moa book

["James Farlow" <farlow@ipfw.edu>]

I'm happy to announce publication of the latest book in Indiana
University Press' paleontology series:

Trevor H. Worthy and Richard N. Holdaway, _The Lost World of the Moa:
Prehistoric Life of New Zealand_, ISBN 0-253-34034-9, 718 pp.

The book summarizes what is known about the Quaternary terrestrial
fauna of NZ.  Emphasis is placed on birds, but mammals and herps get
their due.  Three chapters are devoted to the evolution and biology of
moa, but other avian groups are also covered, and there is a long
chapter about the functional morphology and paleoecology of
_Harpagornis_, the Eagle from Hell.  There are numerous photographs and
line drawings, including a lot of Owen's classic lithographs.  There are
several pieces of previously unpublished or seldom seen illustrations. 
There are illustrated keys for identifying the major limb bones of moa,
and numerous maps showing the NZ distribution of major species.

Stealing a phrase from Edgar Rice Burroughs, Worthy and Holdaway refer
to NZ as the land that time forgot.  Their big book describes how birds
produced a very different kind of terrestrial biota than the mammalian
faunas of the rest of the Cenozoic world.  It ends with the
heart-breaking story of the destruction of this lost world at the hands
of our own species, a microcosm of the diversity crisis.

I think there is something here for just about everybody interested in
vertebrate paleontology.  The bad news is it ain't cheap:  about $90, I
think.