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By studying evolution across geological time, paleontologists gain a perspective that sometimes complements and sometimes conflicts with views based solely on studies of extant species. The contributors to Causes of Evolution consider whether factors exerting major influences on evolution are biotic or abiotic, intrinsic or extrinsic.

Causes of Evolution presents a broad sampling of paleontological research programs encompassing vertebrates, invertebrates, and vascular plants; empirical work and theoretical models; organisms ranging in age from Cambrian to Recent; and temporal scales from ecological time to hundreds of millions of years. The diverse array of research styles and opinions presented will acquaint scientists in related fields with the strengths and weaknesses of paleontology as an approach to evolutionary studies and will give evolutionary biologists of every stripe new bases for evaluating the scope and bias of their own work.

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CHOICE Review

This volume grew out of a departmental seminar series and bears some of the scars of its genesis. The goal of the work is to examine the combinations of factors leading to evolutionary change, especially contrasting two pairs of factor categories: "Biotic and abiotic factors correspond to biological and physical conditions. . . . Intrinsic factors are qualities of an individual organism. . .; extrinsic factors are outside and independent of that organism" ("Specifying Causal Factors in evolution," by Allmon and Ross, p. 1-17). Most of the later chapters address these interactions to some degree, but they are so diverse in topic and group under discussion that the focus becomes too diffuse. For example, of the 14 case studies, 5 deal with higher taxa (large groups of species), including land plants, marine invertebrates, and broad views across the animal kingdom. The final 9 chapters on individual (or small groups of) species or local assemblages also range widely in time and space. Many readers will find a few choice items, but the volume is more like a giant journal issue than a unified book, and the level is too advanced for undergraduates.-E. Delson, Herbert H. Lehman College, CUNY