The Oryx Guide to Natural History: The Earth and All Its Inhabitants - Hardcover

PATRICIA BARNES-SVARNEY has an extensive background in the physical sciences and has worked as a geomorphologist, physical oceanographer, and geochemist. Ms. Barnes-Svarney is the author of numerous books including Weather Around the World (with Thomas Svarney)

e Handy Dinosaur Book (with Thomas Svarney)

w the New Technology Works (with Robert Cone)

teroid: Earth Destroyer or New Frontier?

d Comparing the Planets: Travelers Guide to the Solar System. She has also contributed to the award winning The New York Public Library Science Desk Reference. Additionally, her credits include over 350 articles for such magazines as Popular Science, Astronomy, Air & Space, Technology Review, Omni, and USAir.

THOMAS E. SVARNEY is a consultant in the field of failure analysis and has held positions at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration as well as a major computer corporation. He holds degrees in both engineering science and physics and graduate work in materials science. Mr. Svarney's most recent science books include Skies of Fury: Weird Weather Around the World and The Handy Dinosaur Book (both with Patricia Barnes-Svarney). He has also contributed to several books, including How the New Technology Works: A Guide to High Tech Concepts and The New York Public Library Desk Reference, and written over 30 articles for such national and international journals as Solid State Technology, Praktische Metallographie, and Microelectronic Manufacturing and Testing.

Each chapter treats one of 30 different natural history topics, from Amphibians to Volcanoes, and begins with a very useful time line of natural events and the human discoveries related to them from prehistory through the 1990s. A history section follows, describing in greater detail each of the most important events, developments, and discoveries. The last section of each chapter defines several important terms related to the topic but is not extensive enough to qualify the work as a subject dictionary. Inset boxes scattered throughout the text cover current debates, folklore, and scientific studies, such as volcano myths throughout world cultures and the bird and dinosaur evolution question. Tables in each chapter provide such information as the geologic time scale, the animal kingdom classification system, and the world's mountain ranges.

The topical arrangement is entirely alphabetical, although grouping related topics (for example, a chapter on animals, followed by amphibians, arthropods, birds, etc.) would have been more helpful. A well-done index allows easy access to subject terms as well as data on scientists, geographic areas, and species. Appendixes on careers in natural history and listings for several Web sites pertinent to each of the 30 topics, as well as a glossary, are included.

The book would be a useful reference source for school, public, and undergraduate libraries, but it may be an unnecessary addition for libraries that already have several encyclopedia-like reference selections in earth science, evolution, genetics, and animal and plant life.
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