Mark Blum (1)

Wow -- this is a truly extraordinary book for its high- quality, three dimensional images of reptiles and amphibians. Excellent quality images are presented in stereoscopic pairs, and when viewed with the robust set of lenses built into the book, they seemingly jump out at the viewer in breathtaking color. As described in its introduction, the book is designed to entertain and inspire the reader into "a greater appreciation and appreciation of the reptiles, amphibians, and the environmental conditions crucial to their survival." Informative text accompanies each of the 44 images, describing aspects of appearance, natural history, and environment of each species. A variety of forms are illustrated, including such amphibians as the blue poison dart frog, South American horned frog, emperor newt, and spotted salamander, and (among reptiles) plumed basilisk, collared lizard, Nile monitor, various species of geckos and chameleons, boa constrictor, Prairie kingsnake (shown swallowing prey), sea turtle, and mata mata. A few major groups are not included (limbless caecilians, and crocodilians), but such omissions are noticeable only to the pedant given the diversity of forms and quality of images. Highly recommended.… (mere)