A review by brnineworms
A Field Guide to Mesozoic Birds and other Winged Dinosaurs by Matthew P. Martyniuk

informative medium-paced

3.0

First off, it’s worth noting this book was published in 2012. There have been several discoveries and new theories put forward in the decade or so since then that Martyniuk could not have known about. Hence no Caihong, no Serikornis, etc. He’s maybe a little too caught up in the romanticism of Archaeopteryx as the first bird, but, to his credit, he does acknowledge that “bird” is a concept based on extant species and the definitions get a little hazy and/or arbitrary when it comes to describing bird-like dinosaurs.

The guide itself is well-researched, with in-depth descriptions (including measurements where known) and notes on behaviour – speculative, of course, but always inferred from the anatomy of the animal and the environment in which it lived.

Martyniuk provides “common names” which are literal translations of the scientific names. Sometimes this works, but it’s often clunky and, quite frankly, it seems a little lazy. We end up with names like “Egg Seizer Fond of Ceratopsians,” “Thin Narrow Hand,” “Las Hoyas Dawn Bastard-wing Bird,” and perhaps the worst offender, “Lithographic Ancient Wing” (Urvogel, I’m so sorry...) It’s the little things like Caudipteryx being rendered as “Tail Feather” where “Feathertail” would make more sense as the name of an animal, yknow? And is it necessary to translate the species name when there’s only one species in the genus? Surely we wouldn’t need to specify which Utahraptor or whatever it is if it’s the only one.

The illustrations are nice, though. Generally speaking I prefer a little more detail in the integument but I recognise that 1) these images are small so detail would probably just muddy the design, and 2) Martyniuk had dozens of dinosaurs to draw and probably didn’t want to develop carpal tunnel syndrome.

As much as this book looks like a field guide, however, it doesn’t quite feel like one. The species described within its pages have all been dead for millions upon millions of years; I can’t go raptorwatching. The book could lean into that hauntological aspect but it doesn’t, for the simple fact that the text is written in the past tense instead of the present. There’s a passage in the introduction which encourages the reader to “imagine a time travelling paleontologist” – I think this book should have been written for her.

A Field Guide to Mesozoic Birds and Other Winged Dinosaurs is... alright. I think it’s a great concept that just wasn’t realised to its full potential.