Principles of paleoecology : D. V. Ager. McGraw-Hill, New York, N.Y., 1963, 371 pp., 86s

Abstract

"Unfortunately a dichotomy has developed in paleontology, with the morphological systematists on one branch and the ecologists on the other. The former commonly regard the latter as impractical theorizers who are unable or unwilling to read the vast mountain of relevant literature, while the latter commonly regard the systematists as hopelessly old-fashioned museum paleontologists, who only think of fossils as specimens in drawers. In my opinion a training period of purely morphological work is essential to every paleontologist, but there is no need for this to have a fossilizing effect on the student of fossils. If paleontology is to progress beyond the level of stamp collecting, we must consider fossils as living organisms. The museum and the library are excellent places to study paleontology, but so are the laboratory, the cliff, and the quarry--and so, it may be added, is the whole world of living nature." These words, taken from the preface of Ager's book, are most wholeheartedly underlined by the reviewer and, therefore, appear at the beginning of this book review. Another aspect which seems to go together with the rapid expansion of a particular scientific field is to restrict reading of professional literature to that which is easiest accessible rather than that which is most important. Consequently, one finds that a growing number of English-speaking scientific authors have a tendency to read, almost exclusively, publications in their own language. Although not as striking as with several other authors, this tendency can also be found with Ager.