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Biohistory of the Mascarenes Vidual Islands The chapters are arranged more or less as a ECOLOGY chronological progression, with each chapter having separate sections devoted to the indi- Biohistory of the Mascarenes vidual islands. Information on particular top- ics, such as bats or lizards, is scattered among Storrs L. Olson the various chapters without any final synthe- ses. The abundant illustrations include color The dodo of Mauritius, Raphus cuculla- tially in pristine condition when discovered in plates with 39 of Hume's always-evocative tus, (last unequivocally recorded in the 16th century. Thus the accounts of early paintings of extinct organisms as they may 1662) is an icon of human-caused European explorers and settlers take on greater have looked in life. extinctions on islands. On the neighboring importance than on islands subjected to cen- The volume's utility is severely compro- island of Rodrigues, the related turies of prehistoric human mised by the gross overuse of endnotes in an solitaire, Pezophaps solitaria, Lost Land of the Dodo intervention. Much new mate- attempt to produce a "text unencumbered by soon followed the dodo into rial has emerged in the past few endless 'Harvard references' and explanatory extinction. Modern studies of by Anthony Cheke and years through the combing Julian Hume byways." Some of the notes simply provide DNA extracted from their re- of old archives and through an author and year so that one must then turn mains suggest that these large, Yale University Press, new paleontological discover- to the bibliography, but most are extensive flightless birds were derived New Haven, CT, 2008. ies. The systematic relation- discourses that cannot very well be read out- independently from the nomadic 480 pp. $55. ships of Mascarene organisms side the context of the main text. All but 3 of ISBN 9780300141863. Nicobar pigeon, Caloenas nico- T& AD Peyser (A&C Black) have now been augmented by the 15 appendices have their own sets of end- barica, of Australasia. Only a London. £45. recent DNA studies, and mod- notes. After flipping back and forth through decade ago it was realized from ISBN 9780713665444. em conservation techniques have the first two chapters, I became exasperated, newly discovered bones that met with both successes and cut the book apart, and removed the 90 pages the supposed dodolike "Reunion solitaire" disappointments in attempts to save the rem- of endnotes so they could be more easily con- (now Threskiornis solitarius) was actually nants of fauna and flora that have survived over sulted. The book is sturdily bound, however, derived from the sacred ibis, T. aethiopicus, 500 years of human devastation and neglect. and the separate parts have held together well. and that the misinterpreted accounts of 17th- The three Mascarene islands have very dif- As examples of excess, a little over three century voyagers applied much better to an ferent geological, biological, and human his- columns of text concerning dodos shipped ibis than to a dodo. Reunion may possibly tories. This disparity is part of what con- alive from Mauritius is accompanied by five have had a dodolike bird, but geologists now tributes to the book's organizational problems. columns of endnotes in smaller type; chapters understand that the island underwent a cata- on the Mascarenes in the clysmic volcanic upheaval about 200,000 19th and 20th centuries years ago that probably wiped out many ter- have 389 and 498 endnotes, restrial organisms, so that much of the biota respectively. To make mat- must be younger than that of the other two ters worse, the endnotes Mascarene islands. are not indexed. These are just a few examples of the Many of the topics that advances in knowledge of the Mascarene I attempted to find were not biota brought together in Lost Land of the included in the index. Maps Dodo, which is both timely and an indispen- are not indexed as such sable reference. Anthony Cheke has over and can only be located by three decades' experience in research and con- flipping pages. (Mauritius servation in the Mascarenes and is responsi- and Reunion are shown in ble for the bulk of the volume. Julian Hume, many different maps, but who has long been interested in extinction on I only found one of Rod- islands, has conducted recent paleontological rigues.) The extinct fruitbat research in the Mascarenes and contributes (Pteropus subniger) refer- an appendix on that subject, boxed accounts red to as "rougette," a name of the different groups of Mascarene verte- revived for the book, is brates, and illustrations. indexed under that "long The book's principal focus is on terrestrial vanished" vemacular, which vertebrates, with emphasis also on botany, is of no help whatsoever as ecology, and conservation. Unlike Pacific the species is not listed at islands, for example, where recent discoveries all under "bat." The absence of past biodiversity have come entirely from the of a comprehensive index fossil record the Mascarenes had