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All Your Yesterdays
A sequel to All Yesterdays, this book is based on the compilation of entries we received for the "All Your Yesterdays" contest of 2013, where we asked artists around the world to illustrate speculative but plausible ideas about dinosaurs and other extinct animals. From herbivores behaving badly to mimicry, parasitism, bizarre displays and even birth defects, here are visions of prehistoric creatures as you never expected to see them, from some of the best new talents in the field of palaeontological art. All Your Yesterdays dwells further into the world of rational speculation with in-depth explanation and scientific references about each artwork.
187 pages, ebook
First published January 1, 2013
12 people are currently reading
625 people want to read
About the author
C.M. Kosemen
18 books207 followersC. M. Kosemen also writes as Nemo Ramjet.
C.M. Kosemen is an artist and independent researcher born in Ankara, Turkey. He studied at Cornell University, Istanbul’s Sabancı University and holds a Masters’ degree from London’s Goldsmiths College in Documentary Film and Media Studies.
Kosemen’s areas of interest include surreal art, Mediterranean history, palaeontology, evolution, zoology and visual culture.
As an artist, Kosemen is affiliated with the Empire Project Gallery of Istanbul. His art has been displayed in exhibits in Catania, Vienna, Ulcinj, Istanbul, Ankara, London and Tel Aviv.
As a researcher, Kosemen’s book credits include Osman Hasan and the Tombstone Photographs of the Dönmes, from Libra Books of Istanbul. Copies of this book have been purchased by leading universities and research institutes of the world. It has won the 2016 Eduard-Duckesz History Prize.
Kosemen’s other book credits include All Yesterdays: Unique and Speculative Views of Dinosaurs and Other Prehistoric Animals, and the Cryptozoologion, the Biology, Evolution and Mythology of Hidden Animals from Irregular Books of London.
Kosemen was also an editor for Benetton’s Colors magazine and worked in various advertising agencies.
C.M. Kosemen is an artist and independent researcher born in Ankara, Turkey. He studied at Cornell University, Istanbul’s Sabancı University and holds a Masters’ degree from London’s Goldsmiths College in Documentary Film and Media Studies.
Kosemen’s areas of interest include surreal art, Mediterranean history, palaeontology, evolution, zoology and visual culture.
As an artist, Kosemen is affiliated with the Empire Project Gallery of Istanbul. His art has been displayed in exhibits in Catania, Vienna, Ulcinj, Istanbul, Ankara, London and Tel Aviv.
As a researcher, Kosemen’s book credits include Osman Hasan and the Tombstone Photographs of the Dönmes, from Libra Books of Istanbul. Copies of this book have been purchased by leading universities and research institutes of the world. It has won the 2016 Eduard-Duckesz History Prize.
Kosemen’s other book credits include All Yesterdays: Unique and Speculative Views of Dinosaurs and Other Prehistoric Animals, and the Cryptozoologion, the Biology, Evolution and Mythology of Hidden Animals from Irregular Books of London.
Kosemen was also an editor for Benetton’s Colors magazine and worked in various advertising agencies.
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
July 25, 2021
All Yesterdays was a very good book pointing out some serious problems in paleoart. It gives the reader a good idea of its subject matter and uses plenty of examples to illustrate the problems within it while pointing out that it is just wild speculation. Then it finishes with showing how the animals of today could be incorrectly reconstructed which serves as an interesting thought experiment to further illustrate the point.
All YOUR Yesterdays is definitely a step back. It is a collection of examples sent in by the readers of the first book as a part of a competition. It isn't even much of a "best of" as this book is even longer than the previous one and the submissions are not really organized thematically. As a result the book ends up having pretty much the same quality as a thread on the Internet. Instead of the examples pointing out some important problems in reconstructing extinct animals, they just sort of go "These animals are not usually depicted like this, but what if they were?" The themes of them often repeat so it actually makes the subject matter boring. What if feathers, what if this colour instead of how it usually is represented, what if symbiosis based on todays animals, what if we depicted them asleep, what if we depicted them sick, what if we depicted them having gay sex... And then there are also some non serious examples like speculation about dinosaurs evolving if they haven't went extinct, examples of speculative intelligent dinosaurs, depictions of cyclops based on mammoth skulls... But these don't form some kind of an appendix, they are just scattered in the book itself.
But ultimately, it's just a bunch of new examples as an addition to the previous book. You might as well pick it up if you read All Yesterdays, just lower your standards. It's a picture book with dinosaurs except it's trying to be different and that's pretty much all there is to it. Just try to relax and awaken your inner child reading dinosaur books and you'll probably be fine.
