The Princeton Field Guides to Pterosaurs and Mesozoic Sea Reptiles

[Sim]

After @RobinGoodfellow posted that PNSO's new book on pterosaurs has come out, I tried to find it online.  My search took me to Amazon where the book had its page, but I also saw another book on pterosaurs that I hadn't seen before, The Princeton Field Guide to Pterosaurs!  It will be released on 7 June 2022.  Here's a link to it: https://www.amazon.com/Princeton-Field-Guide-Pterosaurs-Guides/dp/0691180172/ref=pd_sbs_3/139-0033984-8758654?pd_rd_w=rWSxJ&pf_rd_p=3676f086-9496-4fd7-8490-77cf7f43f846&pf_rd_r=5Y8PYGAJK2GKT6X4VSMB&pd_rd_r=7855db16-8926-46e3-aaaa-13435c77fd8c&pd_rd_wg=g0BkA&pd_rd_i=0691180172&psc=1

It looks promising, and it will be interesting to see what synonymisations Gregory Paul does with pterosaurs!  I'm quite interested in pterosaurs lately, so I'm looking forward to this book!


Edit: Thanks to postsaurischian for bringing to our attention that there will also be The Princeton Field Guide to Mesozoic Sea Reptiles!  I really look forward to this book too, it looks great!  It will be released on 18 October 2022, so later than the pterosaur version.  Here's a link to it: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Princeton-Field-Guide-Mesozoic-Reptiles/dp/0691193800/ref=sr_1_2?crid=M6NF1AZ595EI&keywords=princeton+field+guide&qid=1647190328&sprefix=princeton+field+guide%2Caps%2C174&sr=8-2

[RobinGoodfellow]

( PNSO books are great for illustrations. But if you're searching for solid paleontological studies, it's better to go elsewhere. The main PNSO targets are the young readers..)

[Gwangi]

Thanks for the tip! I can't wait to pick this one up. I still need to get the mammal one too.

[suspsy]

The mammal one is definitely worth picking up. I can't wait for the pterosaur one!

[triceratops83]

I only recently acquired Mark Witton's Pterosaurs book, which is fantastic, but another Gregory S Paul field guide is an absolute must have. Between these two books I should have the topic of Pterosaurs pretty well covered.

[Pachyrhinosaurus]

I didn't know about this; I'll be getting it for sure when it comes out. I read The Princeton Field Guide to Dinosaurs cover-to-cover in eighth grade. I still have to pick up the mammal book, too.

[Gwangi]

I only recently acquired Mark Witton's Pterosaurs book, which is fantastic, but another Gregory S Paul field guide is an absolute must have. Between these two books I should have the topic of Pterosaurs pretty well covered.

The only pterosaur books I have are the Illustrated Encylopedia and David Unwin's books. When I got them they were pretty much the only pterosaur books around. I've been meaning to get Witton's book too.

[suspsy]

Witton's book is superb, definitely worth the purchase.

I don't think I've ever seen Paul's illustrations of pterosaur skeletals. I'm really looking forward to this.

[triceratops83]

The only pterosaur books I have are the Illustrated Encylopedia and David Unwin's books. When I got them they were pretty much the only pterosaur books around. I've been meaning to get Witton's book too.

Definitely worth getting Witton's book, it's very comprehensive without being a slog to read through. It's probably set up up more or less identically to the upcoming field guide, but who's gonna pass up a new Gregory Paul book? And to be honest, if they ever released one, I'd also get the Dinosaur Facts and Figures Pterosaur book, and those three books between them would be plenty enough Pterosaur history for me.

I just realized most of my best prehistory books are from Princeton.

[Gwangi]

There are actually two pterosaur books with Witton's name attached. Pterosaurs: Flying Contemporaries of the Dinosaurs, and Pterosaurs: Natural History, Evolution, Anatomy. I assume y'all are talking about the second one?

[triceratops83]

There are actually two pterosaur books with Witton's name attached. Pterosaurs: Flying Contemporaries of the Dinosaurs, and Pterosaurs: Natural History, Evolution, Anatomy. I assume y'all are talking about the second one?

Yeah, the second one, though the cover just says "Pterosaurs". You have to flip it open to get the full title. Its cover features a Nyctosaurus against an orange sky.

