Review by Choice Review
This volume contains the papers presented at the 1973 All-Union Symposium, ``The Bering Land Bridge and Its Role in the History of Holarctic Floras and Fauna in the Late Cenozoic.'' It took some time for the results to become available in English, but the entries contain so much new information that the delay in publication is well worthwhile. The 57 contributions, each with an introductory summary, are mostly the work of Russian specialists, but eight are by Americans and five are by other Europeans. The entries are grouped into five main themes: geological history, vegetative cover and paleogeography, faunal paleontology, recent fauna, and human migration to America. Each entry concludes with reasonable sets of international references, to a large extent Russian. Numerous maps, diagrams, charts, and drawings are generally well reproduced: the photographic entries, however, are of poor quality. The lack of an index detracts somewhat from the book's utility. The work of the translator can only be described as heroic and certainly enhances the readability of the occasionally abstruse material. The contents are truly interdisciplinary and should be of interest to earth and natural scientists as well as to anthropologists. Inasmuch as no comparable book is available in English (one of the most recent is The Bering Land Bridge, ed. by David M. Hopkins and published in 1967), the volume should be procured by most scientific libraries, especially in light of the reasonable cost.-C. Padick, California State University, Los Angeles
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review
