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K. V. Kardong, 1995. Vertebrates. Comparative Anatomy, Function, Evolution.

xvii + 777 pp. Dubuque, Melbourne, Oxford: Wm. C. Brown Publishers (Times
Mirror International Publisher...

Article  in  Geological Magazine · September 1996

DOI: 10.1017/S0016756800007974

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 REVIEWS 629

In a way this is a slightly disappointing book; the title might integrate sedimentological core logs with wireline logs and seis-
lead one to expect a grand synthesis of the theory of episodicity mic data. Stratigraphically the papers are mainly concerned
in the stratigraphic record, whereas the lack of structure and of with the Jurassic and Palaeogene sediments of the northern
any attempt at rigorous hypothesis-building result in a text that North Sea.
is unsatisfactory in strictly scientific terms. Episodicity, harder Sequence stratigraphy was conceived largely from the study
to grasp in the mainframe days of the 1970s, is more widely of seismic lines of passive Atlantic continental margins, where
acceptable now that everyone with a desktop computer can gen- eustatic changes in sea level were the dominant control on trans-
erate their own fractal landscapes and strange attractors. Also, gressions and regressions. When translated into a tectonically
there is an occasionally bitter undertone to Ager's wit, presaged active rift setting, such as the North Sea, it is apparent that
in the second half of the book's dedication - to the memory of regressions and transgressions owe as much to structural move-
the 'splendid' Department of Geology at Swansea, the closure ment and to changes in sediment supply, as to eustatic factors.
of which he so deeply resented. To dwell on such aspects though None the less many authors gamely seek to identify flooding
is probably unfair, and I prefer to think of the pleasure the surfaces (FSs), and show how to differentiate them from exten-
author must have found in writing down so much of what had sive flooding surfaces (EFSs), not to confuse them with maxi-
been buzzing round his head for several decades, and to enjoy it mal flooding surfaces (MSFs). Authors carefully delineate first,
as a collection of loosely connected memories rather than as the second and third order cycles. They note, though, that third
more serious attempts at revolution that he first fired across the order cycles are not ubiquitous, are identified in different wells
bows of a then more seriously moribund stratigraphic commu- by different criteria, and are below the limits of seismic resolu-
nity in 1973. tion. Cynics might wonder whether these cycles actually exist,
David G. Smith other than in the minds of the authors. Geologists from Zeller
(1964) to Miall (1992) have shown how easily we can find cor-
relations in randomly generated sequences. Yet geologists still
try to boldly go...
Part 3, Applications to Greenland, Svalbard and the Barents
STEELE, R. J., FELT, V. L., JOHANNESSEN, E. P. & MATHIEU, C. Sea, is very different, being based on data from surface out-
(eds) 1995. Sequence Stratigraphy on the Northwest crops, rather than from subsurface, largely geophysical, data.
European Margin. Proceedings of the Norwegian Part 3 includes papers describing detailed sedimentological and
Petroleum Society Conference, Stavanger, Norway, 1-3 stratigraphic data from the Jurassic and Lower Cretaceous rocks
February 1993. Norwegian Petroleum Society (NPF) of Greenland, and on the Permian carbonates of Greenland and
Special Publication no. 5. xii + 608 pp. Amsterdam, Svalbard. Geologists who are impressed by the global unifor-
