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Brachiopods from the Maastrichtian-Danian boundary sequence at Nye Kløv, Jylland, Denmark
384
fauna localities are Beremend, Villfiny, and in the NE the Osztramos limestone quarry. Lower Pleistocene vertebrates also occur at other localities, e.g., at Dunaalmfis in the freshwater limestone complex, and in the sediments of the Great Hungarian Plain explored by deep drilling. According to Jfinossy's subdivision, the upper boundary of the Lower Pleistocene can be drawn by a younger assemblage than the "siissenborn-type", i.e., younger than the Mimomys savini. Determination of the end of the Middle Pleistocene is ambiguous and, on a conventional basis, it is placed in the lower part of the Riss-Wiirm Interglacial. Characteristic faunas of this period were found in the Tarkti rock shelter, from the freshwater limestone of V&tessz/511iSs--famous for its early man locality--and from the caves of the Vfirhegy located in the western part of Budapest. From both the systematic and stratigraphic viewpoint, it is extremely difficult to identify the Vertebrate fauna of the end of Middle Pleistocene (Uppony, Solymhr). In Hungary, too, like everywhere else, the vertebrate fauna of the Upper Pleistocene is the richest. Since the archaeologist L. V&tes already wrote a comprehensive study discussing this period (1965), only the most important Upper Pleistocene vertebrate localities are discussed here with a comment also on the Pleistocene-Holocene Boundary. All the data that, in a chronological order, can be connected with the given localities, make this book useful for many future decades. Extremely few manuals have been published which attempt to give a complete, catalogue type description of a given region. The fact that now a manual of this type has been published on Hungary in English, is of great scientific importance, since the Hungarian Pleistocene vertebrate data are of cardinal importance in the European Quaternary stratigraphy. For that reason, the usefulness of the book is not diminished by the fact that the applied taxonomical nomenclature reflects at least a decade-old state-of-arts. The last chapter of the book is a review of
BOOK REVIEWS
the Pleistocene vertebrate faunas of Hungary. These few pages exactly cover what is included in the title. It gives an overview of the chronological succession of the faunas and in doing so even goes back to the history of sciences. The author makes use of stratigraphical units based on faunal waves and formed for geochronological p u r p o s e s - mostly elaborated by Prof. Kretzoi--of which the international interpretation is rather varied. The volume, with its few figures, ample literature and excellently usable indices for localities and systematics, has already achieved its aim: It is easier to use and cite a manual than to look up several hardly available studies. L. Kordos, Budapest.
M.B. Johansen, 1987. Brachiopods from the Maastrichtian-- Danian Boundary Sequence at Nye Klov, Jylland, Denmark. Fossils and Strata, Vol. 20, Universitetforlaget, Oslo, 99 pp., N O K 170.00. The Terminal Cretaceous mass extinctions generate wide interest in the geological and general communities. The testing of mass extinction models depends on the meticulous analysis of stratigraphical sequences and their fossils. Marianne Bagge Johansen's monograph on the brachiopods of the boundary sequence at Nye Klov is one such study and the author is to be congratulated on her detailed analysis. Appropriately, Johansen commences the monograph with details of the lithostratigraphy of the Cretaceous-Tertiary boundary sequence at Nye K l o v - - a sequence that may well be reasonably continuous across the boundary. The sequence of Late Maastrichtian pelagic chalk is followed abruptly by 3 cm of brownish grey marly clay (the base of which is the Cretaceous-Tertiary boundary). The clay is succeeded by 0.5 m of Early Danian greyish marly chalk which is followed
BOOK REVIEWS
385
by a sequence of bryozoan limestone, bryozoan chalk and white pelagic chalk. From the topmost 5 m of the Maastrichtian and the succeeding 13 m of the Danian, Johansen collected a series of 32 closely spaced samples each of 5-10 kg. The samples were treated and washed with some 3000 micromorphic brachiopods being retrieved. Overall discussion of the lithostratigraphy, biostratigraphy and techniques is lucid and concise. The bulk of the monograph is devoted to the description of the brachiopod fauna. This essential work has been done with painstaking care. Descriptions are precise and numerous scatter plots are provided. The 20 plates of Scanning Electron Microscopy are well printed and the figures are of high quality. The palaeoecology of the micromorphic brachiopods is described. The faunas below and above the Cretaceous-Tertiary boundary are d o m i n a t e d by pedically a t t a c h e d brachiopods, although taxonomically the faunas share few species. The Maastrichtian part of the sequence contains 27 species; the Danian part 42 species. Thirteen species from the Danian are restricted to the basal 3 cm clay layer and are reworked from the Maastrichtian. Six species occur in both the
Maastrichtian and the Danian and hence crossed the Cretaceous-Tertiary boundary. Twenty-three species appeared for the first time in the Danian. It should be noted that these figures include species not described in the monograph. Some 75% of the Maastrichtian species became extinct at the boundary, whereas less than 50% of the genera died out at this time - - a n observation that agrees with other studies in that the Cretaceous-Tertiary crisis for brachiopods was a feature of low taxonomical levels. Nevertheless, the extinctions are abrupt, even at the millimeter scale, and the most specialised forms become extinct at the boundary. Johansen's monograph is an important contribution to the scarce biological data so far presented on the boundary and, as the author states, the brachiopod extinctions "only reflect a chain of causality ... they shed little light on the nature of the event". Johansen is to be congratulated on an excellent piece of work that should serve as a model for future palaeontological studies across the Cretaceous-Tertiary boundary. Neil W. Archbold, Parkville, Vic.
