When I first browsed the pages of this book, I had only one thought -- this is how they all should be. The singular photo or line drawing, so often employed to illustrated all the teeth of a particular species, were replaced by photos or SEM images, depicting multiple tooth positions and perspectives. For ease of reference, a page was dedicated to a species in flash card fashion. Each of these reference pages (78 in total) provided tooth and dentition descriptions, distinguishing characeteristics, strategraphic occurences and comments. Ten associated or artifical dentitions are also included.

The author's appear to have taken a cue from Zangerl (1981) and Cappetta (1987) by starting the book with a clearly written and well illustrated section on root, crown and dentition morphology/design. They go on to detail other elasmobranch hard parts -- denticles, rostral spines, stinging barbs, etc. Terms to be used later in the text are well explained and for ease of reference, are included in a glossary as well. Additional useful features of the book are the chapters on stratigraphy & depositional environments and collecting, preparation & curation techniques.

My copy of the book is falling apart, partly because of the quality of the soft cover binding, but mostly because of the frequency of use. It is a poster boy for how a reference book, intended for amatuer and professional, can and should be written.

Despite it's focus on the Cretaceous of Texas, I have found it useful for other area's of the inland sea (i.e Kansas) and for specimens from New Jersey as well.

Reprinted. Unavailable for a decade, in February 2007 this book was finally reissued. The master pages had been lost and the reproduction required scanning the original imprint. The reproduction of the photographs is not as good as the original which is particularly apparent in those specimens that lacked good contrast & density in the original. With that said, the copy I reviewed is certainly better than many original papers I have seen and affects only a small number of the numerous images more than marginally. On the plus side, the paper is of higher quality and 'double wire-o'-bound (spiral-like, solving the original falling-apart issue). It is now being offered for $24.95 from TexasSharks.org.