The 25 authors provide a much-needed synthesis of what is currently known about these relatives of spiders, focusing on basic conceptual issues in systematics and evolutionary ecology, making comparisons with other well-studied arachnid groups, such as spiders and scorpions. --from publisher description.

Natural history - Texas, table of contents, index.

This indispensable reference work belongs in public and academic libraries throughout the world and on the shelf of every biologist who works with mammals.

A collection of six long review papers on systematics and evolution, adaptive physiology, reproduction and development, population biology, social behavior, and a survey of some 400 papers dealing with the patterns of similarity in ecological equivalents in Peromyscus and Apodemus. Good natural history, but unindexed? Paper edition (unseen), $22. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

The book concludes with a discussion of the study of fossil salamanders as it relates to the development of a realistic phylogeny and classification of the group.

"This volume includes detailed accounts of the morphology and distribution of the fossil snakes of North America and also remarks on their evolutionary, zoogeographic, and paleoecological patterns. The heart of the book consists of detailed systematic accounts of the known fossil snakes of North America and their localities. Extinct fossil taxa are discussed and illustrated, and many are re-described on the basis of new information. The book provides illustrations of diagnostic vertebrae and criteria for the identification of presently living fossil snake taxa as well as descriptions of the modern characteristics and ranges of these species." "Color photographs in the 16-page insert present a catalog of representative living snake species." --Book Jacket.