Book Reviews by Mike Fredericks from the pages of the
From Issue #72 June/July 2005
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The Evolution of North American Rhinoceroses by Donald R. Prothero $100.00 Hardcover: 228 pages Publisher: Cambridge University Press ISBN: 0521832403 First appearing about 40 million years ago in North America, rhi-noceroses diversified into an incredible array of taxa, with a vari-ety of ecologies that don't resemble any of the five living species. They ranged from delicate long-legged dog-sized animals, to huge hippo-like forms that apparently lived in rivers and lakes. Including a complete systematic review, and discussions of biogeography, evolution and paleoecology, this book summarizes our current knowledge of North American rhinos and constitutes the most complete reference available. An amazing academic work on the subject, packed with photos and illustrations.
Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed by Tared Diamond $29.95 Hardcover Publisher: Viking ISBN: 0670033375. Tared Diamond's new best seller is a follow-up to his Pulitzer Prize-win-ning "Guns, Germs, and Steel". While the former explained the geographic and environmental reasons why some human populations have flourished, Collapse uses the same factors to examine why ancient societies, including the Anasazi of the American Southwest, Easter Island, classical Mayan civilization and the Viking colonies of Greenland, as well as modern ones such as Rwanda, have fallen apart. Not every collapse has an environmental origin, but an eco-meltdown is often the main catalyst, he argues, particularly when combined with society's response to (or disregard for) the coming disaster. He begins by setting the book's main question in the small communi-ties of present-day Montana as they face a decline in living standards and a depletion of natural resources. Once-vital mines now leak toxins into the soil, while diseases infect some deer and elk and older hydroelectric dams have become decrepit. Diamond provides fine and well-reasoned historical examples, making the case that many times, economic and environ-mental concerns are one and the same. Diamond is a brilliantly describes everything from anthropology to zoology, providing the scien-tific background to support a historical account of these many declines and falls. A disturbing reminder of the links that bind humans to nature.
Endless Forms Most Beautiful: The New Science of Evo Devo and the Making of the Animal Kingdom by Sean B. Carroll $25.95 Hardcover: 350 pages Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company ISBN: 0393060160 For the past two centuries, natural philosophers, morphologists and biologists have asked whether there is a fundamental relation-ship between development (ontogeny)— the transformation of an embryo to an adult within a single generation—and evolution (phylogeny)— the modification and transformation of organisms between generations that reach back 600 million years. There is, and it finds expression in the thriving discipline of evolutionary developmental biology (evo devo, as it has been called since the early 1990s). Endless Forms Most Beautiful examines one of the most exciting aspects of evo devo— the incorporation of molecular biology that fol-lowed the discovery of classes of conserved regulatory (developmental, or "switching") genes: the homeobox, or Hox, genes. Carroll, who is a professor of genetics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, writes in a readable style and includes fascinating examples that are beautiful-ly illustrated by color and black-and-white drawings and photographs. Evo devo (then known as evolutionary embryology) was born when Darwin concluded that the study of embryos would provide the best evidence for evo-lution. As Carroll discusses in his book (the title of which comes from the last lines of The Origin of Species) genes are what matter in evolution; embryos were merely the vehicles that carried genes from one generation to the next. When we find a species of frog that has lost the tadpole stage from its life cycle— a remarkable evolutionary change in form and function— we can determine whether that loss was an early or late event in the evolution of frogs. The discovery of homeobox genes turned this approach upside down and inside out. The body plans of lobsters and humans, flies and fish, bar-nacles and mice, are initiated using the same families of genes that are con-served across the animal kingdom. The consequences of this discovery are the stuff of the first half of Endless Forms Most Beautiful, in which Carroll presents homeobox genes as the switches that contain the fundamental information required to make a fly's eye or a human hand. The second half of the book explores what Carroll calls "the making of animal diversity," beginning with animal life as exemplified in the justly famous 500-million-year-old fossils of the Burgess Shale formation in British Columbia. Carroll demonstrates, "the evolution of form occurs through changes in devel-opment," which is precisely why evo devo is so central to under-standing how animals have been and are being evolved.
Microfossils: Second Edition By Howard Armstrong, University of Durham & Martin Brasier, University of Oxford. $69.95 paper-back. From Blackwell Publishing, this is a new and com-pletely rewritten edition of the well-known text Microfossils (first pub-lished in 1980) covering all the major microfossil groups, with information on taxonomy, phylogeny, ecology and palaeoecology. Particular attention is given to the uses of microfossils in environmental reconstruction and biostratigraphy with an emphasis on practical applications of micropalaeontology. It includes numerous photos, line and half-tone illustrations. This is the only student-friendly micropaleontology text avail-able. Sections are titled: Part 1 Applied micropalaeontol-ogy, Part 2 The rise of the biosphere, Part 3 Organic walled microfossils, Part 4 Inorganic walled microfos-sils, Systematic Index. Microfossils are an important part of paleontology that we don't mention much in PT. This is a fine publication for the student of this topic. Visit www.blackwellpublishing .com
My Favorite Dinosaurs by Ruth Ashby, John Sibbick (Illustrator) Publisher: Milk & Cookies ISBN: 0689039212 $16.95 Ages 4-8 This new hardcover book presents a child's world of all the classic dinosaurs from Tyrannosaurus Rex to Hadrosaurs along with dramatic new finds in John Sibbick's realistic painting style. Simple text and design make the ideal 'first' dinosaur book for young readers. Sibbick's amazing illustrations are described with brief text, providing the name and a few facts about the fea-tured prehistoric animals, some of which are actually not dinosaurs and of course his paintings are the whole reason for this colorful compendium. I asked John Sibbick himself to comment on the book: "This is a result of working with Howard Zimmerman (editor/publisher) over the last 2-3 years. He tried quite a few formats for my stuff and at one time I had hoped to do something more personal, like a career-type edition with preparatory sketches and working methods over the last 30 years, but these kind of books just don't sell that well. The picture-book idea is always popular but in this case I had no oppor-tunity to produce anything new, or influence the text or selection of pictures, and so it does not add anything to what has gone before really." John, in his typical modest manner, downplays this beautiful book that includes one classic Sibbick masterpiece after another, including several you don't see in publication very often. But, he has hit on a great idea for a book that I hope a publisher someday will take to heart. A lifetime achieve-ment type coffee table art book on John Sibbick must be done soon. As long as I have you here, what else have you been working on John? "I've been very busy! I've just completed 3 new paintings and I have a cover still to do for a book called Dinosaur Quest - published by Bertelsmann in Germany sometime this year; also the book on human evolution from Thames & Hudson should be out in May. About a month ago I completed a large (for me anyway) 3- page pull out for National Geographic in Germany of a 130 mya waterhole with Iguanodons and Deinonychus packs crowding about. My next job is another 3-pager for Geo magazine also in Germany of feathered dinosaurs also around a water-hole! (Good job. I like painting water).
