Special Publication 358 - Comparing the Geological and Fossil Records: Implications for Biodiversity Studies

The volume edited by McGowan & Smith is an important contribution, and I recommend it strongly to all specialists in palaeobiology. Some stratigraphers and palaeontologists who are not trained in quantitative analysis of the fossil record, will find a lot of useful information in this book, too, but they may judge it ‘too difficult’ (all readers of this book need some good background in mathematics for good understanding of some conclusions). The same is also true for students and other beginners in palaeobiology. –Dmitry A. Ruban – Southern Federal University, Rostov na Donu, Russia Review – featured in Geologos 18-1

The 13 papers that follow, not surprisingly, range across geological time periods and continents, and all but two of them are written by two or more authors at universities and research groups throughout the world. Thus a range of geological and paleontological expertise has been marshalled to explore these issues. Some papers are more thematic, addressing the issue of criteria for preservation of fossils in the geological/environmental matrix; others are specific to a region, a time period, a fossiltype or a fossiliferous environment. All of these papers are technical and written primarily for specialists. Nevertheless, any geologist, of whatever ‘level’ in their studies, will be able to derive much from these papers, even if reading them is a challenge owing to their specialist nature.

……these papers are technical. But there is a richness of data in this anthology from which each reader can explore his or her particular paleontological interest. Each article includes numerous diagrams and charts to summarise the statistics; and has its own extensive list of referenced sources. The book concludes with a seven-page index. –David M. Jones, BA UC Berkeley, MA, PhD UC London, BSc Open, OUGS Journal Editor – Review featured in Open University Geological Society Journal vol 33 (2) 2012