Book Reviews THE NATURAL HISTORY OF MADAGASCAR. Edited by Steven M. Goodman and Jonathan P. Benstead. Photographs by Harald Schu ¨tz. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. 2006. 1728 pp. ISBN 022-630307-1. $50.00 (paper). Madagascar is unlike any other place on earth. The popular press and scientific literature have drawn our attention to reports of new species of living lemurs, tales of elephant birds and giant lemurs that have recently gone extinct, and the plight of the island’s remaining natural habitats. The Natural History of Madagascar augments this story with an abundance of new detail. Editors Steven Goodman and Jonathan Benstead have marshaled the work of 281 researchers to produce this hefty tome of 1,700 pages. The result is a valuable resource for anyone interested in Madagascar, from undergraduate to researcher, ecotourist to policy maker, and it gives us much more than the title promises. The opening chapter tells us that the first natural his- tory of Madagascar was published in 1658. Despite this long history of scientific exploration, much of the infor- mation presented in the following pages was collected only in the last few decades! This is not surprising, as the natural history presented in this volume is not just an inventory of the unique presences and strange absen- ces on the island. In the hands of Goodman and Ben- stead, natural history encompasses a synthetic vision of research derived from a wide range of disciplines. This is especially apparent in Chapters 2–6, which present con- textual information on the geology, paleontology, cli- mate, ecology, and anthropology of Madagascar. These chapters provide a necessary, albeit brief, background for understanding the forces that have shaped the mod- ern biologic patterns of the island’s flora and fauna described in subsequent chapters. Of particular interest to anthropologists are the papers presented in the ‘‘Human Ecology’’ chapter (Chapter 5). Today, human activities permeate every ecosystem of Madagascar. Evi- dence presented in the archaeology essays illustrates just how different Madagascar was before a late-arriv- ing humanity set foot on the island. The cultural and political ecology of agriculture, fire, and human disease are also discussed in this section. The point of these inclusions is that Madagascar’s natural history cannot be disconnected from the human context. Bringing to- gether essays in human ecology at the beginning of the volume sets the tone for an important theme that is revisited in the final chapter, the reconciliation of the needs of the local population with the interests of conservation. The mass of the book, made up by Chapters 7–13, is a taxonomic overview covering plants, invertebrates, fishes, amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals. These chapters are interconnected by essays on such topics as pollination ecology, insect-plant interactions, and the effects of forest fragmentation on the fauna of the island. Numerous data-filled tables and appendices found within the contributed papers include detailed information on collection localities, summaries of geographic distribu- tions, and ecological data for individual species. Most species accounts are accompanied by one or more photo- graphs, many in color. The resolution of detail varies among the chapters, relating directly to the number of researchers working with the taxonomic group. One ben- efit of this layout is that it offers readers a chance to reflect on the state of knowledge about a topic. For example, the primary focus of mammal studies in Mada- gascar has always been lemurs, as these unique prima- tes are the island’s flagship species. As such, much more information is available for individual primate species than the format allows to be adequately summarized. In contrast, little work has been conducted on many of the nonprimate mammals, and thus these essays represent an excellent appraisal of the meager information that has been collected on their ecology. Although understanding of many groups remains very incomplete, the collected knowledge of Madagascar’s biota has increased significantly in the last decades. This explosion of data is cause for celebration, as is the increasing participation of Malagasy field biologists. Mal- agasy field assistants have always played a central, although largely unrecognized, role in research on the island. This situation has recently changed, and much of the research presented in this volume has been car- ried out by Malagasy scientists or international collabo- rative teams. This new data provides occasion to take a critical look at how effectively we are applying new knowledge to address the current environmental crisis in Madagascar. The final chapter (Chapter 14) is made up of 29 essays that consider conservation issues. These essays explore a wide range of topics, including the unique biota of protected areas, regional human cul- tures, and conservation history. This allows for broad insight into the multifaceted challenges to conservation in Madagascar. The Natural History of Madagascar triumphs as a synthesis of existing knowledge about Madagascar. It can be used both as a reference and as a source of ideas for future research. The organization and format of the volume invite selective reading on areas of particular interest. As to genuine criticisms, I have few. The vol- ume builds in strength, from minimal treatments of the soils and climate of the island in the introductory pages to a very strong final discussion of conservation. I came across a few bibliographic omissions and cita- tions of unpublished work, but these are minor points given the impressive range of topics covered in this book. Because the volume was financed with contributions from several institutions and the editors and contribu- tors waived their right to royalties, the price for the paperback copy of this book is a mere $50.00. The math works out to a cost of less than 3 cents per page! This book needs to be on the desk of every student and in the library of every university. Currently, a French transla- tion is in press, which will add to the distribution of this book in Madagascar. High biodiversity, very high endemism, great ecosys- tem diversity, and increasing degradation all combine to make every little piece of what remains in Madagascar extremely important in global terms. So what can we do? Since Madagascar has been of little geopolitical sig- nificance, it has only rarely come to the attention of the outside world, and only biologists have focused heavily V V C 2008 WILEY-LISS, INC. AMERICAN JOURNAL OF PHYSICAL ANTHROPOLOGY 137:491–493 (2008)