Bruce S. Lieberman 2000. Paleobiogeography: Using Fossils to Study Global Change, Plate Tectonics, and Evolution . Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers, New York. xvii + 208 p.

This is the sixth in a series of monographs, authored or coauthored by Jisuo Jin (University of Western Ontario), on lower Paleozoic brachiopods of North America. This time Jin, with coauthor Ren-bin Zhan (Nanjing Institute of Geology and Paleontology), tackles the Late Ordovician brachiopods of southern Manitoba. They describe 22 species from 16 genera in this diverse fauna that includes orthids, strophomenids, pentamerids, and rhynchonellids. The figures are clear, the serial sections carefully drawn, and the plates are excellent, as one has come to expect from Jin. The taxonomic approach is balanced. Only one new genus and two new species are named, and the species descriptions give size statistics,descriptions of the exterior, and interior of each valve under easy-to-find headings. Importantly, the authors systematically describe the shell microstructure for each of the strophomenids, a good start to cleaning up the considerable controversy on this subject. They also serial section non-spire bearing groups; this is the first monograph of which I am aware that shows detailed serial sections for each species of orthid. Three photographic plates of serial sections are a welcome addition to the line drawings. A new genus, Nasutimena, is named to include a widespread and distinctive species of strophomenid originally called Strophomena fluctuosa by Elkanah Billings in 1860. The new genus is probably warranted as other authors have placed this species in several different genera, none of which has really fit properly. Hopefully the detailed descriptions in this volume will allow for future comparison and distinction of Nasutimena from European genera such as Gunnerella. The two new species, Holtedahlina paraprostrata and Parastrophinella cirrita, have effective diagnoses that allow distinction from species of the same genus. For a predominantly taxonomic work the analysis of the fauna is also good. The summary of the geological setting is well done, and there are separate sections on biostratigraphy, paleoecology, and biogeography. Two faunal assemblages are readily distinguishable, even by relative amateurs; the older Kjaerina Community contains gigantic brachiopods with widths up to 70 mm whereas the younger Diceromyonia Community is dominated by smaller shells. This, combined with the charts showing the stratigraphic range of each species and excellent figures in the plates makes this volume "user-friendly" to the nonspecialist. Jin and Zhan compare their faunas with those of similar age from other paleo-plates that were located in the tropics during the Ordovician (North America, Siberia, Kazakhstan and south China), finding that the southern Manitoba fauna has stronger affinities with Hudson Bay and the Williston Basin compared with the margins of North America (e.g., Tennessee). The Severn Arch, which currently separates the Williston and Hudson Bay basins, must not have been emergent during the Late Ordovician based on the high faunal similarity between these basins. North America has a strong provincialism when compared to Siberia, Kazakhstan and south China, even at the generic level. Two appendices give locality data for the fauna, as well as the basis for the biogeographic faunal comparison. What is especially astonishing about this monograph is the lavish reproduction. This is the 44th in the National Research Council of Canada's monograph publishing program, although you wouldn't know it without a visit to their web page; the series apparently uses no sequential numbering system. The entire volume is typeset in the same size of font-no microfont for the synonymies or references. Each species description is separated by three blank lines, each section heading is preceded by four blank lines. Even the synonymies have a space between lines! The NRC must have figured a way to publish at a lower cost than the professional societies (similar paleontological monograph series must often reduce the font size for not only the synonymies and references, but for the taxonomic descriptions as well). At $42.95 (US $42.95 outside of Canada), this volume is priced as a bargain when compared to similar volumes and should be on the shelf of every brachiopod worker.