Alaska Dinosaurs, Mammoths, and More

Art by Ray Troll

Text by Kirk Johnson

(Little Bigfoot, hardcover, 2025)

Explore the world of fascinating prehistoric creatures that once roamed ancient Alaska. Packed with vibrant illustrations of dinosaurs by artist Ray Troll and lively text by paleontologist Kirk Johnson, this dynamic picture book is perfect for curious kids ages 8-12 and dinophiles of all ages.

This engaging richly illustrated picture book is the perfect introduction to Alaska's dinosaurs. It opens with an irresistible, jam-packed map of Alaska fossils, and then proceeds through a timeline of prehistoric creatures that inhabited ancient Alaska's oceans and forests.

Discover thalattosaurs, giant sea lizards who lived over 200 million years ago, and the mysterious "desmos," a prehistoric marine mammal that looked like a hippo but might be related to horses and rhinos and roamed the region 20 million years ago, and many more!

KIRK R. JOHNSON is a paleobotanist and the Sant Director of the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C. He is the host of four recent PBS series, Making North America, The Great Yellowstone Thaw, Polar Extremes, and Ice Age Footprints. He has written ten books including Prehistoric Journey, Cruisin' The Fossil Freeway, and Digging Snowmastodon.

RAY TROLL is an artist who has illustrated twelve books, including On an Ocean Journey, Sharkabet, Cruisin' the Fossil Freeway, Rapture of the Deep, and Planet Ocean: Dancing to the Fossil Record. He's had many major museum exhibits over the years, and is honored to have a species of ratfish, Hydrolagus trolli, and a genus of extinct herring, Trollichthys, named after him. He and his wife, Michelle, live and work in Alaska, and own and operate the Prairie Sea Gallery in Lindsborg, Kansas.

Cruisin' the Fossil Freeway: An Epoch Tale of a Scientist and an Artist on the Ultimate 5,000-Mile Paleo Road Trip (2nd ed.)

by Kirk Johnson and Ray Troll

(Chicago Review, paperback, 2024)

"A paleontological odyssey that manages to be informative, witty, educational-- and enormous fun." -- Simon Winchester, author of The Map That Changed the World, Krakatoa, and A Crack in the Edge of the World

An epoch tale of a scientist and an artist on the ultimate 5,000-mile paleo road trip.

Cruisin' the Fossil Freeway follows the most unusual travels of a paleontologist and an artist as they drive across the American West in search of fossils. Throughout their journey, they encounter "paleonerds" like themselves, people dedicated to finding everything from suburban T. rex to killer Eocene pigs to ancient fossilized forests. This updated editions brings the text up-to-date on new discoveries, new realizations, and new places, along with new art.

A fascinating travelogue, Cruisin' the Fossil Freeway shows us that fossils are everywhere if you learn to look for them-- even at 65 miles per hour.

Kirk R. Johnson is a paleobotanist and the Sant Director of the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C. He is the host of two recent PBS series, Making North America and The Great Yellowstone Thaw. He has written ten books including Prehistoric Journey, Cruisin' The Fossil Coastline, and Ancient Wyoming.

Ray Troll is an artist who has illustrated ten books, including Cruisin' the Fossil Coastline, Sharkabet, Rapture of the Deep, and Planet Ocean. He and his wife, Michelle, own and operate the Soho Coho Gallery in Ketchikan, Alaska.

Cruisin' the Fossil Coastline: The Travels of an Artist and a Scientist Along the Shores of the Prehistoric Pacific

by Kirk Johnson and Ray Troll

(Chicago Review, paperback, 2018)

In this long-awaited sequel Kirk Johnson and Ray Troll are back on a road trip--driving, flying, and boating their way from Baja, California to northern Alaska in search of the fossil secrets of North America's Pacific coast.

They hunt for fossils, visit museums, meet scientists and paleonerds, and sleuth out untold stories of extinct worlds. As one of the oldest coasts on earth, the west coast is a rich ground for fossil discovery. Its wonders include extinct marine mammals, pygmy mammoths, oyster bears, immense ammonites, shark-bitten camels, polar dinosaurs, Alaskan palms, California walruses, and a lava-baked rhinoceros. Join in for a fossil journey through deep time and discover how the west coast became the place it is today.