PETROLOGY
D.C. Smith (Editor), 1988. Eclogites and Eclogite-Facies Rocks. Developments in Petrology, Vol. 12. Elsevier Science Publishers, Amsterdam, 534 pp., US$115.75, Dfl.220.00 (hard back). It is hard to know whether to laugh or cry when confronted with this book. But you can be sure that few of the authors involved are laughing. As everyone in the eclogite industry knows, seven of the eight papers in this volume were originally presented at the First International Eclogite Conference (FIEC) in 1982. Fortunately, most of the proceedings from FIEC were published in special issues of
three journals (one in 1983, two in 1985). The authors of these papers, however, agreed to have their work gathered into a volume in Elsevier's "Developments in Petrology" series. They could not have known that their papers were simply to serve as the chassis to support the upholstery and embroidery of a massive first chapter, to be written by the editor of the volume. Nor could they have imagined that the book would be delayed for 6 years while the editor wrote his epic. One unfortunate author has, for several years now, cited his contribution to this book as " i n press, in theory". However, I could find nowhere in the title, or in the editor's
fauna localities are Beremend, Villfiny, and in the NE the Osztramos limestone quarry. Lower Pleistocene vertebrates also occur at other localities, e.g., at Dunaalmfis in the freshwater limestone complex, and in the sediments of the Great Hungarian Plain explored by deep drilling. According to Jfinossy's subdivision, the upper boundary of the Lower Pleistocene can be drawn by a younger assemblage than the "siissenborn-type", i.e., younger than the Mimomys savini. Determination of the end of the Middle Pleistocene is ambiguous and, on a conventional basis, it is placed in the lower part of the Riss-Wiirm Interglacial. Characteristic faunas of this period were found in the Tarkti rock shelter, from the freshwater limestone of V&tessz/511iSs--famous for its early man locality--and from the caves of the Vfirhegy located in the western part of Budapest. From both the systematic and stratigraphic viewpoint, it is extremely difficult to identify the Vertebrate fauna of the end of Middle Pleistocene (Uppony, Solymhr). In Hungary, too, like everywhere else, the vertebrate fauna of the Upper Pleistocene is the richest. Since the archaeologist L. V&tes already wrote a comprehensive study discussing this period (1965), only the most important Upper Pleistocene vertebrate localities are discussed here with a comment also on the Pleistocene-Holocene Boundary. All the data that, in a chronological order, can be connected with the given localities, make this book useful for many future decades. Extremely few manuals have been published which attempt to give a complete, catalogue type description of a given region. The fact that now a manual of this type has been published on Hungary in English, is of great scientific importance, since the Hungarian Pleistocene vertebrate data are of cardinal importance in the European Quaternary stratigraphy. For that reason, the usefulness of the book is not diminished by the fact that the applied taxonomical nomenclature reflects at least a decade-old state-of-arts. The last chapter of the book is a review of
BOOK REVIEWS
the Pleistocene vertebrate faunas of Hungary. These few pages exactly cover what is included in the title. It gives an overview of the chronological succession of the faunas and in doing so even goes back to the history of sciences. The author makes use of stratigraphical units based on faunal waves and formed for geochronological p u r p o s e s - mostly elaborated by Prof. Kretzoi--of which the international interpretation is rather varied. The volume, with its few figures, ample literature and excellently usable indices for localities and systematics, has already achieved its aim: It is easier to use and cite a manual than to look up several hardly available studies. L. Kordos, Budapest.
