There can be little doubt that the British Micropalaeontological Society publications series has contributed a great deal to the understanding of microfossils since the first book 20 years ago. It continues its tradition in excellence with “The early evolutionary history of planktonic foraminifera”, a book that has been long awaited. The authors are to be congratulated on completing such a difficult, but worth while piece of research. It forms an excellent companion to those classics dealing with late Cretaceous and Tertiary planktonic assemblages by, for example, Blow, Berggren, Bolli and Cushman and the more recent work of Caron, Robaszynski and so on. It is bound to become a standard reference for years to come. Particularly important is the fact that type and reference material has been gathered together from different countries and, in many cases, properly illustrated for the first time. The text is very readable and informative, but concise, and arranged in a taxonomic rather than biostratigraphical way.
I noticed very few errors, but knowing the quality of other work carried out by the authors, that is not surprising. However, one lapsus calami that hit me in the eye is where Suborder Globigerinina Delage and Hérouard, 1896 on page 20 became Order Globigerinina Delage and Hérouard, 1986 on page 54.
The book starts with a short introduction on planktonic foraminiferal morphology and wall structure. Although brief it is an important section as it defines the morphological characteristics used in the descriptions later in the book. The morphological features are well illustrated and a number of examples are given of each.
The second chapter deals with the earliest planktonic foraminifera, those from the mid and late Jurassic. The authors give a very readable discussion on origins before going on to the systematics. One of the useful features of the work are the keys to genera which are found in a number of places throughout the book. As a biostratigrapher asked to work on sometimes unfamiliar faunas from a number of different parts of the world, it is extremely useful to have a ready passage into the intricacies of the taxonomy. The keys lift the value of the book rendering it an excellent desk top tool for us “microscope jockeys”.
Thankfully the authors have not gone into formal systematic palaeontology in the book. It is not a monograph. But an adequate synonymy list is given, remarks indicate the similarities and differences of related taxa and the geographical and stratigraphical range is given for each species. Where new taxa are erected, a diagnosis is also given.
The remainder of the book (almost 200 pages, divided into 13 chapters) is devoted to early and mid Cretaceous taxa. Chapter 3 forms a brief introduction, and the subsequent chapters deal with the Favusellidae, Praehedbergellidae (Gorbachikella, Praehedbergella, Blefuscuiana and Lilliputianella, Lilliputianelloides and Wondersella), Schackoinidae, Hedbergellidae and Planomalinidae. In all about 120 Cretaceous species and 22 genera are discussed and illustrated, the great majority with good quality SEM photomicrographs. It is this part of the book that is the most valuable, for its excellent illustrations, synonymy and remarks go a long way to solving problems that biostratigraphers and taxonomists encounter. The range of each species is given in the text and shown in a range chart.
No book is perfect and I find two main areas of criticism. The first is in the detail of the stratigraphical range charts. The rarity of planktonic species in the Jurassic is such that the full range of most species is not fully understood. In the Cretaceous, however, planktonic foraminifera are more numerous and their stratigraphical ranges better known. Yet the range charts can only be used to the stage or substage level. With a few exceptions, no attempt has been made to calibrate ranges by reference to the standard macrofaunal zones (or other microfaunal schemes). So Blefuscuiana infracretacea, for example, first appears in the late early Aptian and Blefuscuiana aptiana orientalis becomes extinct in the early late Aptian. Surely it is possible to be more accurate than this. And when I see so many inceptions or extinctions coinciding exactly with a stage or substage boundary, I become suspicious.
The second criticism can be laid at the feet of Chapman & Hall rather than the authors. The plates are excellent in quality and in terms of the information in the plate captions, but why are they not given page numbers? I referred to the index to find the plate illustrating Blefuscuiana infracretacea– page 149. Flicking through the book for page 149 I found there are no page numbers between pages 133 and 163! Those readers who want to use the book as a desk top tool will find that they will save time, in the long run, if they take a pen and spend ten minutes inserting the pagination in manuscript. Please Chapman & Hall, in future, put chapter headers and page numbers on the plates!
I can thoroughly recommend this book. It has world wide applications. It is a must for all who work with planktonic foraminifera. It will prove valuable to students at universities for both undergraduates working on micropalaeontological modules and for post-graduates working towards a masters degree or doctorate. But it will prove just as valuable to those in industry who recognise the importance of microfaunas as stratigraphical tools and their applications in palaeoecological and palaeogeographical modelling.
And isn’t it good to see authors who can spell “planktonic” correctly (those planktic authors please take note).
Ian P. Wilkinson, British Geological Survey. Nottingham, U.K.