Lausanne, New York, Oxford, Shannon, Tokyo: Elsevier. mity of stratigraphy will enjoy the paper that compares the
Price Dfl. 330.00, US $194.00 (hard covers). ISBN 0 444 Permian rocks of Svalbard and Greenland with those of the clas-
81863 4. sic Delaware, Paradox and Midland Permian basins of the USA.
Overall the book is very well produced, with a large page size
The thought of reading yet another vast volume on sequence to comfortably accommodate logs and seismic lines. There are
stratigraphy is enough to make the heart of many geologists plenty of colour plates and pull-out pages. It contains a wealth
miss a first order super-cycle, or even generate their own maxi- of valuable North Sea data, and demonstrates how the transgres-
mum flooding surface (MSF). But reviewers and readers of the sion of sequence stratigraphy may now be regressing (that is to
Geological Magazine are made of sterner stuff, so both per- say, how the high stand systems tract may be ebbing into a low
severe. This book contains papers presented at the international stand systems tract).
conference 'Sequence Stratigraphy: Advances and Applications R. C. Selley
for Exploration and Production in North West Europe' held in
References
Stavanger, Norway, in February 1993.
MIALL, A. D. 1992. Exxon global cycle chart: an event for every occa-
The volume is divided into three parts headed respectively: 1, sion? Geology 20,787-90.
Introduction: 2, Applications to the northern North Sea; and 3, ZELLER, E. J. 1964. Cycles and psychology. Geological Survey of
Application to Greenland, Svalbard and the Barents Sea. The Kansas Bulletin 169,631-6.
Introduction contains six papers. These provide what the editors
euphemistically describe as 'alternative approaches to sequence
stratigraphy'. What they actually do is to critically review some
of the fundamental tenets of the dogma. Papers discuss the KARDONG, K. V. 1995. Vertebrates. Comparative Anatomy,
impossibility of accurately mapping 'correlative conformities' Function, Evolution, xvii + 777 pp. Dubuque, Melbourne,
(Embry), argue that the concept of 'Type 2' sequence bound- Oxford: Wm. C. Brown Publishers (Times Mirror
aries should be abandoned (Helland-Hansen), and demonstrate International Publishers). Price £24.95 (hard covers).
synchronous progradation and retrogradation within a basin ISBN 0697 219917.
(Martinsen). With the abandonment of the dogma that seismic
reflectors are time lines, and that sea level changes are only due Given the inexorable catalogue of advances in the study of all
to eustasy, there is not much left of sequence stratigraphy apart facets of vertebrate biology and evolution over the past half cen-
from the jargon. tury it is, to my mind at least, logistically impossible to sit down
Moving on swiftly to Part 2. This contains 18 papers that dis- and write a book 'about vertebrates' in the way that Al Romer
cuss the intimate details of North Sea stratigraphy. Geologists (The Vertebrate Body), and before him a variety of eminent
working outside the North Sea are well aware of how fortunate zoologists stretching all the way back to Richard Owen and
North Sea geologists are to have such a wealth of core material. Thomas Huxley in the latter half of the last century were able to.
This makes it possible to actually calibrate rocks with geophysi- I suppose that this feeling constitutes the challenge: we were
cal logs and seismic reflectors. This is something that is diffi- brought up on comprehensive texts - why can't the next genera-
cult, if not impossible, in many other petroleum provinces. Part tion have the same? Warren Walker's (1987) Functional
2 contains a valuable mix of regional and field scale papers that anatomy of the vertebrates: an evolutionary perspective repre-

