Introduction to Quantitative Paleocology

75 and the confidence levels used are e x p l i c i t l y stated for each example. Confidence bands around estimated parameters, regression lines, and fitted trend surfaces are illustrated in passing, as it were; hypothesis testing rather than estimation statistics is the rule rather than the exception. This review has hardly touched upon the substantive aspects of the b o o k . The drainage basin examples are largely f r o m Uganda and the beach examples are mainly f r o m Britain. These choices are incidental: the t e x t is profusely illustrated w i t h maps and diagrams so that the transfer of principles and ideas to the reader's area of interest is relatively easy. The b o o k can certainly be recommended as a manual for conventional statistical techniques, " . . . a collection of w o r k e d e x a m p l e s . . . " as the authors put it. But the b o o k is actually more than this, and the experienced geomorphotogist will find numerous ideas for additional q u a n t i t a t i v e studies in his o w n field of research. W.C. K r u m b e i n , Evanston, III.

QUANTITATIVE PALEOECOLOGY R.A. Reyment, 1971. I n t r o d u c t i o n to Quantitative Paleoecology. Elsevier, Amsterdam, 226 pp., Dfl. 60.00. R.A. Reyment, Professor at the University of Uppsala, is unquestionably the finest q u a n t i t a t i v e geologist currently w o r k i n g in invertebrate paleontology. In an age when packaged computer routines can impart a gloss of expertise to a t y r o , the mark of true excellence is not the c o m p l e x i t y of an applied technique, b u t rather the sense that we often label " i n t u i t i v e " b u t that comes o n l y w i t h long experience: w h a t technique is appropriate? H o w can I finesse the maxim u m a m o u n t of i n f o r m a t i o n f r o m inadequate data? H o w can I get the same resolution w i t h a simpler method and less extensive calculations? H o w shall I arrange m y data to test an interesting hypothesis? These are the kinds of questions that a w o r k i n g paleoecologist must answer. The strength (and in another sense the weakness) of Reyment's b o o k is that he has w r i t t e n it to display this subtle sense of excellence rather than t r u l y to introduce his subject. It is a unique attempt, and I have b o t h the highest respect for Reyment's intent and some doubts as to its success. In a conversational tone, Reyment presents

himself as a statistician w o r k i n g through a series of case studies in paleoecology. The order of the b o o k is determined b y its cases, not the techniques used to resolve them. Thus, t-testing, chi-square and anova pop in and o u t in no determined order as the cases f o l l o w a logical sequence leading f r o m the analysis of orientations through the effects of paleoenvironment upon single taxa to the s t u d y of fossil assemblages. The 28 case studies are well chosen and arranged (I particularly appreciate Reyment's rigorous attention to reality in his selection of several cases that do not confirm a preferred hypothesis -- vide pp.50 and 56). For each case we are given a statement of the problem followed b y a model for its study, quantitative methods to be used, calculations, results and discussion. A f t e r reading through all these cases, something of the expert's " i n t u i t i v e " sense must rub o f f : no conventional text, for example, w o u l d ever tell y o u (as R e y m e n t does on p.160) that a certain test probably failed to establish significant differences in a particular case because the sample sizes were t o o small. Yet this is precisely w h a t the w o r k i n g statistician needs; not t e x t - b o o k dogma, b u t the feel for a problem that comes o n l y through doing. But this very organization can also lead at worst to confusion and at best to a claim that the b o o k is mistitled. For all the simplicity of its conversational tone, it is no i n t r o d u c t o r y w o r k . It explains none of the techniques it uses in detail sufficient to lead a n e o p h y t e to understanding (see the curtailed discussion of "expected f r e q u e n c y " on p.53 or the i n t r o d u c t i o n of the term " d e n s i t y f u n c t i o n " on p . 1 6 w i t h its definition on p.21). If y o u k n o w what chi-square is and does in theory, R e y m e n t will show y o u m a n y subtleties of its use; b u t if y o u have never heard of it, get a good grounding in elementary statistics before approaching the t e x t . I w o u l d have preferred the title: "Topics in Quantitatiw,~ Paleoecology". In this context, I am sorry that all comment on multivariate analysis has been excluded (though I understand that R e y m e n t will soon publish a t e x t on multi-variate morphometrics w i t h R.E. Blackith as coauthor). This subject, R e y m e n t argues, is too complex for beginners. But since he has chosen to describe w h a t techniques do rather than to teach their mathematical details, he could have included multivariate methods - for these are, I think, as readily susceptible to a general understanding as most common bivariate techniques. A n d ecology is preeminently the s t u d y of corn-

