PREHISTORIC PETS

A pop-up introduction to the extinct ancestors of Ernest the guinea pig, Flossy the Siamese cat, and five more domesticated cuties.

Filling in the spaces around Love’s fetching portraits of wild and domestic modern creatures, paleontologist Lomax natters on about the main types and characteristics of cats, dogs, fish, rodents, and other familiar animal families. This information appears on the outer leaves of each double-page spread, but the stars of the show are the pop-up figures that rear dramatically with each lift of a gatefold. Who lies at the far end of Lucky the parakeet’s ancestral line? Velociraptor! Bubbles the goldfish? Jurassic leviathan Leedsichthys! Jasper the little corn snake? Wait for it…Titanoboa!—depicted casually crushing a prehistoric crocodile for a snack. Except for cat-sized Sifrhippus, earliest known ancestor of Pippa the horse, the selected progenitors assume thrillingly predatory poses as they hover over further descriptive notes and smaller images of both fossil finds and contemporary flora and fauna. Whether today’s pets would kill and/or eat us given the chance may be a matter for debate…but as for their predecessors, readers will come away with no such doubts.

Visual drama paired to a substantial informational load.