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9/3 Books Mx book reviews critically from those given in the book. rape may be partly motivated by the fear of woefully incomplete perspective on human According to Thornhill and Palmer, the unwanted conception, it is also true that such behaviour. Thornhill and Palmer have in- cited study shows post-rape trauma to be women, at the peak of their bodily strength, advertently revealed just how deficient that higher in reproductive-age women (age are most physically capable of fighting back. perspective is. I 12–44) than in the two other age classes Children cannot fight off a full-grown man, Jerry A. Coyne is in the Department of Ecology and (under 12 and over 44). In fact, the data and older women may also find resistance Evolution, University of Chicago, 1101 East show that the only heterogeneity in response beyond them. In exclusively championing 57 Street, Chicago, Illinois 60637, USA. to rape comes from the under-12 class: the their preferred explanation of a phenom- Andrew Berry is at the Museum of Comparative over-44 class is just as traumatized as the enon, even when it is less plausible than Zoology Labs, Harvard University, 26 Oxford 12–44 one. However, when the over-44 and alternatives, the authors reveal their true Street, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138, USA. under-12 classes are pooled, the under-12 colours. A Natural History of Rape is advoca- effect of less trauma makes this combined cy, not science. ‘non-reproductive’ class significantly differ- We have highlighted just three examples ent from the 12–44 one. The authors have of the book’s flawed arguments. There are used statistical sleight of hand to buttress many more. The evidence that rape is a Amassing the case their argument. And we need hardly point specific adaptation is weak at best. In keeping out that the relative lack of trauma in the with the traditions established early in the for the defence youngest age group may be unrelated to sex- evolution of sociobiology, Thornhill and Evolutionary Catastrophes: The ual immaturity: rather, children may be less Palmer’s evidence comes down to a series of Science of Mass Extinctions able to express their feelings. Furthermore, untestable ‘just-so’ stories. by Vincent Courtillot the original study’s data are questionable Sociobiological approaches to human Cambridge University Press: 1999. 173 pp. because much of the assessment of trauma behaviour may yield interesting insights. But £14.95 in the under-12 class was necessarily based it is disciplinary hubris — a long-standing Douglas Palmer on reports from the child’s care-givers feature of evolutionary psychology — to rather than from the child herself. Direct suppose that natural selection underlies our Scientists who are not geologically minded comparison of observer-reported and self- every action. Because of the central role of may be puzzled by the apparent inability of reported data on such a subjective issue is reproduction in Darwin’s theory, sexual geologists to agree on whether the dinosaurs, extremely problematic. behaviour is, in principle, a good candidate ammonites and their ilk were or were not Finally, the fact that women of reproduc- for fruitful sociobiological study, but even ‘polished off’ 65 million years ago by the tive age experience more violence during here it usually fails dismally. The most imagi- impact of an extraterrestrial bolide. Some rape than do older women or children — native and committed sociobiologist would geologists, such as Walter Alvarez and his suggesting that they fight back harder — is be hard-pressed to show that masturbation, father, Nobel prizewinning physicist Luis taken by the authors as evidence that they sadomasochism, bestiality, and pornogra- Alvarez, have argued vehemently for an have more to defend. There is, they contend, phy’s enthusiasm for high heels are all direct impact event in the area of today’s Yucatan more at stake — reproduction, no less — for adaptations. In its insistence on forcing peninsula in Mexico as the nemesis. In Evolu- reproductive-age women. While it is true everything into the strait-jacket of adap- tionary Catastrophes, Vincent Courtillot that women of reproductive age who resist tation, evolutionary psychology offers a promotes large-scale vulcanicity as the driving force behind this and other major extinction events. Courtillot acknowledges the occurrence of the impact event at the 65 million-year- old Cretaceous/Tertiary (K/T for short) boundary. But he questions whether it was the impact event or, instead, massive and prolonged contemporaneous eruption of the Deccan lavas in India which really caused the extinction. Courtillot extends the argument to the other four large extinction events of the past 450 million years of Earth’s history. He points out