[Gwangi]

There are actually two pterosaur books with Witton's name attached. Pterosaurs: Flying Contemporaries of the Dinosaurs, and Pterosaurs: Natural History, Evolution, Anatomy. I assume y'all are talking about the second one?

Yeah, the second one, though the cover just says "Pterosaurs". You have to flip it open to get the full title. Its cover features a Nyctosaurus against an orange sky.

Yup, I know the one. Both are on my amazon wish list. I just bumped up the priority level for the one you mentioned, hopefully someone gets the hint come Christmas.

[Palaeontologica]

If anyone's interested, the official Princeton website put up a preview a few days ago:
https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691180175/the-princeton-field-guide-to-pterosaurs#preview
Unfortunately, it's quite low-quality, but if you click the "Download All" button in the bottom left corner, you can read it with much more clarity.

[HD-man]

PNSO books are great for illustrations.

They're not just great for illustrations, but also for day-in-the-life stories.

[Halichoeres]

Must-have. On my preorder list.

[postsaurischian]

Sorry, it's a bit off-topic, but I just saw that there will also be a field guide to marine reptiles .

I's going to be a great book trio - absolute must-haves for me.

          

[Sim]

Thanks postsaurischian for sharing this!   The Princeton Field Guide to Mesozoic Sea Reptiles looks exciting!  I'm very happy it's being produced!  I've modified the title and first post of this thread to include details of the sea reptile field guide including the day it will be released.

[HD-man]

Thanks postsaurischian for sharing this!   The Princeton Field Guide to Mesozoic Sea Reptiles looks exciting!  I'm very happy it's being produced!  I've modified the title and first post of this thread to include details of the sea reptile field guide including the day it will be released.

& it's coming out around the same time as Naish's "sea reptiles" book, which is quite coincidental: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Ancient-Sea-Reptiles-Monsters-Deep/dp/1588347273

[VD231991]

The question is whether the upcoming Princeton Field Guide to Mesozoic Sea Reptiles includes all valid thalattosuchian species for which substantially complete material is known, because Gregory Paul must have been pleased that Michela Johnson tackled the alpha-taxonomy of Steneosaurus by restricting the genus to the Callovian and reviving a number of generic names (e.g. Aeolodon, Sericodon, Macrospondylus, and Mystriosaurus) for taxa historically referred to Steneosaurus, since he routinely believes that genera should be restricted to taxa that exist (or existed) for 3-4 million years. It's possible that in this upcoming book, Paul agrees with Leslie Noe that Eiectus longmani is a distinct taxon from Kronosaurus proper because MCZ 1285 is several million years older than brachaucheniine pliosaurid remains from the Toolebuc Formation (type horizon of Kronosaurus queenslandicus) and multiple taxa of pliosaurids are known from the Paja Formation of Colombia.

Moving on, I disagree with Greg Paul's opinion on page 168 of his pterosaur field guide about Tropeognathus, Cearadactylus, and Barbosania being probably growth stages and/or sexual dimorphs of Anhanguera because even if Tropeognathus, Barbosania, and Cearadactylus each are known only from one specimen, their distinctness from other ornithocheiroid pterosaurs from the Romualdo Formation has been well-established in paleontological literature (Paul also overlooks the fact that "Anhanguera santanae", "Anhanguera araripensis", and "Anhanguera robustus" were declared nomina dubia by Pinheiro and Rodrigues (2017), who assign AMNH 22555, MN 4735-V, and SAO 16494 to Anhanguera sp). The book does not provide entries for Coloborhynchus, Uktenadactylus, Nicorhynchus, and Siroccopteryx because those taxa are based on extremely minimal snout material (Paul probably was happy to see Kellner treat the type species of Coloborhynchus as not congeneric with Siroccopteryx or Uktendactylus because similarities in the snout morphology of these genera don't outright translate into ontogeny and Siroccopteryx or Uktendactylus are way younger than Coloborhynchus clavirostris).

Pinheiro FL, and Rodrigues T. 2017. Anhanguera taxonomy revisited: is our understanding of Santana Group pterosaur diversity biased by poor biological and stratigraphic control? PeerJ 5:e3285 https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.3285

[EmperorDinobot]

I got the pterosaur book yesterday. I'll look into it once it's cleaned.