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 630 REVIEWS

sents a relatively recent attempt and fell into the category of topics in boxes alongside the basically descriptive text. Herein
worthy but dull i.e. not something which was notable for its lies the difficulty with this book: it is basically pretty competent
ability to inspire students. By contrast Neill Alexander's (1975) as a source book for basic comparative vertebrate anatomy, and
The Chordates tried to break the mould by taking an attempts have been made to enliven the descriptive sections
unashamedly design-oriented view of these animals; this latter with added information of more general (and sometimes eso-
proved very successful in an inspirational/visionary way, but teric) relevance; but overall this book lacks any sort of vision
obviously relied on other books to provide the substantive base - it is essentially a compilation of information. Where the
for much of his interpretative work. The question thus remains approach is descriptive and comparative this works well, but
as far as I am concerned: how do you write a book that is both when the author strays into (for him) more esoteric areas such as
comprehensive and inspirational without being something that fossils, evolution, systematics, or looks for an overarching
you might use to anchor the flysheet of your tent in a force 8 theme I feel that he over-extends himself or leads the reader to
gale? Perhaps Kenneth Kardong holds the answer. Kenneth expect more than is actually presented. The effect of this is one
Kardong's magnum opus is first of all remarkably cheap - over of slight disappointment, which is a pity considering the huge
750 pages of large format, hard cover book for less than £25. feat of scholarship which this book must have demanded.
The structure of the book is such that the first five chapters In short this is not a book that I would recommend as a stan-
cover introductory aspects of the vertebrates, while the remain- dard coursework reference. It is clearly something that students
ing 13 chapters look at the basic vertebrate organ systems. should be encouraged to refer to for source material, but per-
The introduction pays some attention to concepts that under- haps in a supervised manner so that it can form the focus for dis-
pin the study of vertebrate anatomy and function, and an histori- cussion and elaboration. It is fantastic value at £24.95 but price
cal perspective on this work is provided by assessing the is not the only consideration for a textbook - or rather, it cer-
contribution of earlier philosophers who have striven to tainly should not be.
improve our understanding of modern vertebrate morphology; David Norman
this inevitably leads on to a consideration of evolution and phy-
logeny, and it is extremely sad to see that there is no expression
of an understanding of the contribution that cladistics has made
to vertebrate phylogeny analysis; this whole area is simply
ELLINGTON, C. P. & PEDLEY, T. J. (eds) 1995. Biological Fluid
omitted from consideration, yet it is one of the philosophically
and analytically most challenging areas of research at present - Dynamics. Symposia of the Society for Experimental
at least Walker had a stab at this. The following chapters: chor- Biology No. 49. Proceedings of a meeting held 4-8 July
date origins, and the rise and diversification of vertebrates as 1994, Leeds, UK. Colchester: Portland Press for the
shown in the fossil record, are considered in some detail, but are Biochemical Society and Company of Biologists Ltd.
surprisingly outdated (for example there is no mention of the Price £70.00, US $112.00 (hard covers). ISBN 0 948601
very interesting developmental work on amphioxus/craniate 507; ISSN 0081-1386.
hox genes, or of the new work on conodont animals - the exam-
ples shown here are unfortunately outdated). In reality the con- However hard we try, for the student at least, it may be no easy
sideration given to the evolutionary history of vertebrates in matter to make the conceptual transition from the inert piece of
general is also so telescoped that it tells a story which dates back stone that is the fossil to the once living organism. And even
to Romer in essentials, rather than encompassing any of the when this hurdle is cleared, how flimsy may be our grasp of the
more recent work. Chapter four deals with the potentially more real intricacies of function and organization. Too often the
intellectually challenging area of 'biological design' and was reconstructions we present are little more than paper cut-outs,
marked out early in the preface by reference to J. B. S. Haldane, mere shadows of original vitality. There is a further problem,
but this simply consists of a chapter on physics made simple for which the palaeontologically inspired reader of this symposium
the biologist - not the intellectually challenging approach that volume may be inclined to ask. Just as today ancient organisms
had been hinted at at all. The final introductory chapter is con- were not only immersed in fluids, but via such mechanisms as
cerned with embryological development and is a competent pumps and turgor pressure the fluids contained within the body
review of many of the basic processes with some consideration were vital to the internal economy of the creature. In many ways
of developmental timing phenomena, but there was nothing to the world of fluid flow places a very strong invariance on the
indicate a more probing approach to the subject relating to the theatre of evolution: water will have a given viscosity, air a
control of developmental timing at a molecular or even mechan- given density at certain temperatures. On the other hand not all
ical level, which might perhaps have been discussed fruitfully. may be constant. Atmospheric composition and so presumably
The remainder of the book is devoted to the principal organ density and viscosity, for example, may have altered apprecia-
systems common to all vertebrates - and familiar to all students bly during geological time. What a flying insect encounters
and teachers of comparative vertebrate zoology. A cursory scan today may have been quite different from the experience of its
of these chapters produced some interesting observations. For counterpart in the Carboniferous. In addition, organisms need
example on page 325 we are told that the Devonian tetrapod not stand still in evolutionary time, they can tend towards
Ichthyostega has 6 toes on its hind feet, while on pages 329 and optima.
331 we learn that there are 7 toes on its hind feet! We are also The opportunities of applying the precepts of this volume to
told that the primitive number of toes on the feet of tetrapods palaeontology are regrettably restricted. But the outlook is not
used to be thought to be 5 (the pentidactylous [sic] condition!). entirely negative. The various articles on locomotion of verte-
This was I am sure just bad luck - reviewers' eyes always get brates in both water and air raise questions of just how far paral-
drawn to the odd errors missed by dozens of proof-readers. And lels can be drawn between extant animals such as sword-fish or
it was nice to see the new tetrapod work of Clack & Coates dolphins and extinct groups which at least superficially
referred to in a recent textbook. approach quite closely these morphologies. Equally intriguing
The organ systems sections are generally competently dealt in this context is whether such features as the arrangement and
with; these are clearly the preferred areas of the author, and variation of skin denticles on the bodies of sharks might achieve
there were attempts to put interesting asides relevant to certain a functional significance not only in the present day, but by

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