The Mammals of British Columbia: A Taxonomic Catalogue

Regional taxonomic guides can be a valuable resource providing zoologists with a synthesis of the current taxonomic status and geographic range of a regional fauna. These guides must be periodically updated to incorporate taxonomic revisions and new information on geographic ranges. Nagorsen's book provides such a resource for zoologists working with mammals of British Columbia. In his Introduction Nagorsen defines the scope of his book and provides a justification for his selection of nomenclature and taxonomic organization, and describes the format of the book. He stresses that he intends the book as a technical reference to taxonomy and nomenclature and not a synthesis of the distribution, zoogeography, and ecology of the mammals of British Columbia. Mammalian nomenclature, as Nagorsen points out, is not standardized. He has used Honacki et al. (1982) as the source for names of orders, families, and genera and Honacki et al. (1982) and Jones et al. (1986) for species names. Subspecies names are based on current taxonomic revisions when available and on Hall (1981) otherwise. Common names used in this book are based on Jones et al. (1986). Undoubtedly readers will differ in their opinions concerning Nagorsen's choice of nomenclature for a given taxon. For example, I do not agree with the treatment of Rodentia. However, Nagorsen has clearly identified the basis of his selection of nomenclature and is consistent throughout the volume. Nagorsen has based his organization of taxonomic summaries on Jones et al. (1986) so that orders are arranged phylogenetically but families, genera, species, and subspecies are arranged alphabetically within the next higher taxonomic category. His rationale for departing from a phylogenetic ordering is that readers can more readily find a particular taxon. I think that the advantages of alphabetical organization are overshadowed by the loss of information about presumed evolutionary relationships. The main section of this book presents the taxonomic summaries for the mammals of British Columbia. For each order and family common names are given and for each genus the common name, number of extant species, and authors of the most recent revisions are provided. The species entries include 1) author; 2) general geographic distribution, specific range within the province, and sympatric distributions with related species; 3) synonyms; 4) other common names; and 5) remarks on subspecies. For each identified subspecies Nagorsen provides the original description, type locality, type specimen, and geographic range. These taxonomic summaries synthesize an extensive systematic literature. The taxonomic summaries are followed by the Literature Cited. An Appendix provides a checklist of species and subspecies of British Columbia that distinguishes those taxa endemic to the province. Indices to common names and to scientific names complete the volume. Nagorsen has summarized a great deal of information on the taxonomy and nomenclature of mammals of British Columbia and has presented this information in an accessible format. The layout and type make it easy for the reader to focus on specific topics within each taxonomic summary. Zoologists will appreciate this resource.