Choice 评论

This updated textbook (2nd ed., 2003; 1st ed., 1998) by paleontologist, geologist, and writer Prothero (emer., Occidental College) is an excellent attempt to solve a conundrum in teaching about paleontology: in order to discuss the evolutionary biology of fossil life, one must first learn a great deal about the subjects themselves, which in this case involves a commitment to learn a considerable amount of taxonomy. Paleontologists, therefore, are split between the need to cover the basics of all of the morphology of the world's species, both living and dead, and the need to place the history of life into a modern biological/evolutionary context. The paleobiology section of the text is true to the now classic work of D. Raup and S. Stanley, Principles of Paleontology (1971), which established the content for what later became the new discipline of paleobiology. The second half of this work makes the obligatory march through the phyla that many teachers reserve for laboratory sections in undergraduate courses. This book's great advantage to a library collection is that a typical undergraduate can read it as a reasonable substitute for taking an actual course. Thus, it is valuable for self-study and as a course resource. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Lower-division undergraduates through graduate students; general readers. P. K. Strother Boston College