Extinct Madagascar

"An authoritative and fascinating exploration of one of Nature's greatest evolutionary experiments."--Ian Tattersall, American Museum of Natural History "author of Masters of the Planet: The Search for Our Human Origins" "Another masterpiece from Steve Goodman, this time in partnership with Bill Jungers (who brings his palaeontology and eco-morphology expertise to the fore), that provides fascinating reconstructions of the fate of some of the extraordinary fauna of Madagascar. Throughout, the exquisite plates by Velizar Simeonovski, which combine superb artistic work with anatomical understanding, underpin the work. The book is extremely accessible for non-academic readers, who will gain a clear picture of the widespread changes to the Malagasy flora and fauna and how these changes occurred, and yet will satisfy the scientific community because it provides a comprehensive set of references that can be used as a guide to further in-depth research."--Clive Nuttman, University of Cambridge "Conservation Biology" "Goodman and Jungers's book is a comprehensive work, bringing to a general audience an overview of ecological change and animal extinction on Madagascar in the Holocene. While not a technical summary, it cites close to four hundred scientific papers which can lead the interested reader further on his quest for information. Especially interesting is also the first part of the book, which gives a thorough general introduction to Madagascar starting with the breaking up of the supercontinent Gondwana some 165 million years ago. Several aspects are discussed: geography, geology, vegetation types, etc., all in an easy-to-read language and documented with well-chosen pictures. I highly recommend this authoritative and thoroughly enjoyable book!"--Petra De Block, Botanic Garden Meise, Belgium "Biological Conservation" "The modern fauna of Madagascar reflects the country's long history of isolation from Africa (and Eurasia), despite its relatively close proximity. All its primates, for example, are in the broad 'lemur' category, found nowhere else today. Its mammalian fossil record is very short, almost all within the last 5,000 years. But the diversity is high, with seventeen species of extinct 'lemur, ' including many far larger in size than their extant cousins. In this volume, zoologist Goodman and paleoanthropologist Jungers present these past denizens of Madagascar to a wide audience. . . . A superb book for all readers, including those for whom Madagascar is unknown. Highly recommended."--E. Delson, CUNY Herbert H. Lehman College "Choice" A hauntingly beautiful book.--Oliver Sacks "The extinction (and its causes) of the many subfossil organisms described in Extinct Madagascar is one of biodiversity science's great unsolved mysteries. Goodman and Jungers summarize and present a monumental amount of information pertaining to these species, combining storytelling (descriptive accounts of the scientists involved, of various events and adventures) and marvelous plates with exquisite details of the subfossils and associated metadata to illustrate both the landscape and the organisms of the Holocene epoch in Madagascar. Their literary approach as well as the data reviewed and assembled make for a wonderful addition to the literature. Extinct Madagascar will have broad appeal across disciplines and will be a priceless book for graduate seminar work. I can't wait."--Anne Yoder "Duke University" "Large faunal species disappeared from Madagascar at a time when humans were certainly present on the island. A deduction, though not a parsimonious one, purported by many scholars is to attribute these extinctions to the hands of man, whether as a primary or contributory factor. . . . By contrast, in Extinct Madagascar, Steven M. Goodman and William L. Jungers explore in greater depth than the current literature presently offers the rece

Steven M. Goodman is the MacArthur Field Biologist at the Field Museum, Chicago, and based in Antananarivo, Madagascar. He is coeditor of The Natural History of Madagascar and Atlas of Selected Land Vertebrates of Madagascar, the former published and the latter distributed by the University of Chicago Press. William L. Jungers is distinguished teaching professor and chair of anatomical sciences at Stony Brook University School of Medicine.