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AWARDS AND REVIEWS
2007 Whitley Award
Auscipub is proud to announce (to previous and potential customers) that this beautiful volume has received a prestigious Award. It has received a 'Whitley Commendation for best Reference Text'.
These awards are presented each year by the Royal Zoological Society of New South Wales, for outstanding publications on the faunas of Australasia.
At the Awards Ceremony (14th September), at the Australian Museum in Sydney, the regional significance and international interest of this reference were emphasized. The volume was described as a synthesis of past and current climate changes with an understanding of previous and current vertebrate biodiversity of the region, for more effective conservation and management in future. For further information see: www.rzsnsw.org.au
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EXCERPTS FROM REVIEWS
Rivas (ANGFA NSW Newsletter) – June 2007 Issue
OUR VERY OWN VERTEBRATES BOOK
“First Steps, Neoteny, Ventral Vaginas and Baby Brains” is the title of one of the many sections of Chapter 34 (“Humans Among Primates”) of this magnificent work.
And there is plenty of up-to-date information to be found. Like snakes no longer being considered alongside the lizards but within them, right next to monitors and Gila Monsters. Like sharks possibly being nested within bony fishes instead of being their sister group. Like at last someone clearly explaining the differences between the various genetic techniques used for mapping evolutionary relationships, as well as describing the morphological methods...
Conservation, environmental issues and maintaining biodiversity in the face of climate change and other challenges, these are recurring themes throughout the book.
The individual authors organised their chapters in whichever way they thought best...the Vertebrate book’s chapters are peppered with lively quirks, gems and surprises, admittedly within a sea of facts and data.
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Reviews in Australian Studies, Vol. 2, No. 1 (June 2007)
Each of the 38 chapters of Evolution and Biogeography of Australasian Vertebrates is written by a specialist or specialists, and provides a comprehensive review of its topic.
The book is well illustrated, with clear line diagrams and/or black and white photographs within each chapter, and colour plates...that add interest but are only occasionally necessary to the argument.
The chapters vary in their degree of specialisation, those in the first and last sections being concerned with overarching themes. The bulk of the book includes chapters on specific groups, including two on single species, the Dingo and Man...
An unexpected but valuable and thought-provoking feature is argument concerning the way in which knowledge of biogeography and systematics can inform conservation planning in an age of accelerated extinction of taxa...
The endpapers contain valuable synthetic tables, and are extremely useful to keep track of geological time and significant events in the evolution of life (front), and key themes in Australian vertebrate biogeography (back).
The list of references is useful. Internal cross references also led me to material stimulating thought, including to chapters I would not initially have thought to read for my purposes.
An obvious effort has been made to reach a wide audience and the chapters are a pleasure to read...
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Australian Zoologist, Vol. 34, pp. 231 - 232 (December 2007)
This monumental book is a second edition of a volume of the same name edited by Archer and Clayton in 1984…. The section termed Background comprises systematics, history of environmental change in Australia, the onset of aridity, zoogeography of New Guinea, a discussion of Wallace’s Line and the tectonic history of New Zealand…. These chapters provide useful information for the rest of the book…. Chapter 6 gives an excellent account of the chronology of extinction as a result of human predation and induced environmental destruction in New Zealand. In……these chapters the changes in the faunas are related to the interaction of biological characteristics of the animals with the ecological factors prevailing at various times.
The rest of the book is organized taxonomically….. There is an excellent analysis of a large sample of fish from a Devonian locality at Canowindra, New South Wales. The taphonomy and an analysis of the age structure of the antiarch Bothriolepis are interesting aspects of this chapter…. The discussion of the decline of frogs in Australia is timely in view of the environmental changes taking place today… The known fossil record of the snakes in Australia is very poor but very good use is made of it in conjunction with phylogenetic and molecular clock data. There is a good overview of the fossil birds with maps and tables of occurrences with references.