76 p l e x i t y -- i.e. the direct and simultaneous study of several variables. Amidst the flood of hackneyed and conventional treatments, it is always pleasant and surprising to encounter a truly new approach. Novelty always inspires criticism. I have given mine. I would, perhaps, have found less to criticize in a standard text. I would also have been far less stimulated. Stephen Jay Gould, Cambridge, Mass.

CENOZOIC G L A C I A T I O N K.K. Turekian (Editor), 1971. Late Cenozoic Glacial Ages. Yale University Press, London, 606 pp., £ 9.00. This is one of an increasing number of symposium volumes devoted to Cenozoic glaciation. It is the longest, and in terms of its "shelf index" by far the cheapest. Unlike most of its predecessors, it represents the publication of conference papers sponsored by Yale University's Silliman Lectures series rather than I N Q U A . The conference was held in 1969 as a testimonial to honour the retirement of R.I=. Flint. The book contains twenty-one contributions of variable length and quality, a few of which have very tenuous connections w i t h the subject specified in the title of the book. Five of the articles account for about half of the text pages, the longest being over one hundred pages in length, the remaining sixteen articles are consequently relatively short. The articles range f r o m discussion of techniques, regional descriptions to causes of glaciation. If there is a coherent theme to the book beyond its general title, it is hard to discern it. While this information may border on the trivial, it seems to the reviewer necessary to provide the prospective purchaser w i t h some idea of what he may expect. "The Late-Cenozoic history of the Pacific and Indian oceans" requires only fourteen pages including figures and bibliography; "The evolution of certain mammals during the Late Cenozoic" can be handled in five and a half pages of text, six pagelength tables and not a single reference, while "The biostratigraphy and paleoecology of Late Cenozoic mammals of Europe and Asia" requires about twelve pages. Obviously the floral record is more complex,

for descriptions of the flora of Europe and America each requires an article three or four times as long! It also seems to the reviewer that the long, and valuable description of a new quantitative technique by Imbrie and Kipp is out of place in a general symposium volume. While the preceding reflects some of the bad points of the volume, there are many redeeming features. First and foremost is the explicit recognition in the preface of the ancestry of the Pleistocene ice sheets. For a long time the understanding of glaciation was blocked by confining investigation to a too-narrow time range, preventing glaciation being seen in its proper perspective. This point is well brought out in a number of papers, in particular in the excellent review of the Late-Cenozoic history of Antarctica. Thus it is clear that fully developed ice sheets existed in Antarctica as early as Late Miocene, and that valley glaciers may have spawned icebergs as far back as Eocene times. Bishop provides a timely warning about uncritical acceptance of older data in his review of the East African pluvials and interpluvials. In doing so he brings out t h e d i f f i cutty continually apparent in the study of ancient climates, that of being able to distinguish an effect as climatic when it may equally be the result of quite different environmental forces. Farrand provides a review of the LateQuaternary climates of the eastern Mediterranean. Its chief value lies in providing an introduction and bibliography of an area poorly known but perhaps of critical importance. Perhaps of even greater importance is the integration of the results available f r o m the oceanic record, and this is reflected by the inclusion of a group of four papers dealing with various aspects of the problem, calcite accumulation, micropateontology and age correlation. In summary, the volume, while not the best of the symposium volumes, is far from the worst. If some of the papers are disappointing, many contain valuable information and provide authoritative reviews and bibliographies for those who wish to go farther. Although in modern-day terms the book is reasonably priced, its circulation is liable to be restricted, for it is not coherent enough to be recommended for "general consumption", even though there may be those willing to purchase it for a number of excellent articles of particular interest. A.E.M. Nairn, Cleveland, Ohio