no period of is a great impediment in prehistoric hiunan occupation and were essen- a work so crammed with widely scattered facts. Despite the mistaken The reviewer is in the Division of Birds, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC Not so dodolike. Reunion ibises (last recorded circa 1710) on the slopes attempt to make the book 20013-7012, USA. E-mail: [email protected] of the Piton des Neiges volcano. read like something else. www.sciencemag.org SCIENCE VOL 321 15 AUGUST 2008 913 Published by AAAS BOOKS ETAL Lost Land of the Dodo is a scientific reference tory is reflected in a sentence Small quotes How do culture and neurophysiology work tliat will long be essential to anyone from the historian Mott Green; "At some point influence each other? One example that Small studying evolution and conservation of insu- a leap took place, a mutation, an explosion of elaborates, and that has a direct link to our pri- lar organisms. Unfortunately, it also serves as creative power—the 'discovery of mind,' or mate ancestors, is the dominance hierarchy. a model for how such volumes should not be the 'birth of self-consciousness'—interposing The social emotions associated with domi- organized, and it will prove very difficult to a barrier between us and our previous brute, nance hierarchies (e.g., anger, fear, contempt, use unless eventually made available as a merely biological existence" (2). The essential and pity) are in large part mediated by the searchable electronic text. idea is that history in the proper sense began autonomic nervous system and often revealed 10.1126/sdence.ll62110 when cultural evolution eclipsed biological involuntarily by our facial expressions. These evolution. Furthermore, cultural evolution is have deep phylogenetic roots. Although the Lamarckian (directed progress toward a goal) neural responses may not have changed much CULTURAL EVOLUTION and thus obviates the need to incorporate across time, the means by, and contexts in, Darwinian explanations and lessens the im- which dominance and submission are felt and Bridging the Big Gap portance of our biological history. exploited by people in a society are culturally The idea that recent history follows an specific. More generally (and without our Asif A. Ghazanfar accelerating Lamarckian pattern is pervasive being aware of it), emotional and physiologi- among historians and even endorsed by cal ups and downs are exploited in different Histories are fiall of gaps. Whether these the late paleontologist Stephen Jay Gould: ways in different cultures—for pleasure, for are apparent (reflecting a lack of data) "Cultural evolution has progressed at rates that inflicting harm, etc.—^through different asso- or real (nothing of import actually Darwinian processes cannot begin to ap- ciations. Small dubs the varying forms of cul- occurred) is often an open question. Never- proach.... Human cultural evolution ... is turally specific instruments that drive brain- theless, there is a tendency to develop theories Lamarckian in character" (3). Small tempers body responses "psychotropic mechanisms." that suggest the latter and thereby explain away this idea by demonstrating that often apparent These include mood-altering practices, be- our lack of knowledge. For example, the directed and accelerated progress is actually haviors and institutions generated by human classic historical paradigm of a period of an illusion of teleology. First, many cultural culture, foods like coffee and chocolate, intellectual stasis between the philosophical paradigms are the re- our interactions with others contributions of the ancient Greeks and their sult of trial and error or On Deep History and the Brain through social hierarchies or rediscovery in the Middle Ages ignores semi- the inadvertent conse- religions, and self-stimulation nal works of Arab-Muslim scholars (I). But quence of a sequence by Daniel Lord Small through novels or roller coasters. perhaps the most important gap in human his- of actions. Second, the University of California Press, Importantly, the exploitation of tory is actually more an abyss—our "prehis- accelerated nature of Berkeley, 2008.286 pp. $21.95, £12.95 brain-body states by cultures tory." It is into this abyss that Daniel Lord cultural evolution does ISBN 9780520252899. Paper, $15.95, is not intentional nor does it Small, a historian at Harvard University, jour- not preclude Darwinian £9.50. ISBN 9780520258129. have a goal. neys in hopes of finding links between Stone mechanisms (selection On Deep History and the Age and Modern people. based on random events); in fact, the short Brain is a small book with big ideas: that On Deep History and the Brain maps his generation time (sharing an idea with other human history is linked in deep time by the voyage. In it. Small shows where we are with people multiples it within a short period) cre- physiological mechanisms that we share with respect to understanding humanity's history, ates the illusion of directed progress.
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