A major portion of the book is devoted to the mammals…. An extensive chapter on the radiation of the Australian marsupials (except for the kangaroos) is well done, with some of the informal writing that was characteristic of the first edition. There is a fairly comprehensive treatment of the fossil record of all the taxa with diagrams of the known record and cladograms showing phylogenetic relationships… The introduction to the chapter on the kangaroos is an informative and amusing account of the early encounters of Europeans with members of this group….
A short chapter on the dingo describes its origin, fossil record, ecological role and interactions with Aboriginals. The present hybridization with feral dogs is postulated to ultimately lead to the disappearance of pure dingo stock…. The Australian and New Zealand record of whales is summarized in a very useful chart and a detailed map shows the fossil localities. There are very good figures of …… whale skeletal elements.
The origin and evolution of the primates is summarized …. It is an extensive review with good illustrations and phylogenetic diagrams. The Australian record of Homo sapiens is discussed in terms of the date and mode of entry into Australia and New Guinea as well as the morphological variation seen in the fossil samples.
Most of the chapters concerning the origin and phylogeny of the various taxonomic groups cast the discussion in the framework of the relation of Australia to the other continents at various times. The modern distributions of taxa are interpreted in light of these changes in the past. Even those groups with poor fossil records in Australia,….., have their origins fairly well “explained” by the use of phylogenetic and biogeographic analyses…. The relationship of Australia to Gondwanaland is stressed. Another theme that runs through the book is the Cainozoic desertification of Australia,….. it has been a major factor in the evolution and biogeography of the entire fauna.
In addition to a number of taxonomic keys, the book contains useful charts and maps and geologic time tables. The Cainozoic stages used in Australia and New Zealand are given that will be useful to readers not familiar with them. The reference lists for each chapter are up to date and there is a good index. This book, like its predecessor, will be useful to a wide variety of readers.
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Austral Ecology, Vol. 33, pp. 117 – 118 (February 2008)
There has never been a greater need for science to elucidate the reasons behind global patterns of biodiversity. If we are to successfully tackle the many contemporary challenges to the conservation of species, such as habitat loss and climate change, we first need a sound understanding of the past, and of the nexus between evolutionary processes and biogeography. This will allow for more informed predictions of how species and habitats may be affected in the future, and therefore where management should be focussed. This text… provides a starting point for the region.
The Australasian region is characterised primarily by the distinctiveness… of its taxa. The editors of this book should be highly commended for taking on the mammoth task of attempting to place this unique fauna within an evolutionary and biogeographical context. This book also serves to highlight the many technological and methodological advances that have occurred since ….1984.
The 38 chapters follow a logical sequence, written by authorities on each subject area. The book starts broadly, with six “background” chapters. Mike Lee’s opening chapter on the systematics of the Australasian vertebrate fauna provides an excellent summary of the basic concepts and terms that are used throughout the rest of the book. The second chapter details past environments; the focus then shifts to the evolutionary consequences of aridity in Australia (chapter 3) and the zoogeography of Papua New Guinea (chapter 4). In chapter 5, the discovery of Wallace’s Line and the events that contributed to the formation of this significant barrier are discussed. Lastly, chapter 6 deals with the evolution of the New Zealand vertebrates. These initial background chapters provided a strong foundation from which to explore the remaining chapters, which narrow their focus to review the evolution and biogeography of each major vertebrate group from primitive fishes to more recent mammals.
The last three chapters address technological progress related to the fields of evolution and biogeography, focussing on advancements in molecular systematics, geographic information systems (GIS) and the remote collection of data on Australasian pinnipeds. All three of these chapters are enlightening… The endpapers which summarise major evolutionary events and biogeographical processes are a useful addition.
In general, the figures are well presented and complement the text in explaining complex ideas, and there are some wonderful illustrations throughout. With a text of this size, it is to be expected that the standard of writing varies considerably, but overall the book is presented in a way that is informative, accessible and often entertaining. At less than $200, this book is very well priced, and there is no question that it constitutes a very useful reference volume for all ecologists, evolutionary biologists and biogeographers.
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