M.B. Johansen, 1987. Brachiopods from the Maastrichtian-- Danian Boundary Sequence at Nye Klov, Jylland, Denmark. Fossils and Strata, Vol. 20, Universitetforlaget, Oslo, 99 pp., N O K 170.00. The Terminal Cretaceous mass extinctions generate wide interest in the geological and general communities. The testing of mass extinction models depends on the meticulous analysis of stratigraphical sequences and their fossils. Marianne Bagge Johansen's monograph on the brachiopods of the boundary sequence at Nye Klov is one such study and the author is to be congratulated on her detailed analysis. Appropriately, Johansen commences the monograph with details of the lithostratigraphy of the Cretaceous-Tertiary boundary sequence at Nye K l o v - - a sequence that may well be reasonably continuous across the boundary. The sequence of Late Maastrichtian pelagic chalk is followed abruptly by 3 cm of brownish grey marly clay (the base of which is the Cretaceous-Tertiary boundary). The clay is succeeded by 0.5 m of Early Danian greyish marly chalk which is followed
BOOK REVIEWS
385
by a sequence of bryozoan limestone, bryozoan chalk and white pelagic chalk. From the topmost 5 m of the Maastrichtian and the succeeding 13 m of the Danian, Johansen collected a series of 32 closely spaced samples each of 5-10 kg. The samples were treated and washed with some 3000 micromorphic brachiopods being retrieved. Overall discussion of the lithostratigraphy, biostratigraphy and techniques is lucid and concise. The bulk of the monograph is devoted to the description of the brachiopod fauna. This essential work has been done with painstaking care. Descriptions are precise and numerous scatter plots are provided. The 20 plates of Scanning Electron Microscopy are well printed and the figures are of high quality. The palaeoecology of the micromorphic brachiopods is described. The faunas below and above the Cretaceous-Tertiary boundary are d o m i n a t e d by pedically a t t a c h e d brachiopods, although taxonomically the faunas share few species. The Maastrichtian part of the sequence contains 27 species; the Danian part 42 species. Thirteen species from the Danian are restricted to the basal 3 cm clay layer and are reworked from the Maastrichtian. Six species occur in both the
Maastrichtian and the Danian and hence crossed the Cretaceous-Tertiary boundary. Twenty-three species appeared for the first time in the Danian. It should be noted that these figures include species not described in the monograph. Some 75% of the Maastrichtian species became extinct at the boundary, whereas less than 50% of the genera died out at this time - - a n observation that agrees with other studies in that the Cretaceous-Tertiary crisis for brachiopods was a feature of low taxonomical levels. Nevertheless, the extinctions are abrupt, even at the millimeter scale, and the most specialised forms become extinct at the boundary. Johansen's monograph is an important contribution to the scarce biological data so far presented on the boundary and, as the author states, the brachiopod extinctions "only reflect a chain of causality ... they shed little light on the nature of the event". Johansen is to be congratulated on an excellent piece of work that should serve as a model for future palaeontological studies across the Cretaceous-Tertiary boundary. Neil W. Archbold, Parkville, Vic.
PETROLOGY
D.C. Smith (Editor), 1988. Eclogites and Eclogite-Facies Rocks. Developments in Petrology, Vol. 12. Elsevier Science Publishers, Amsterdam, 534 pp., US$115.75, Dfl.220.00 (hard back). It is hard to know whether to laugh or cry when confronted with this book. But you can be sure that few of the authors involved are laughing. As everyone in the eclogite industry knows, seven of the eight papers in this volume were originally presented at the First International Eclogite Conference (FIEC) in 1982. Fortunately, most of the proceedings from FIEC were published in special issues of
three journals (one in 1983, two in 1985). The authors of these papers, however, agreed to have their work gathered into a volume in Elsevier's "Developments in Petrology" series. They could not have known that their papers were simply to serve as the chassis to support the upholstery and embroidery of a massive first chapter, to be written by the editor of the volume. Nor could they have imagined that the book would be delayed for 6 years while the editor wrote his epic. One unfortunate author has, for several years now, cited his contribution to this book as " i n press, in theory". However, I could find nowhere in the title, or in the editor's