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Updated: 11 Oct 2005 |
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ISBN 0-1985-0065-3
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There are precious few books available describing – in any detail – the evolution of plants, so many of those having an interest are likely to buy this book on the strength of the title alone (not harmed, of course, by the reputation of the publisher, OUP). I did.
Actually reading it, though, reveals this to be a Very Odd Book indeed. For example, the bulk of Chapter 2 is given over to a detailed exposition of Hadean/Archaean life and times: very interesting, I'm sure, but bizarrely off-topic. Yet other intervals – such as the entire Triassic, which somehow manages to go missing between pages 148 and 152 – are scarcely considered, or else omitted altogether, despite being positively gravid with important plant-evolutionary events. The little cameos you might have reasonably expected (something about the Aldanophyton mystery? where did cacti come from? how did Nothofagus get around Gondwanaland?) are entirely absent. Perhaps I'm being a little unfair, here: the book does include small sections about the evolution of grasses (section 7.3) and C4/CAM photosynthesis (section 7.6).
The authors advance an interesting – and no doubt correct – view about plant extinctions: essentially that there were no mass extinctions in the plant kingdom, or certainly none which coincided with the famous animal mass extinctions. (Actually, they equivocate somewhat about the end-Permian event: read the book for the details.) This is the subject of Chapter 8, and good stuff it is, too. I'd have liked more.
When they begin a more general evolutionary analysis, however, in Chapter 10, I believe the quirkiness reaches a creshendo. After far too much prating on about punctuated equilibrium, the authors abandon the style of chapters 1 through 9 (a more or less objective survey of the literature, followed by a summary) and begin plugging their own thesis - note the tell-tale "10.5 Conclusions" replacing the usual summary. Not that their ideas are necessarily daft; it's just that a textbook isn't the place for them. What are their conclusions? That the plant fossil record indicates "a broadening spectrum of diversity and morphological complexity through time (ouch, Gould wouldn't have liked that - read more - even though it is patently obvious); that the major innovations were concentrated into relatively short intervals of time (possible, though I found their demonstration unconvincing) which they correlate with periods of heightened tectonic activity and associated atmospheric CO2 maxima.
Stirring stuff.
Recommendation:
This is not a great book, but, in the absence of much else on the topic,
recommended.
Look and Feel: My copy is the paperback edition; good quality, clear text; good line and stipple diagrams; though the few b&w photographs are a little disappointing.
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