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Mollusk Shells as Bio-Geo-Archives. Evaluating Environmental Changes During the Quaternary

Mollusk shells are frequently used as a tool for paleoenvironmental reconstructions and there is abundant literature available on this emerging field of research. Little has been applied to South America though, so that the aim of this book “to provide tools for reconstructing Quaternary environments in southern South America” promises to compensate for this and to bring this region to a level with better known areas. The different chapters are titled Taphonomy, Shell Microstructure and Shell Architecture, Paleoecology, Biotic Interactions, Biogeography, Morphometry, Stable Isotopes, and Sclerochronology –all very broad and interesting topics that each fill conceptual books in their own right. The first chapter is a short general introduction. Chapter 2 is about taphonomy and presents examples involving three bivalve species (Tawera gayi, Glycymeris longior, Ameghinomya antiqua) and chitons. Gastropods are not treated at all, which is somehow disappointing for a gastropod-person like me. The same holds for Chapter 3 on biomineralization, which utilizes published works on the bivalves Amiantis purpurata, Glycymeris longior, Ameghinomya antiqua and Tawera gayi, but none on other molluscan groups. The next chapter on paleoecology summarizes changes in molluscan community structure through the Quaternary, while the chapter on biotic interactions deals with the predation of Trophon geversianus and with settlement of epibionts on the bivalves Ameghinomya antiqua and Zygochlamys patagonica. The fifth chapter is about biogeography and mainly presents the case of a few selected extinct Pleistocene species that are members of genera that prefer warmer waters than those currently at the sites where they were found, but it does not summarize the available data recently published in the same book series. Chapter 6 on morphometry again provides examples for the same taxa (e.g., Amiantis purpurata, Ameghinomya antiqua and Tawera gayi) referred to in the biomineralization chapter, apparently assuming that the reader is already familiar with the applied methods. The chapters on stable isotopes and sclerochronology present unpublished stable isotope data from radiocarbon-dated Mytilus and Amiantis purpurata shells without much detailed information regarding methods or interpretation. In both cases I couldn’t avoid the impression of looking at ‘leftover’ data that somehow did not make it into a proper paper. While all of the treated topics are relevant as such, the authors do not give comprehensive overviews on the state of the art, the various available methods, or the problems associated with each of them. Rather, the chapters present specific examples previously published by the authors. Therein lies the weakness of this book. The chapters are basically abbreviated versions of published articles by Gordillo and coauthors. On the positive side, Mollusk Shells as bio-geo-archives is well-written and may be a valuable starting point for scholars entering this interesting field of research or for those seeking some general knowledge about it. Written in English rather than Spanish also makes it particularly useful to a wider audience. Anyone truly involved in this subject, however, will want to read the original articles that this book is based on.