PUBLICATIONS | SCIENCE SERIES

PAPERS IN AVIAN PALEONTOLOGY HONORING PIERCE BRODKORB
edited by Kenneth E. Campbell, Jr.

Science Series 36
Published by the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County
505 pages, 287 illustrations, 70 tables, bibliography, index, 1992.
Price $90.00 cloth cover (ISSN 0079-0943)

Photograph
Foro panarium n. gen., n. sp., holotype (USNM 336261), nearly complete skeleton.

This volume is the largest, most diverse work ever devoted to studies of avian paleontology and evolution. Fifty authors from 13 countries contributed a total of 39 research papers, most of which were presented at the II International Symposium of the Society of Avian Paleontology and Evolution (SAPE). Other papers were contributed by colleagues of Dr. Pierce Brodkorb, to whom the volume is dedicated. A biography and bibliography of that preeminent paleornithologist are included as are lists of avian taxa that he described. Of the volume's 26 systematic papers, 5 concern Mesozoic birds. Other sections are devoted to avian morphology and regional surveys of avian paleontological records.

Among the papers on Mesozoic birds are a description of the newest specimen of Archaeopteryx and descriptions of two new orders of Cretaceous birds. Papers on Cenozoic birds encompass such diverse topics as reviews of the galliforms from the Phosphorites du Quercy, Australian ratites, Mediterranean island birds, giant Paleogene groundbirds from Europe and North America, and columbids from archaeological sites on South Pacific islands. A number of new avian taxa are described, including those of an important new order of Paleogene birds from North America.

The eight papers devoted to avian morphology examine such topics as eggshell and bone structure, jaw mechanics, and morphological diversity. Reviews of avian paleontological records include those of the Tertiary of Central Europe and the Mesozoic and Paleogene of the regions that formerly constituted the USSR.

This volume will be of importance to any scientist interested in avian evolution.