In the days when dinosaurs dominated the earth, their marine counterparts--every bit as big and ferocious--reigned supreme in prehistoric seas. In this entrancing book, Richard Ellis, one of the world's foremost writers on the denizens of the deep, takes us back to the Mesozoic era to resurrect the fascinating lives of these giant seagoing reptiles.

Working from the fossil record, Ellis explores the natural history of these fierce predators, speculates on their habits, and tells how they eventually became extinct--or did they? He traces the 200-million-year history of the great ichthyosaurs, plesiosaurs, and mosasaurs who swam the ancient oceans--and who, according to some, may even still frequent the likes of Loch Ness.

Picture if you will seventy-foot dragons with foot-long serrated teeth, or an animal that looked like a crocodile crossed with a shark the size of a small yacht. With its impossibly long neck, Plesiosaurus conybeari has been compared to "a giant snake threaded through the body of a turtle." At a length of nearly sixty feet, Mosasaurus hoffmanni boasted powerful jaws and teeth that could crunch up even the hardest-shelled giant sea turtle. And Kronosaurus queenslandicus, perhaps the most formidable of the lot, had a skull nine feet long--more than twice that of Tyrannosaurus Rex--with teeth to match.

The first book about these amazing animals in nearly a century, "Sea Dragons" draws upon the most recent scientific research to vividly reconstruct their lives and habitats. Their fossils have been found all over the world--in Europe, Australia, Japan, and even Kansas--in lands that once lay on the floors of Jurassic and Triassic seas. Along the way, the book also provides intriguing insights into and entertaining tales about the work, discoveries, and competing theories that compose the fascinating world of vertebrate paleontology.

Ellis also graces his text with a set of incomparable illustrations. Widely hailed as our foremost artist of marine natural history, he depicts vividly how these creatures probably appeared and, through these likenesses, invites us to speculate on their locomotion, their predatory habits, their very lifestyles.

A genuine book of marvels and wonders, "Sea Dragons" will certainly stir one's curiosity about our planet's prehistoric past.

There is only one kind of human on earth today: us. But we are only one of a number of human species - primates of the Hominini tribe - that have existed on our planet across the millennia. In 2004 the world was astounded by the discovery of Homo floresiensis, a species of human never encountered before, on the island of Flores in the Indonesian archipelago. A very short, thickset being, with long arms and feet and an appetite for stegodons (a now extinct relative of modern elephants), it was soon nicknamed 'the hobbit'. As recently as 52,500 years ago, at a time when our own ancestors were spreading around the world, these 'hobbit' cousins lived also, at least on Flores. In Little Species, Big Mystery archaeologist Debbie Argue takes us on a journey of thrilling scientific discovery, recounting the unearthing of H. floresiensis, the archaeological expeditions that have followed, other finds - including that of a small Philippines hominin - and new paths of research and discussion. Argue conveys the excitement of searching for and finding clues to a lost past, and the animated discussions that have flowed from their discovery. She provides much contextual information to strengthen our grasp of the essential coordinates of this field and stimulate our interest in the shadowy, fascinating realm of prerecorded time.