Kirk R. Johnson is a paleobotanist and the Sant Director of the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C. He is the host of two recent PBS series, Making North America and The Great Yellowstone Thaw. He has written ten books including Prehistoric Journey, Cruisin' The Fossil Freeway, and Ancient Wyoming.

Ray Troll is an artist who has illustrated ten books, includingCruisin' the Fossil Freeway, Sharkabet, Rapture of the Deep, and Planet Ocean. He and his wife, Michelle, own and operate the Soho Coho Gallery in Ketchikan, Alaska.

Spawn Till You Die: The Fin Art of Ray Troll

by Ray Troll

(Clover Press, hardcover, 2024)

Ray Troll's new book Spawn Till You Die: The Fin Art of Ray Troll is an exuberant plunge into the fantastic realities of sea creatures and prehistoric animals that come alive with scientific realism and his quirky sense of humor.

For more than four decades, this celebrated Alaskan artist has been luring, hooking, and landing fans around the world with his mesmerizing renditions of the inhabitants of Planet Ocean, past and present. His art is featured in the nation's major natural history museums including the Smithsonian, in galleries, and in books, as well as on immensely popular T-shirts. Part natural history adventure and part underground comic, his work depicts beautiful and accurately drawn fish of all kinds, Northwest Coast totems, Freud and Darwin, fossils, resurrections of extinct animals, and much more. Troll's art is deeply thought provoking (pun intended) but also simply fun to experience and never far from an inside joke he seems to be sharing with everyone. Some of his pieces are amusingly tongue-in-cheek, others are beautifully surrealistic and evocative of the interconnectedness of life on Earth, and his grandly composed major pieces are brilliant, inspiring panoramas of the natural world. His whimsy and attention to detail in his renderings of fish and other aquatic creatures has earned him a devoted following of scientists, anglers, and people who just like a good laugh. Welcome to the fishy, funny, inspiring art of Ray Troll.

RAY TROLL is a world-renowned artist known for his scientifically accurate and often humorous artwork, inspired by field work and research in marine science, paleontology, geology, ecology, and evolutionary biology. Ray's renditions of everything from modern day salmon and marine mammals to bizarre creatures of the prehistoric past have become iconic in fishing, scientific, and environmental activist communities around the world.

His work, distributed from the Soho Coho Art Gallery in Ketchikan, Alaska, can be found on posters, hoodies, and millions of t-shirts sported by fisher folks, the occasional celebrity and many others. Ray's paintings and mixed-media drawings are in the collections of the Miami Museum of Science, the Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture, Alaska Airlines, the Anchorage Museum, the Alaska State Museum, and the Ketchikan Museum. His books include Sharkabet: a Sea of Sharks from A to Z and Crusisn' the Fossil Coastline and Cruisin the Fossil Freeway with Dr. Kirk Johnson, now director of the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, for which he and Kirk were awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship. He and Port Townsend writer Brad Matsen produced four popular books: Shocking Fish Tales, Planet Ocean, Raptors, Fossil, Fins and Fangs and Rapture of the Deep. Ray's recent ventures include co-hosting the popular Paleo Nerd Podcast, featuring informative and amusing interviews with leading paleontologists and scientists from around the world. He is the recipient of a gold medal for distinction in the natural history arts by the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia, a Rasmuson Foundation Distinguished artist award and also received the Alaska Governor's award for the arts.

Troll has a ratfish species named for him and an extinct genus of extinct round-bellied herring named for him. He also plays icthyo-centirc rock n' roll music with his band the Ratfish Wranglers.

Sharkabet

by Ray Troll

(Westwinds Press, paperback, 2002)

It's Jaws all over again in this thrilling, chilling alphabet book for kids. Sharks, both living and extinct, lurk throughout its pages so kids can learn amazing facts about these dangerous and bizarre animals from the deep.

Featuring Ray Troll's spectacular fishy art, Sharkabet takes you through the ABCs of different shark varieties. The colorful, eye-popping images are accompanied by the catchy factoids, making this book a swimmingly good read.

Ray Troll is an acknowledged artist laureate of the deep and fishy. His colorful art has been featured on the Discovery Channel in numerous publications and shown at many galleries and museums. He has illustrated several highly acclaimed best-selling books. Ray Troll can be found daily creating fish art at his studio in Ketchikan, Alaska.