QA_Vol 24_No 1_July 2007 - Australasian Quaternary Association

Book ReviewsEvolution and Biogeography ofAustralian VertebratesEdited by J.R. Merrick, M. Archer,G.M. Hickey and M.S.Y. LeeISBN: 0 9757790 1 XCasebound RRP $AUD 230.00 (incl. GST)Paperback $AUD 170.00 (incl. GST)For a summary of postage and packingcharges please see www.auscipub.comSummary of featuresThis large reference volume (ReducedA4: 275 x 210 mm, 942 pp.) provides acomprehensive overview of the knowledgeof vertebrate diversity withinAustralasia, together with discussion ofthe factors that influenced the evolutionand distributions of the faunas we seetoday. By considering the major forcesshaping the extant vertebrate assemblages,using new techniques and strategies,we can formulate ideas about howto best conserve and manage thesedynamic vertebrate groups as well as theecosystem complexes on which theydepend.The 38 chapters are divided into 7 majorsections. The first group of chapterscovers the general topics of classificationand evolution, together with geologic andclimatic processes influencing environmentsand biogeography of parts ofAustralasia. Then follow 5 sections thateach concentrate on a major vertebrategrouping, from primitive jawless fishesto specialized marine mammals andhumans. The final section focuses onthe future, describing some of the latesttechniques and systems used for assessingbiodiversity and assisting in conservationmanagement.Each chapter is fully sourced andillustrated with line diagrams, as well asother figures next to the relevant text.Attempts have been made to maintain aclear, informal style for readers withoutspecialized knowledge and a humorousor irreverent essence when appropriate.The 136 colour plates are distributedthroughout the book as close to therelated chapters as possible. A generalcombined Index is at the back.Over 50 leading researchers, from allparts of Australasia and elsewhere, havecombined as authors and co-authors tomake this a ground-breaking volume ofinternational significance. This resourcebook follows in the tradition of VertebrateZoogeography & Evolution in Australasia(edited by Archer and Clayton) releasedin 1984. This new title is a natural devel-0pment providing a balanced updatedcoverage of the field. It is hoped thisbook will:• increase awareness of the uniqueAustralasian vertebrate faunas;• emphasise the importance ofAustralasian environments and theassociated biodiversity• provide background for decisions thatlimit biodiversity loss in the region –against the trend in the current worldwideextinction crisis.• • • • •Australia’s Mammal Extinctions:A 50, 000 Year HistoryChris JohnsonCambridge University Press 2006ISBN/EAN: 0521686601/9780521686600Paperback: AU$49.95Megafauna extinctions in Australia andthe Americas have attracted the attentionof scholars with diverse approaches to theexpanding databases from geology, biology,archaeology and the dating thatconstrains them. James Cook Universityecologist Chris Johnson scrutinises animpressive array of records relevant toAustralia’s mammal extinctions, usingnumerical modelling and modernecological research to inform debate onthe much-discussed Late Quaternarymegamammal extinction as well as thesmaller mammals lost since 1778. Wellwrittennatural histories of Australianmammals are set against a backgroundof evolutionary trends and Quaternaryclimatic and environmental change, withexquisite colour paintings of recentlyextinctmarsupials and rodents, andcolour photos of extant marsupials andremnant vegetation, illustrating whathas been lost and the much-reducedendangered fauna we still have.In evaluating the probable cause(s) of theAustralian extinctions, Johnson methodicallytests multiple working hypotheses(Chamberlin 1890), using the stronginference procedure at the heart of thescientific method, which leads to thelogical exclusion of one or more alternatives.And as Platt (1964) reminded us,progress is seriously slowed when a logicalconflict of ideas degenerates into the kindof personal attack that currently plaguesextinction debates on both sides of thePacific Ocean. Johnson’s analysis excludesclimate change and hyperdisease, becausethe available data does not fit criticalpredictions of either hypothesis, and nodoubt some will dispute his conclusionthat predation is the most likely candidate:the first human colonists caused largemammal extinctions ca. 45,000 years ago,then a rapid human population increase inthe Late Holocene (and introduction of thedingo) primed a depleted fauna for theEuropean extinction of small-mediumsized mammals since 1788, particularly bythe introduction of foxes and cats.Addressing and updating issues raised inTim Flannery’s 1994 book The FutureEaters, Johnson wryly notes: At the risk ofoversimplification, the prehistory ofAustralia can be divided into two distinctecological periods: before and after 6 kyr ago.Where Flannery speculated that ‘fire-stickfarming’ was important soon after the LateQuaternary extinctions took out all thelargest herbivores, Johnson considers thatthe evidence, for example from charcoalparticle counts in lake and marine cores,44 | Quaternary AUSTRALASIA 24 (2)