Pterosaurs / Птерозавры

A whole host of people have helped steer this book to completion, and I’m too close to my word count to thank them in the manner they deserve. Each of the following contributed to the process of assembling this book, and I’m extremely grateful to all of them. In no particular order, tremendous thanks to Brian Andres, Chris Bennett, Richard Butler, Luis Chiappe, Laura Codorniú, Stephen Czerkas, Fabio Dalla Vecchia, Ross Elgin, Erno Endenberg, Mike Habib, Dave Hone, Elaine Hyder, Martin Lockley, Bob Loveridge, Lü Junchang, Carl Mehling, Markus Moser, Darren Naish, Attila Ősi, Kevin Padian, Ryan Ridgely, Rico Stecher, Jose Sanz, Lorna Steel, David Unwin, Andre Veldmeijer, Larry Witmer, Ewan Wolff, and the nice people at the London Natural History Museum Picture Library, for supplying advice, thoughts, or imagery for use here. The folks at the University of Portsmouth are thanked for giving me a work space and access to technical literature. Kudos to my editor, Robert Kirk, and the other staff at Princeton University Press for running with this project, and the excellent Sheila Dean for turning my flippant prose into something that reads like science. I owe every one of you several beers, and sincere apologies if I’ve overlooked anyone else. If I did, feel free to slug me in the arm next time we meet, and then demand your promised beverage.

A few people deserve a special moment in the spotlight. Helmut Tischlinger not only allowed me to reproduce some of his excellent work—easily some of the most striking images in this book— ut went the extra mile by arranging permission for photograph use from different pterosaur collections. Dave Martill, my PhD supervisor, was instrumental in realizing my interest in pterosaurs and, without him, this book—and a great number of the other cool things I’ve done over the last few years—would never have happened.

My office buddies, old and new (too many to list here, but they know who they are), are not only great company in the office, but are also some of the best friends I could ask for; they continually remind me that there is more to life than work. My parents, sisters, and the rest of my family have always been supportive of my crazy ambition to work in the loopiest profession in

the world, and I hope they’re proud of this cumulation of my career so far. (Don’t worry, Dad: I’ll be reliably employed one day, you’ll see.) A great number of online friends and acquaintances have also been extremely enthusiastic and supportive of this project. It’s extremely flattering that people I’ve never met face-to-face have been saying how much they’re looking forward to this, and I hope it lives up to their expectations. <...>