheirus” (p. 158); “With perhaps one exception, diddly−squat has been said in print about the biomechanics and functional biology of boreopterids” (p. 167); “While the smaller individuals with more sensible head− crests” (p. 171); “goofy teeth”, “silly hat”, “This is not a joke” (all three on p. 184); “better candidates for appearing on the front cover of rock music albums” (p. 202); “Tupandactylus imperator doing his best Clint Eastwood impression” (p. 217); “There’s nothing quite like an azhdarchid.” (p. 255); “The end. Any ptero− saur alive in the last weekend of the Mesozoic would have seen the Earth plunged into a short−lived nuclear winter” (p. 260); “Ptero− saurs were already on their last dance by this stage” (p. 260); “left carrying their torch” (p. 260). I highly recommend this timely and also aesthetically re− warding, never dull book.

“Hybrids of Birds and Bats with a Decidedly Reptilian Flavor”