I’ve talked before about my deep love for the artwork of Ray Troll. His art style has a unique, funky appeal that really stands out in the paleoart landscape. I’ve featured a few of his projects here at Dino Dad Reviews: the Cruisin’ series with Kirk Johnson, Sharkabet, and the music of his band, the Ratfish Wranglers. I’m excited to now share his latest book with you, Alaska Dinosaurs, Mammoths, and More, another collaboration with his paleobotanist pal Kirk Johnson.
Alaska Dinosaurs can in some ways be considered an update or successor to Thunderfeet, another book on Alaska’s prehistory that I have also reviewed. The two books have a broadly similar format, but Troll’s book benefits from a significant increase in our knowledge of Mesozoic Alaska in the years since Thunderfeet‘s publication. Here we get to meet the likes of Nanuqsaurus, Pachyrhinosaurus, and Ugrunaaluk (even if some think it might just be an Edmontosaurus), among other lesser known dinosaurs like the lambeosaur featured on the cover.
As the title suggests, it’s not just dinosaurs here! We also get to see Alaskan ammonites, the ichthyosaurs Shonisaurus and Toretocnemus, and the thalattosaur Gunakadeit.
Later in the book, we also see some of the Cenozoic residents of Alaska, from fossil palm trees, to the desmostylian Ounalashkastylus. More familiar creatures like the bison, horse, mammoth, walrus, and polar bear also feature.
I should note that the illustration for Troodon unfortunately neglects to give it the arm feathers we would infer from its relatives. Despite being too large to fly, they likely would have had “wings”, not unlike an ostrich. It’s the one artistic miss among what are otherwise fantastic illustrations.
I would have also liked to see some more entries for Cenozoic life. In this one arena, Alaska Dinosaurs does not completely supplant Thunderfeet, which devoted as much or more space to Pleistocene animals as it did to the dinosaurs. This book would have felt just that much more well rounded if it had similar balance in the creatures highlighted. On a similar note, I personally might have enjoyed a little more detail in the writing in general, though I suppose it does well enough for the target audience.
Overall, I really liked this book, and I am always keen to have more of Ray Troll’s work in my collection! I highly recommend this book to any youngsters interested in polar dinosaurs and Alaskan prehistory. Be sure to check out some of my other reviews I’ve linked to above, and visit Ray Troll’s web store for more of his artwork!
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