I 've had some nice feedback on the dragons fantasy- drama- documentary, "The Last Dragons" which aired on Discovery Animal Planet in the US recently. I worked on some dragon designs which Daren Horley and his team brought to life at Framestore (of Walking with Dinosaurs fame)" (Reviewed here).
Evolution of Fossil Ecosystems by Paul A. Selden, John R. Nudds 192 pages Publisher: University Of Chicago Press ISBN: 0226746410 $40.00 Paperback. Major advances in our understanding of the history of life on Earth have been achieved through the study of exceptionally well-preserved fossil sites, known scientifically as fossil Lagerstatten. The examination of such sites provides a surprisingly complete picture of the evolution of ecosystems throughout the ages. In Evolution of Fossil Ecosystems, Paul A. Selden and John R. Nudds describe these unique and rare preserves of ancient ecosystems with summaries of fourteen of the better-known fossil Lagerstatten— including the Ediacara in South Australia, the Hunsruck Slate in Germany, the Santana and Crato Formations in Brazil, and the La Brea Tar Pits in Los Angeles. Beginning with a general introduc-tion to fossil Lagerstatten, they consider each fossil site, detailing its evolutionary position and sig-nificance; a brief history of the locality; its background sedimen-tology, stratigraphy, and paleoenvi-ronment; its biota and paleoecolo-gy; and its commonalities with similar Lagerstatten. Considering deposits both marine and terrestri-al, the book covers one fossil site from the Precambrian era, five sites from the Paleozoic era, five sites from the Mesozoic era, and three sites from the Cenozoic era. Illustrated with hundreds of color photographs and drawings, Evolution of Fossil Ecosystems is perfect for professionals in paleontology, evolution, and the earth and life sciences, as well as dedicated amateurs interested in fossils and geology.
Peterson Field Guide Color-In Books: Dinosaurs (Peterson Field Guides Color-In Books) by John C. Kricher, Gordon Morrison (Illustrator) Paperback: 64 pages Publisher: Houghton Mifflin ISBN: 0618542248 $7.95 Coloring your own field guide is a most enjoy-able way to learn about dinosaurs. Each draw-ing is accompanied by a brief description that educates as it entertains. We thank PT sub-scriber and author John Kricher for sending us a review copy of his book. Packed with great, well written info and absolutely beautiful art-work, I guarantee you'll love this book. Place the new color stickers next to the drawings for a visual reference while coloring. Coloring the drawings helps reinforce a pleasant and easy learning experience. Fun for adults as well as children.
Sabertooths and the Ice Age (Magic Tree House Research Guide) by Mary Pope Osborne, Natalie Pope Boyce, Sal Murdocca (Illustrator) $4.99 Ages 9-12 Paperback: 128 pages Publisher: Random House Books for Young Readers ISBN: 0375823808 What was it like to live in the Ice Age and why was the world so cold? Who made the first cave paintings? What ever happened to sabertooth cats and wooly mammoths? Find out the answers to these questions and more in Magic Tree House Research Guide: Sabertooths and the Ice Age, Jack and Annie's guide to unlocking the mysteries of the Ice Age! Fun and educational. Nicely illustrated. Also from Random House Books comes
Dinosaurs! by Robert T. Bakker/ Illustrated by Luis Rey $3.99 paperback. On top of the famous paleontologist's interesting narrative comes the latest and some of the best artwork from Rey yet! Its a book for kids but all ages are guaranteed to love all its colorful images and up-to-date info!
I hope you caught the recent showing of Dragon's World: A Fantasy Made Real on TV's The Animal Planet channel but if you didn't (or even if you did), you must go pick it up on DVD. I loved it and PT readers by the handfuls told me they did too. I love Ray Harryhausen and everything he has ever worked on. A new DVD presents a collection of his work very rarely if ever seen titled Ray Harryhausen - The Early Years Collection. Also two new Harryhausen DVD boxsets are also available: The Legendary SciFi Series and The Legendary Monster Series. (So now I want "The Legendary Dinosaur Series" next.) Speaking of Harryhausen: Rob Cohen will direct and Keanu Reeves will star in The 8th Voyage of Sinbad, set in 8th century China, with a beautiful empress, fantastic beasties and a sorcerous Chinese general. Ray Harryhausen is coming out of retirement to be creative consultant!
