Cover art for Ancient Sea Reptiles
Published
Smithsonian Inst. Press, October 2025
ISBN
9781588348173
Format
Softcover, 192 pages
Dimensions
25.4cm × 19.1cm

Ancient Sea Reptiles Plesiosaurs, Ichthyosaurs, Mosasaurs, and More

Not yet released
Due October 21, 2025.
Fast $7.95 flat-rate shipping!
Only pay $7.95 per order within Australia, including end-to-end parcel tracking.
100% encrypted and secure
We adhere to industry best practice and never store credit card details.
Talk to real people
Contact us seven days a week – our staff are here to help.

Dive into prehistoric waters and discover extraordinary sea monsters who reigned the ocean for 150 million years

Ancient Sea Reptiles: Plesiosaurs, Ichthyosaurs, Mosasaurs, and More examines the anatomy, behavior, diversity, lifestyle, and evolutionary rise of creatures who conquered the seas for 150 million years during the Mesozoic era. Expert paleontologist Darren Naish puts these fearsome and mighty creatures under the microscope and transports readers to wild and primeval waters. In this gorgeously illustrated book, amazing creatures leap off the page, including:

Mosasaurs, known as "T-Rexes of the deep"

Cretaceous sea snakes

Long-necked plesiosaurs

Crocodile-like thalattosuchians, the earliest sea turtles

Ancient Sea Reptiles features fossil photography and artistic reconstructions of ancient creatures, from evolutionary anomalies to apex predators who survived extinction events, with chapters that include:

Chapter 1: Introduction

Chapter 2: Evolution

Chapter 3: Anatomy

Chapter 4: The lesser-known groups: mesosaurs, Triassicsauropterygians, Cretaceous sea snakes and more

Chapter 5: Shark-shaped reptiles: the ichthyosaurs and their kin

Chapter 6: Long necks, big mouths: the plesiosaurs

Chapter 7: Sea crocs: the thalattosuchians

Chapter 8: Mosasaurs: the great sea lizards

Chapter 9: Sea Turtles

More than 80 percent of the world's vast ocean is unmapped and unobserved, prompting the imagination to run wild on what might lurk in its depths. But Ancient Sea Reptiles proves that what stirs the imagination even more are the spectacular prehistoric creatures that have already been discovered. The book is a feast for the eyes and the scientific mind.

Related books