Mammalian Biology 94 (2019) 149–150

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Mammalian Biology

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/mambio

Book reviews

Walker’s Mammals of the World. Monotremes, Marsupi- Frank E. Zachos als, Afrotherians, Xenarthrans, and Sundatherians, R.M. Vienna, Austria Nowak. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore (2018). E-mail address: [email protected] 784 pp., 508 colour photographs. Hardback. Ca. D 88. ISBN: 978-1-4214-2467-5. Available online 15 November 2018 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mambio.2018.09.009 These are good times for mammalogists! While the milestone multi-volume encyclopedia Handbook of the Mammals of the World (HMW) is nearing completion, the famous Walker’s Mammals of the Handbook of the Mammals of the World. Vol. 8. Insectivores, World has been updated as well. And what an update it is. Rather Sloths and Colugos, D. E. Wilson and R. A. Mittermeier (chief than the classical two volumes with black-and-white photographs editors). Lynx Edicions, Barcelona (2018). 709 pp., 28 colour (the last edition is from 1999 and thus almost 20 years old), there plates, 480 colour photographs, 685 distribution maps. Hard- is now a single volume with colour photos covering monotremes, back. D 160, ISBN: 978-84-16728-08-4. marsupials, afrotherians, xenarthrans and sundatherians (ie, Scan- dentia and Dermoptera). It seems to be unclear whether further This is the penultimate volume of this milestone publication, volumes are planned but, according to the preface, they “may be covering an array of different groups: Xenarthra (only referred to issued in the future”. The single volume now published is certainly as sloths in the book title) and what was at one time or the other a worthy successor. Compared with the chapters of the last edition formerly called an insectivore, i.e. members of the Afrosoricida dealing with the same taxa, the text has almost doubled in length. (tenrecs, otter shrews and golden moles), Macroscelidea (sengis A comparison with the HWM is obvious, but the two encyclopedias or elephant shrews), Scandentia (tree shrews), Dermoptera (colu- should be considered complementary rather than competitors. As gos) and Eulipotyphla (hedgehogs, shrews, moles, solenodons etc.). in the first six editions, and unlike in the HMW, the basic unit is not Together, more than 650 species are covered more than two thirds the species but the genus, although there is again a species list for of which are shrews. Two of these groups, the tree shrews (Scan- each genus, and for some single species (eg, elephants), there are dentia) and the colugos (Dermoptera) have been thought to be our long and detailed accounts. The sequence and nomenclature follow own group’s, i.e. the primates’, extant sister taxon, and the colu- the taxonomic reference work by Wilson and Reeder (2005), and gos are still considered the best candidate. As correctly pointed out there is a nice table directly after the preface with the geographic in the Introduction, their old common name, flying lemurs, is “the distribution of all genera in the volume. Conversion scales and epitome of inappropriate common names as they neither fly nor tables for metric vs non-metric systems can again be found on the are lemurs” (p. 11f.). endpapers. Similar to the last volume (Rodents II), there is a conservation The book is much cheaper (by ca. 50%) than the HMW volumes, chapter at the beginning of the book on “Conservation Priorities but the photos, while overall nice and sometimes really stunning, and Actions” for each of the groups covered. Although unfor- are less spectacular than those of the HMW. There are more close- tunately perpetuating obsolete (and simply wrong) conceptions ups highlighting the characteristic traits and fewer zoomed-out of xenarthrans (and Afrotheria) as “basal” placental mammalian photos showing the animals in their natural habitats. And there taxa, this chapter nicely summarizes conservation efforts and are no plates with drawings to go with the photographs. The genus problems and highlights so-called priority species for each group or species accounts are well-written and up-to-date. For exam- with the exception of the Dermoptera which only comprises two ple, there is a comprehensive summary of the literature on African species. For example, the three priority eulipotyphlan species elephants and whether savannah and forest elephants should be are the Cuban solenodon (Atopogale cubana), the Russian des- regarded as one or two species. Apart from extant species, recently man (Desmana moschata) and the Hainan gymnure (Neohylomys extinct species are also covered, such as the thylacine, Steller’s hainanensis). For all the priority species, information on species sea cow and the woolly mammoth, and more than 2000 refer- description, major threats and current conservation efforts is sum- ences and an index round off this beautiful book. Perhaps some marized. Apart from the IUCN threat category, the EDGE ranking mammalogists, a group of academics usually not among the best- (where applicable) is also given. This is definitely a step for- paid scientists, might ask themselves which of the two they should ward because the EDGE approach stands for Evolutionarily Distinct purchase – Walker’s Mammals or the HMW volumes covering the and Globally Endangered and is a measure of endangerment that same groups. The simple answer to this question, if at all possible includes not only species status and IUCN category but also the level financially, is clearly: both. of phylogenetic uniqueness (quantified by means of branch length

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