1837. A report on the probability of theoccurrence of coal and other minerals in the vicinityof Lancaster. Addressed to the Lancaster MiningCompany. Lancaster.1860. Life on earth: its origin and succession.MacMillan, Cambridge and London.1871. Geology of Oxford and the valley of theThames. Clarendon Press, Oxford.PYRAH, B.J. 1988. The history of the YorkshireMuseum and its geological collections. Sessions,York.RUDWICK, M.J.S. 1976. The meaning of fossils:episodes in the history of palaeontology. ScienceHistory Publications, New York.1985. The great Devonian controversy: theshaping of scientific knowledge among gentlemanlyspecialists. University of Chicago Press, Chicago andLondon.SECORD, J.A. 1982. King of Siluria: RoderickMurchison and the imperial theme in nineteenthcenturyBritish geology. Vict. Stud. 25, 413-442.1986. Controversy in Victorion geology: theCambrian-Silurian dispute. Princeton UniversityPress, Princeton.THACKRAY, J.C. 1977. T.T. Lewis and Murchison'sSilurian system. Trans. Woolhope Nat. Fld Club,42, 186-193.WELLBELOVED, C. 1829. Account of the ancient andpresent state of the Abbey of St Mary, York, and ofthe discoveries made in the recent excavations.Society of Antiquaries, London.Typescript received 20 June 1991Revised typescript received 19 Septembcr 1991Jack MorrellDepartment of European StudiesUniversity of BradfordBradford BD7 1DP
Benton, M. J. 1990. The reign of the reptiles. Kingfisher,London, 144 pp. ISBN 0-86272-640-9. Pricef 14.95.A large, brightly coloured, highly illustrated book onreptiles of the past written by Mike Benton promisesto be an enjoyable, fascinating and informative read.Indeed it was, though not at all what I had expectedfrom a cursory glance at the cover.The book is attractively produced, in full colour onfine paper, with an exciting jacket illustration. Thetype is clear and readable, well laid out and withoutany spelling mistakes in the text that I noticed. Almostevery page has at least one colour photograph ordiagram, the latter being specially drawn for the book.Altogether it is a pleasure to turn the pages and learn(or in my case, re-learn) all about reptiles of old.BOOK REVIEWSject) across pp. 122-123 with the fuzzy Archaeopteryxon p. 104. Almost none of the photographs or diagramshas any scale on it, so the occasional intrudingpiece of human anatomy gives a mild shock when onerealizes how small many of these animals really are.Similarly, there are few references to the pictures inthe text, though most are relevant and not out of place.I can think of one or two more that should have beenthere: for example, it would be better to show a pictureof an ammonite which had been attacked by amosasaurrather than trying to describe it (p. 135).There are three main kinds of diagrams. The skeletaldrawings are clear, relevant, and confined to boxesgiving background detail or special topics. Thereconstructions are bright and colourful, but very stiffand cartoon-like, thus emphasizing the childish idea ofextinct animals as unreal monsters. The third type ofThe Introduction is curious, being a brief but informa- diagram is called a 'cladogram', which it is not.tive history of discovery and research into fossil Chapter 1 includes the grand 'cladogram' and eachreptiles, but signed and dated by the author at the end, chapter thereafter has the relevant portion of this inas if it were a Preface. This clever device suggests that greater detail. These useful diagrams show thethe book really starts with Chapter 1, 'The Dawn of an phylogeny of the reptiles on a background of theEra'. Following a (swift!) introduction to the origin geological time scale. To call them cladograms isof the universe, life and everything, the reader is soon confusing since cladistics is not explained. A few ofbrought up to the first fishes, amphibians, and then, of the diagrams are problematical: the geological timecourse, the reptiles. The other four chapter headings scale on pp.18-19 is good, but the exploded sectionare self-explanatory: 'The Reptiles Take Over', 'The ends at the late Cretaceous and not the Recent, as theRuling Reptiles', 'Reptiles of the Air', and 'Reptiles legend suggests. I can see little point in showing theof the Sea'. In addition to a general index, there is one world distribution of rocks on p. 28, and on p. 29 thegiving Latin names, suggested pronunciations, Eng- continental drift maps have an odd black line aroundlish translations, and authors and dates of fossil the continents which is not explained. The 'cladogram'amphibians and reptiles. Another index lists impor- on p. 74 is useful apart from the poor labelling oftant museums around the world, together with their bones on the key; the legend to the diagram on p. 49main holdings of fossil reptiles; though short, this is makes no sense at all. An added bonus are the oddan informative compilation of major collections, from prints from nineteenth-century popular science books;Argentina to Zimbabwe (but excluding commercial thc rcconstrnctions seem comical now, but I wonder'dinosaur shows').if twenty-first-century palaeontologists will be re-So what did I expect? I suppose I thought this was a printing 1990 reconstructions to add humour andchildren's hook. Perha~s too often we oresume showv credibility to their popular- -works.dinosaur books are designed with children in mind,There arc some minor in the text, Theand a Of this One may be that it be boughtseventh sentence tells us that 'the end of the reptilesfor a child who would find it difficult to read. Thecame 65 million years ago, - surely ancditingerror forstyle and language level is that of a good textbook. Aend of the age ofthe reptiles,, At the endkeen teenager would enjoy it, as would an undergraduofthe book (p, 37), the reptiles apparentlyate craving pretty pictures and slightly lighter readingquercd every lifcstyle on land, in the air, and in thethan prescribed works.sea' (including infaunal, sessile colonial, internalIt is not without faults, however. Many of the parasitic ...?). In general, the textual information isphotographs (particularly those credited to Dr R. sound and up-to-date, although when the author turnsWild) are excellent, but far too many are badly lit, out (rarcly) away from the vertebrates, to invertebratesof focus, or with poor depth of field. These are not and plants for example, it is obvious to me that he isprinter's faults but are due to poororiginals. Contrast, on less familiar ground. I would have liked to havefor example, the crisp ichthyosaur (not an easy sub- seen more detail in places: the origin of the mammals
Change language