that the K/T event is the only one of five major extinctions to have a well-estab- lished link to an extraterrestrial impact big enough to cause environmental damage on a global scale. Instead, he argues that New lease of life for a dinosaur prize large-scale vulcanicity is a more likely cause, not only at the K/T boundary, but also in Como Bluff in southern Wyoming was the site book, Marsh’s Dinosaurs: The Collections three of the four other major extinctions, of the world’s first major discovery of dinosaur from Como Bluff by John H. Ostrom and including the biggest of them all, the Permo- remains. Othniel Charles Marsh, a John S. McIntosh. Most of the lithographs were Triassic event. During this latter extinction, palaeontologist for Yale University’s Peabody also reproduced (an example, two views of a 248 million years ago, it is estimated that Museum, financed the dig and claimed a large Stegosaurus sacrum, is shown above). The book 95% of fossil species were wiped out over a proportion of the fossils excavated. He has long been out of print, but is being reissued period of two million years or so, including reunited the excavated bones and had this month (Yale University Press, $85), with a some 60% of marine families and 63% of lithographs made of them. The story of his foreword by Peter Dodson which places the tetrapod families. achievements was chronicled in 1966 in a classic discovery in historical perspective. Nobody now seriously denies that a major impact event occurred at the end of © 2000 Macmillan Magazines Ltd 122 NATURE | VOL 404 | 9 MARCH 2000 | www.nature.com book reviews the Cretaceous. And few will disagree that micropalaeontologists, climate modellers the ammonites, dinosaurs, pterosaurs and and ballistics experts, on a very specific prob- plesiosaurs suffered total extinction at the lem and time. Courtillot gives a well-argued time, or that many other groups, such as taste of the debate for the general reader and the birds and marsupials, suffered major has been very well served by his translator, setbacks (around 75% extinction at the Joe McClinton. family level). However, there may be quib- Like politicians under the baleful glare FRANCIS G. MAYER/CORBIS bles over the numbers and whether or not of a persistent TV presenter’s demand for some dinosaurs just survived into the earliest a straight ‘yes’ or ‘no’, the Earth-science Tertiary. community will continue to squirm on the Although the impact crater is buried defensive for some time over the K/T event. beneath a kilometre or so of younger sedi- As Courtillot finally remarks, “no doubt the ments, geophysical measures of its size party will go on”. And many secrets remain to indicate that a bolide 12 kilometres wide did be brought to light, so perhaps the very diffi- indeed smash through the atmosphere at culty of geology is like that of politics, the ‘art around 30 kilometres per second. In the of the possible’, or should it be the ‘science of process, it excavated, pulverized and blasted the perhaps’? I into the atmosphere some 50,000 cubic kilo- Douglas Palmer is at 31 Mawson Road, Cambridge metres of limestone, burning it to produce CB1 2DZ, UK. substantial volumes of carbon dioxide and Perceived truth: Picasso tried to represent the sulphur dioxide. In a court of law, council world as it is, not as it appears to the eye. for the defence would be hard pushed to get an acquittal for the impactor. recent research to different modes and styles Comparing legal and geological debate Unfinished portrait of pictorial representation. is not as fatuous as it might at first seem. I don’t find that the book quite works. Much of the argument centres on the of the artist One reason is that, despite Zeki’s astounding quality and interpretation of the forensic Inner Vision: An Exploration of Art research into, and knowledge of, neural evidence, not to mention the persuasiveness and the Brain functioning in the visual cortex, his under- of the advocates. Courtillot quotes Sigmund by Semir Zeki standing of the psychology of human visual Freud’s warning that “not even the most Oxford University Press: 1999. 236 pp. perception in the world, of the world, is tempting probability is a protection against £19.99, $35 naive, simplistic and old-fashioned. He error”. John Nash writes: “We need to ask …[a] question … so He goes on to explain his problems with obvious that it is … never asked … what is the impact as causal factor, for example the I discovered Semir Zeki’s A Vision of the Brain the visual brain for? … The answer [is] … we considerable difficulties involved in estab- (Blackwell Science) in 1993, browsing the see in order to be able to acquire knowledge lishing the rates at which events happened science floor of my university’s library. I read about this world”. Never asked? Surely, it has in the long-lost past.
