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Environment of Mesa Verde, Colorado. James A. Erdman, Charles L. Douglas, and John W. Marr. National Park Service Archeological Research Series 7-B. Washington, National Park Service/U.S. Department of the Interior, 1969. 72 pp., 21 illustrations, 15 tables, appendix, $3.50.

This volume is the first to present, in one place, information and illustrations to aid in the identification of bones of lower vertebrates that may be found in archaeological sites. Although the title of this work is misleading, the author is to be congratulated for providing the zoologist and archaeologist with a useful research tool. Each class of vertebrate is treated in a separate section. Skulls of amphibians and reptiles are considered in separate sections, as are postcranial skeletons of these groups. Six species of fish, nine of amphibians, 11 species of turtles, 15 lizards, the crocodile and alligator, and nine species of snakes are considered. The selection of species is diverse enough to be of value to researchers in most southeastern and southwestern states. Additional genera of lizards might have been included instead of two or three species of the same genus. The section on fish is arranged well in that Figures pertaining to the text follow it. In other sections textual and pictorial parts are separated by other text, or extraneous material. For example, amphibian skulls are discussed on page 13, but the photographs begin on page 27. Intervening pages concern descriptions of reptilian skulls, Figures 10 through 12 containing line drawings of generalized skeletons of a frog, turtle, and snake, and Figure 13 on nomenclature of a turtle carapace and plastron. Most of the text reads smoothly, but editorial emendations should have been made in sentences such as the following: "The bony buttress between the orbits and its sculpturing is particularly characteristic of this toad. . ." and "If a large enough comparative collection is available for comparison, these complexes alone can be adequate for a close determination. . . ." On page 13 the reader is informed three times that true toads lack teeth. The figures containing line drawings were well prepared. The photographic illustrations are mostly washed out, and individual bones in skulls are almost indistinguishable. This was not a printing error. Skulls and small bones are problematic to photograph, owing to difficulties in lighting and in obtaining sufficient depth of field. Nevertheless, photographic illustrations comprise the bulk of this volume, and one would assume that this alone might have elicited concern for photographic excellence. Figures 72 through 76 contain distribution maps for the various animals. There are eight maps to a page. Readers having normal eyesight will require a magnifying glass to decipher the miniscule lettering. There are 25 to 30 pages of wasted space in this volume; some of this might have been utilized for distribution maps rather than a few lines of legend, which could have been placed below the figures. The last 30 pages are an appendix on the osteology of the wild turkey. This part was written as a separate publication and should have been printed elsewhere. Few students of avian osteology will purchase this somewhat overpriced volume in order to obtain the appendix. Despite its shortcomings, which are mostly editorial in nature, the publication is a valuable reference for researchers in archaeozoology.