Integrative and Comparative Biology Advance Access originally published online on April 7, 2006
Integrative and Comparative Biology 2006 46(3):348; doi:10.1093/icb/icj032
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Book Review |
The Sauropods: Evolution and Paleobiology. Kristina A. Curry Rogers, and Jeffrey A. Wilson, editors
Burke Museum and Department of Biology, University of Washington
Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2005. 349 pp. ISBN 0-520-22623-3.
Sauropods are among the most recognizable groups of fossil vertebrates, typified by their long necks, rotund midsections, and gracefully tapering tails. Their celebrity has perfused popular culture, be it as a "brontoburger" in The Flintstones or the silhouette of the Sinclair Oil logo. The Sauropods: Evolution and Paleobiology is a new book that assembles 11 research papers from 15 prominent dinosaur paleontologists. The volume had its beginnings in a symposium at the 2001 Society of Vertebrate Paleontology conference, which was convened by the editors to honor Jack MacIntosh, a recently retired luminary of sauropod paleobiology. The Sauropods covers a wide range of topics (e.g., from footprints to histology) and I believe that it will prove a very useful reference for those interested in acquainting themselves with recent sauropod research.
The past decade has seen a remarkable resurgence in the study of dinosaurs, especially sauropods. In addition to a striking number of new fossil discoveries (e.g., more than 30 new sauropod species have been named in the past 10 years), much of this renewed interest can be attributed to the adoption of cladistic classifications. Chapters by Wilson and Curry Rogers address sauropod systematics directly, and Barrett and Upchurch provide their own results as part of their chapters on sauropod diversification and feeding strategies. Sereno and Wilson provide new information on what must be considered among the most bizarre dinosaurs of all time; their reconstruction of the African rebbachisaurid Nigersaurus taqueti suggests that this megaherbivore packed more than 600 slender teeth into its jaws. Stevens and Parrish discuss the posture of the sauropod vertebral column, especially the neck. Their results, which are visualized in a computer program dubbed "DinoMorph," suggest previously unsuspected differences among the feeding envelopes predicted for a variety of sauropod taxa. Wedel investigates the pneumatic construction of sauropod vertebrae and its implications for body mass estimation in the largest animals ever to have walked the earth. Not surprisingly, his study shows that the degree of pneumatization in the sauropod vertebral column can substantially affect our interpretation of this critical aspect of sauropod biology. Body size is also an important aspect of Carrano's chapter on the evolution of sauropod locomotion, which includes one of the first quantitative studies on trends in body size evolution within the group, in addition to documenting locomotor changes in a phylogenetic context. Wright steps away from sauropod skeletons, instead focusing on the footprints and trackways left by these gargantuan beasts. She shows that certain track features can be used to confidently identify trackmakers and that ichnological data play an important role in fleshing out the stratigraphic range and geographic distribution of the sauropod fossil record. In the penultimate chapter, Chiappe and coauthors discuss sauropod reproduction based on fossils from an amazing locality in Argentina (Auca Mahuevo) that has produced hundreds of sauropod eggs. This chapter is an excellent synthesis of a variety of data: sedimentary environment, nest morphology, eggshell microstructure, and the morphology of sauropod embryos. Finally, Curry Rogers and Erickson put sauropods under the microscope to investigate their growth rate using histological sections. I thought that this chapter provided a very useful introduction to the study of fossil bone histology, as well as to what can and cannot be determined through bone microstructure.
The final pages of the book include a transcript of conversations between the editors and Jack MacIntosh. It is apparent that sauropods have captivated Jack's interest for more than 50 years, and I suspect that the ideas about sauropods contained in this book will inspire another generation.
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