Renowned marine naturalist, author, and artist Richard Ellis explores--through both word and image--the discoveries, predatory habits, appearance, locomotion, environment, diet, and extinction of the ferocious swimming reptiles that ruled the oceans of the Mesozoic era.
 
"Giant marine reptiles ruled the oceans when their distant cousins the dinosaurs ruled the land. Despite their wonderful strangeness, these sea monsters have been overlooked in the modern dinosaur frenzy. Ellis's drawings show the wonderful variety of the creatures, and the text is overflowing with facts."
- New Scientist
 
"Ellis has written the paleohistorical equivalent of Jaws. Modern-day sharks are anchovies compared to the monstrous great reptiles of prehistoric seas, most of which were bigger, faster, more powerful, omnivorous, and better armed."
 -Peter Benchley, author of Jaws and Shark Trouble