Sydney Anderson (1927–2018)

Published in 1967, this reference work provides a guide to mammal diversity and classification. The goal of the book was to "provide a compilation of selected semi-technical material" for 122 families of mammals, both extant and extinct. Origin of the book traces to the early 1950s, when graduate students and staff at the University of Kansas constructed outlines of the mammalian families and orders for their own use. By the late 1950s, professional mammalogists at other institutions had show more been recruited to contribute to the project.

The book is organized first by ordinal classification, and then by families within each. For orders, each entry begins with a diagnosis based on anatomical features, with summaries of Recent distribution and geological range, followed by "Remarks" that identify alternative classifications, relevant evolutionary issues, and major bibliographic sources. This same approach is followed for the family listings, along with descriptions of habitat, major fossil groups, and a list of genera with the its formal descriptor and the number of species included. Likewise, maps show overall distributions of each family.

Given that this work dates to 1967, it will primarily be of historical value. Mammal systematics has undergone major changes, through the revolutions spawned by cladistics and genomics. Thus, while many of the families have remained more or less intact, the numbers of recognized species has increased, and diagnostic features have been supplemented heavily by genetic characterizations. Likewise, supra-ordinal relationships are much better understood than they were > 50 years ago. Nevertheless, this work remains as a compendium of diagnostic anatomical features of central value in recognizing the placement of fossil forms.

I bought this book when I was taking Mammalogy as an undergraduate -- it was an expense, but seemed worthwhile at the time. I've made little reference to it since that time, and affectionately will pass it along to some potential future owner. show less