All YOUR Yesterdays is definitely a step back. It is a collection of examples sent in by the readers of the first book as a part of a competition. It isn't even much of a "best of" as this book is even longer than the previous one and the submissions are not really organized thematically. As a result the book ends up having pretty much the same quality as a thread on the Internet. Instead of the examples pointing out some important problems in reconstructing extinct animals, they just sort of go "These animals are not usually depicted like this, but what if they were?" The themes of them often repeat so it actually makes the subject matter boring. What if feathers, what if this colour instead of how it usually is represented, what if symbiosis based on todays animals, what if we depicted them asleep, what if we depicted them sick, what if we depicted them having gay sex... And then there are also some non serious examples like speculation about dinosaurs evolving if they haven't went extinct, examples of speculative intelligent dinosaurs, depictions of cyclops based on mammoth skulls... But these don't form some kind of an appendix, they are just scattered in the book itself.
But ultimately, it's just a bunch of new examples as an addition to the previous book. You might as well pick it up if you read All Yesterdays, just lower your standards. It's a picture book with dinosaurs except it's trying to be different and that's pretty much all there is to it. Just try to relax and awaken your inner child reading dinosaur books and you'll probably be fine.
February 27, 2024
Such a fun book. It highlights how much we don't know about prehistoric life and how much we will probably never know. Most of the soft integument never fossilizes. This is a big deal as it is namely this which give modern animals their characteristic looks. Not to mention behaviors. Just think of all those amazing mating rituals of birds. How can that be fossilized?
March 27, 2023
I would say this is a necessary book to all of those who grew up with either Jurassic Park or Jurassic World, as the portrayal of dinosaurs in those movies can commonly leave people to assume wrong of dinosaurs making them think their similar to that of reptiles being scaly which is a common misconception, and also just in general reading this book was quite an experience in itself. I would recommend this book for anyone as it's quite an interesting find.
September 19, 2018
The result is not as brilliant as the ideas and it is not unexpected because some artists in this book are amateur. So in comparison with “All yesterday “ that in my opinion is a complete paleoart book, I give 4 points to this book.
July 27, 2020
interesting paleo art in a free ebook
January 9, 2023
It was okay not as good as all yesterdays
May 16, 2025
I love speculative biology that is REALLY speculative but this book is still great. Loved seeing ‘fantastical’ ideas in this that turned out to be true years later! Embrace weirdness
September 22, 2014
A fabulous book of speculative art about how dinosaurs may have looked and behaved, contributed by numerous artists. This is a follow-up to their earlier "All Yesterdays" book, which also features speculative dinosaur art.
However, 'speculative' here does not mean 'free to imagine as you like'. The artwork is restricted by the fossil evidence left behind by dinosaurs but this still leaves a lot of room for speculation. The amount and position of fat in the body, the abundance and type of feathers, the behaviour of dinosaurs, etc., are still fair game.
In this book, you will find lots of fascinating images of what dinosaurs might look like and behave; from the fantastic 'Bowertyrant' image of a T-Rex arranging decorative items to attract a mate (like a bower-bird) to outlandish decorations and headgear. Each image comes with a brief paragraph on the artist, the speculative image shown along with a reference to the scientific papers that back up the speculation.
Once you've flipped through the book, you may never look at plain old naked reptile looking dinosaurs ever again without thinking how much better it would look with various speculative looks and behaviour.
The book can be downloaded from the book's website.
However, 'speculative' here does not mean 'free to imagine as you like'. The artwork is restricted by the fossil evidence left behind by dinosaurs but this still leaves a lot of room for speculation. The amount and position of fat in the body, the abundance and type of feathers, the behaviour of dinosaurs, etc., are still fair game.
In this book, you will find lots of fascinating images of what dinosaurs might look like and behave; from the fantastic 'Bowertyrant' image of a T-Rex arranging decorative items to attract a mate (like a bower-bird) to outlandish decorations and headgear. Each image comes with a brief paragraph on the artist, the speculative image shown along with a reference to the scientific papers that back up the speculation.
Once you've flipped through the book, you may never look at plain old naked reptile looking dinosaurs ever again without thinking how much better it would look with various speculative looks and behaviour.
The book can be downloaded from the book's website.
July 16, 2014
Fascinating reimaginings, mostly of very high artistic quality. They're not intended to be gospel truth, so they're great as what they are: interesting little thought experiments.
March 9, 2014
Forget everything you thought you knew about dinosaurs.
September 5, 2025
Quite pleasant to read, but it was definitely a step back from "All Yesterdays"
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews