Spinosaur Tales – review

Back in 2016, Dave Hone (for it was he) wrote The Tyrannosaur Chronicles, a book all about the best little clade of theropod dinosaurs that there ever was. Earlier this year saw the publication of Mark Witton’s King Tyrant, a book also dedicated to tyrannosaurs and one species in particular (can you guess?). Now, the two have joined forces to produce a book about…spinosaurs! Well, they’ve surely written enough about tyrannosaurs at this point. What’s more, it’s unsurprisingly rather good, although I do have a bone to pick with them…

…Not about anything remotely serious, of course, but about an assertion made concerning dinosaur pop culture and palaeoart. On page 187 of Spinosaur Tales (no definite article this time), Hone-Witton state that “lipless dinosaurs have been a trend in dinosaur art for decades, with this look being popularised, but not invented, by the first Jurassic Park movie.” Now, wait a second, there! Can we really blame JP for all those goofy-teethed theropods? After all, the Dilophosaurus and Velociraptor in JP had very fulsome lips, the latter sporting such extensive extra-oral tissue that it was able to raise its lips in a snarl and fit right in at Mar-a-Lago (probably). One could argue that the protruding teeth of the T. rex alone inspired countless imitators, which they surely did, even if the T. rex still didn’t have a true croco-face. Still, I think the lipless theropod tendency owes much more to the general trend of shrinkwrapping in some ’80s and ’90s palaeoart, and misguided phylogenetic bracketing, and wasn’t necessarily popularised by Jurassic Park.

None of this really matters, but hey, it’s fun to talk about. Quibbles about Jurassic Park‘s influence aside (and it’s a good thing that Dave didn’t mention his affinity for Jurassic Park 3 – that would be another 3 paragraphs of silly ranting), Spinosaur Tales is a very lovely book about a clade far more poorly understood than the tyrannosaurs. Published by Bloomsbury, the format is very similar to The Tyrannosaur Chronicles, which is to say that it’s a hardback about 22x14cm in size, mostly black and white with a few colour pages inserted in the centre. Said colour pages feature typically superb illustrations by Mark of spinosaurs going about their business; elsewhere, the book features pleasingly crisp skeletal diagrams and charming life reconstructions perfectly tailored to the monochrome format. While I found myself longing for a larger book (along the lines of King Tyrant) to show them off, they work very well in what we have.

As one would expect from Hone ‘n’ Witton, Spinosaur Tales is a pretty exhaustive overview of everything that there is to know about spinosaurs – starting with a look at their history in popular depictions before moving on to the story of spinosaur research, the various different species that have been described, their anatomy, biology and ecology. If you’re after a comprehensive popular book about spinosaurs, this is it. While this book does cover the entire Spinosauridae (and discusses other theropods in terms of their relatedness and anatomical similarities and differences), the focus inevitably falls on Spinosaurus most often; after all, it’s the largest, most spectacular, one of the most well-known from fossils, and definitely the best known among the general public. It’s also been the subject of a fair amount of controversy, on topics ranging from the problematic nature of certain reconstructions, its anatomical proportions, to its likely habits and lifestyle.

In all respects the authors are very fair and even-handed (and not egotistical), even if they inevitably fall down on a particular side of an issue (I mean, Dave’s written papers about this stuff). It’s particularly illuminating when they point out areas in which popular conceptions about spinosaurs, and Spinosaurus in particular, are based on misunderstandings or misinterpretations of their anatomy. For example, ideas about them following croc-like lifestyles thanks to retracted nostrils ignore the fact that the fleshy nostrils would have been far further down the snout than the bony nares, and firmly on the sides of the head. Similarly, the eyes were located in a very typical theropod position. The authors also cast doubt on Spinosaurus‘ supposed strengths as a swimmer, noting how its fixed upright sail would have created enormous drag, and how most apparent similarities to modern-day aquatic predators are very superficial. This might all sound familiar if you’ve read some of Dave’s work on this subject in the literature, but it’s great to have it here in an accessible, easily digestible form, alongside further commentary on the anatomy and lifestyles of Baryonyx, Suchomimus and the rest. This includes an interesting discussion of how gregarious habits might have influenced their elaborate display structures, and speculation on exactly why spinosaur teeth are such common fossils (the two might be related).

It’s a highly readable book, too, although one that I’d say is definitely aimed at adult enthusiasts rather than a very broad audience. There’s nothing wrong with that as far as I’m concerned, of course – it’s essentially aimed at people like me and most of the readers of this blog – but it’s probably not the sort of book you’d give to a total novice. There are some primers on basic anatomical terms and dinosaur clades, but the book doesn’t get too bogged down in that. Again, a good thing as far as I’m concerned. It’s perhaps not the liveliest text that either author has written, but it doesn’t drag at all, and you’ll happily devour great chunks of it at a time.

Above all, it’s clear that a tremendous amount of work went into this book, and it feels dense with information about these mostly still quite poorly understood animals. Areas of contention or uncertainty are caveated in a fashion typical of the authors, but it never becomes tedious or frustrating; it’s just evident that they’re being good scientists. This is worth picking up even if you’ve done a lot of background reading on spinosaurs, as there’s no other work that unites everything we know about them, their palaeoenvironments, and their modern day afterlife like Spinosaur Tales. (And you don’t know everything, you know. Stop being so arrogant.)

Does it deserve a full 5/5 Hones? Oh, go on then. Even if I resent the lack of a dust jacket, but that’s the publisher’s fault…

By the way, it’s kinda funny how both authors are pictured with T. rex on the publisher’s website.