Photoshop at its fantasy finest. Matthew Rake along with illustrator Simon Mendez work their magic presenting ten “What If” scenarios of ancient beasts who suddenly appeared today.

” WARNING! These extinct beasts are not alive today, and the encounters seen in this book are not real. But just imagine if they were…”(4) Dimetrodon, Inostrancevia, Sarcosuchus, Quetzalcoatlus, Ambulocetus, Andrewsarchus, Entelodont, Phorusrhacid, Smilodon, and Hyaenodon are each individually presented as if they were alive today and matched up with a present day animal in an illustration that looks look it was taken with a camera.”Now can you imagine what might happen if they arrived back in today’s world? Well, you are about to find out…” (6) The script goes on to mention the pair briefly before moving exclusively to the prehistoric animal. The information on these prehistoric nondinosaurs makes the book worth purchasing, while the past versus present aspect makes the book catch the reader hook, line, and sinker. A few of the matches are off a bit like the Quetzalcoatlus which only lived in North America and they have it pictured with giraffes in the wild, but I’m sure the young reader will forgive this. Each prehistoric animal is given a side bar with its name pronunciation, where it lived, length, weight, and a black outline drawing of the animal standing beside a human to show its relative size.

If nothing else, the photos are eye catching!