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  • Vincent COURTILLOT - Publications
    1 Vincent COURTILLOT - Publications Books (or Book Chapters) 1- La dérive des continents V. COURTILLOT et P. TAPPONNIER In La mémoire de la Terre, par A. ADOUTTE,…,V.COURTILLOT,…. , 115-125, Seuil, Paris, 1992. 2- La Vie en Catastrophes V. COURTILLOT 279 pp., Fayard, Paris, 1995. (translated in German and English, 1999) 3- Evolutionnary Catastrophes: The Science of Mass Extinction V. COURTILLOT 171 pp., Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1999. (translation and update) Paperback in 2002 4- La dynamique du Globe contrôle-t’elle l’évolution des espèces ? V. COURTILLOT in Qu’est ce que la vie ? Y. Michaud ed., Université de tous les savoirs, vol. 1, pp. 149-162, Editions Odile Jacob, Paris, 2000. 5- L’observation du globe V. COURTILLOT in Le renouvellement de l’observation dans les sciences, Y. Michaud ed., Université de tous les savoirs, pp. 115-118, Editions Odile Jacob, Paris, 2003. 6- Volcanisme et évolution de la vie sur terre V. COURTILLOT in Qu’est ce que la diversité de la vie ?, Y. Michaud ed., Université de tous les savoirs, pp. 133-145, Editions Odile Jacob, Paris, 2003. 7- Nouveau Voyage au Centre de la Terre (provisional title) V. COURTILLOT Editions Odile Jacob, Paris,to be published September 2009. Articles for the public at large (Scientific American type) 1- Les panaches, moteur de la dérive des continents V. COURTILLOT La Recherche, 32, 270-272 (1973) 2- Crise de l'énergie: la solution géothermique 2 V. COURTILLOT La Recherche, 35, 586-587 (1973) 3- Volcanisme et tectonique en Islande P. TAPPONNIER, V. COURTILLOT La Recherche, 37, (1973) 4- La prédiction des tremblements de terre V.
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    Cambridge University Press 0521583926 - Evolutionary Catastrophes: The Science of Mass Extinction Vincent Courtillot Frontmatter More information Evolutionary Catastrophes Why did the dinosaurs and two-thirds of all living species vanish from the face of the Earth sixty-five million years ago? Throughout the history of life, a small number of cat- astrophic events have caused mass extinction and changed the path of evolution forever. Two main theories have emerged to account for these dramatic events: asteroid impact and massive volcanic eruptions, both leading to nuclear-like winter. In recent years, the impact hypothesis has gained precedence, but Vincent Courtillot suggests that cataclysmic volcanic activity can be linked not only to the K–T mass extinction but also to most of the main mass extinction events in the history of the Earth. Courtillot’s book explodes some of the myths surrounding one of the most controversial arguments in science. It shows among other things that the impact and volcanic scenarios may not be mutually exclusive. This story will fascinate everyone interested in the history of life and death on our planet. VINCENT COURTILLOT is a graduate of the Paris School of Mines, Stanford University, and University of Paris. He is Professor of Geophysics at the University of Paris (Denis Diderot) and heads a research group at Institut de Physique du Globe. His work has focused on time variations of the Earth’s magnetic field, plate tectonics (continental rift- ing and collision), magnetic reversals, and flood basalts and their possible relation to mass extinctions. He has published papers in professional journals, and a book entitled La Vie en Catastrophes (Fayard, Paris, France, ).
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    Journal of Sedimentary Research An International Journal of SEPM Colin P. North and Kitty L. Milliken, Editors A.J. (Tom) van Loon, Associate Editor for Book Reviews Review accepted 22 August 2007 DOI: 10.2110/jsr.2007.008 Evolutionary Catastrophes S The Science of Mass Extinction, by Vincent Courtillot (translated by Joe McClinton), 2007. Cambridge University Press, The Edinburgh Building, Cambridge, CB2 2RU, United Kingdom. Paperback (hardback no longer available), 188 pages, 17 line diagrams, 4 halftones. Price GBP 15.99; USD 24.99. ISBN 0521891183. Who does not like horror stories? No wonder that also books on extermination of dinosaurs sell well. A first-hand description of the dispute on the causes of their extinction, initiated more than thirty years ago, with emotional intensity horrifying not less than the events 65 million years ago, is still available in paperback edition. Vincent Courtillot is a French paleomagnetist, highly respected not only in his own country, who had a good luck to work on the Deccan Traps in the proper time. This placed him among the prominent supporters of the volcanic cause of the Cretaceous/Tertiary dramatic changes in the biosphere. The description of how the conclusions were reached and confronted with views of the extraterrestrial party is vivid and instructive to non-geophysicists (I am among them). This is probably the main value of the book, contrary to its English title rather imprecisely describing its contents. Little is written in it about evolution, and the scientific level of its paleontological aspects is nicely expressed by an explanation in the glossary added to the book: “Bivalves: An animal, like a clam, that has two valves that open and shut (part of the mollusks).” Vincent Courtillot argued against the extraterrestrial cause of all the major extinction events in the Phanerozoic Earth history and for their connection with volcanism, but his arguments loose some consistency while referring to the topic story of dinosaurs.
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