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This week saw the release of my latest book, Great Dinosaur Mistakes. This is my third children’s picture book co-written with Jonathan Emmett and published by Fox & Ink Books (formerly UCLan Books). It is also my second book illustrated by Stieven Van der Poorten.

Great Dinosaur Mistakes explores some of the dinosaurs and other prehistoric animals the “experts got wrong” when they were first discovered. As explained in the book, the palaeontologists at the time were often working with partial skeletons of completely foreign creatures, so calling them all mistakes could be seen as a little harsh. They had to make educated guesses so errors were inevitable. But this is a key point of our book – everyone makes mistakes sometimes. We learn from those mistakes.

That said, sometimes the experts really should have known better. Case in point, Cope’s famous misinterpretation of the plesiosaur Elasmosaurus with the head on the wrong end. Long-necked plesiosaurs had been known for 50 years prior to the discovery of Elasmosaurus, and the atlas-axis bones that connect the head to the neck were preserved in Cope’s specimen, with part of the skull still connected. So, this mistake was definitely avoidable.

In Great Dinosaur Mistakes, the ‘mistaken’ versions of the animals encounter the corrected versions of themselves. The old versions are depicted in black and white, the new versions in colour. The creatures are observed by a duo of palaeontologists, one from the past based loosely on Edward Drinker Cope, the other from the present based loosely (with permission) on Susie Maidment. The two palaeontologists guide us through the book, comparing notes on the animals as they go.

Can we be completely sure that our current depictions of prehistoric creatures are completely correct? Time will tell, as future palaeontologists correct the mistakes we’re inevitably making today.

Great Dinosaur Mistakes is widely available in all the usual places, from Amazon to small retailers. Ideally, order it from your local bookshop.