Book review: A piscine history of the Neotropics

Abstract

ISSN 1948‐6596 news and update new information’, p. xxii). The web address has since changed and I was unable to locate the new one. Though I happily agree that this could poten‐ tially be a very useful resource, given the rapidly changing environment of the internet, the publi‐ cation of a second volume would perhaps be the most reliable option. In summary, this is an excellent reference work that combines readability with academic rigour throughout. Its broad coverage of the field, high quality of production and reasonable price makes it an essential purchase for any university with departments teaching or researching within the broad spectrum of ecology, as well as for indi‐ vidual researchers of species invasions. Robert A. Francis Department of Geography, King’s College London e‐mail: robert.francis@kcl.ac.uk; http://rg.kcl.ac.uk/ staffprofiles/staffprofile.php?pid=1961 References Davis, M.A. (2005) Invasion biology 1958‐2004: the pursuit of science and conservation. In: Concep‐ tual ecology and invasions biology: reciprocal approaches to nature (ed. by Cadotte, W.M, McMahon, S.M. and Fukami, T.) , pp. 35–64. Kluwer Publishers, London. Falk‐Petersen, J., Bohn, T. & Sandlund, O.T. (2006) On the numerous concepts in invasion biology. Bio‐ logical Invasions, 8, 1409–1424. Larson, B.M.H. (2007) An alien approach to invasive species: objectivity and society in invasion biol‐ ogy. Biological Invasions, 9, 947–956. Marris, E. (2009) The end of the invasion? Nature, 459, Pysek, P. & Hulme, P.E. (2009) Invasion biology is a dis‐ cipline that’s too young to die. Nature, 460, 324 Ricciardi, A. & Cohen, J. (2007) The invasiveness of an introduced species does not predict its impact. Biological Invasions, 9, 309–315. Edited by Markus Eichhorn book review A piscine history of the Neotropics Historical biogeography of Neotropical freshwater fishes, by J.S. Albert and R.R. Reis (editors) 2011, University of California Press, 408 pp. ISBN: 9780520268685 Price £59 (Hardback); http://www.ucpress.edu/ The Neotropics leave an indelible impression on everyone who visits them. The seeds of some of the most important concepts in ecology and evo‐ lution were sown during the South American trav‐ els of influential 19 th century thinkers. For exam‐ ple, the latitudinal gradient of diversity, now rec‐ ognized as ecology’s oldest pattern (Hawkins, 2001), was first identified by von Humboldt, while Bates documented the variety and adaptations of species in Amazonian forests, and Wallace and Darwin pondered the mechanisms responsible for the myriad forms of life they encountered. Al‐ though the Neotropics have played a crucial role in our understanding of the diversity of life on earth, in many ways they continue to represent an unexplored frontier. This is particularly clear in the case of Neotropical freshwater fish, a group esti‐ mated to consist of more than 7000 species, and that accounts for over half the freshwater fish on the planet and around 10% of all vertebrate spe‐ cies. James Albert and Roberto Reis’ goal as edi‐ tors of the Historical Biogeography of Neotropical Freshwater Fishes is to examine the evolutionary forces responsible for this diversity. In doing so they make the case that multiple processes of di‐ versification were involved and that these oper‐ ated over long periods of time as well as on a con‐ tinental scale. The book itself is divided into two parts, the first of which examines current knowl‐ edge on the biogeography of the region, while the second is a regional analysis that links contempo‐ rary geographical patterns with geological history. The book is ambitious in scope and brings to‐ gether previously fragmented material to provide an authoritative overview of this impressive group of fish. And while a fish‐eye view of the Neotropi‐ cal ichthyofauna is inevitably drawn to the Ama‐ frontiers of biogeography 3.3, 2011 — © 2011 the authors; journal compilation © 2011 The International Biogeography Society