Rating: 
Summary: Birds are nice...
Review: This book I found to be mostly illustrations without the rigor of scientific discourse. The illustrations are nice but overall the book is more suited to survey course in high than a more in depth work. Of course this level may suit many but it was too light for me.
Rating: 
Summary: Sadly beautiful
Review: This is a small book, under 200 pages with just 103 species shown. We all probably know that this is obviously nowhere near a true representation of the extinct animals that comprise what Flannery calls A GAP IN NATURE. What we see here is merely a small selection of some that have gone extinct in the last few hundred years. It's limited to birds, mammals, and reptiles, and only those that the artist had sufficient descriptions to work with. The illustrations are beautiful and a quick browse through may leave you with a disturbing and lasting impression of just what colorful and variety of species has been lost. Flannery's descriptions are informative, if basic. One of the most noticeable features is the high representation of Island species. The Auckland Island merganser, Chatham Islands fernbird, and the Falkland Islands dog are long gone. So are species in Cuba, Guadeloupe, Hawaii, Jamaica, Labrador Island, Martinique, Seychelles, Swan Island, Tahiti, Tonga and Wake Island. Not yet mentioned is Mauritius which is known for one of the more shameful extinction stories - not the blue pigeon, but the Dodo. The high representation of Island extinctions is not a surprise to persons familiar with the subject of biodiversity. Islands have some of the richest ecosystems on the planet. Unfortunately they are also some of the most vulnerable to both man-made and natural shocks. This book is aimed at non-specialists, those taking introductory college level biology, or persons who are just beginning to be aware of what biodiversity is all about. If that's you and you enjoyed these beautiful illustrations but were saddened by the loss, I would encourage you to follow up by reading THE DIVERSITY OF LIFE by E.O. Wilson or David Quammen's book on Island Biogeography appropriately titled THE SONG OF THE DODO
Rating: 
Summary: Hauntingly Beautiful
Review: We've often heard about the loss to our world due to extinction. Flannery and Schouten put "faces" to this loss. These 'Ghosts of Species Past' represent just a handful of the things that we have directly or indirectly caused to disappear from the Earth. Many books try to give us an idea of the loss through descriptions and stories. What sets this book above the rest are the illustrations by Schouten. Often working with only skins, parts of the animal, or old drawings, he has created hauntingly beautiful illustrations of what these animals might have looked like were we to see them in their natural habitats. And that is what you will take away from this book, more than just the scope of loss, but the physical beauty and diversity that these animals represent. And that is a shame. Many of these animals were only seen a few times, so the information on them is sketchy, yet Schouten breathes life into these ancient corpses. The book's message will stay with you. Let's hope that we can cut back on contributing to the next volume in the world today.
Rating:
Summary: Hauntingly Beautiful
Review: We've often heard about the loss to our world due to extinction. Flannery and Schouten put "faces" to this loss. These 'Ghosts of Species Past' represent just a handful of the things that we have directly or indirectly caused to disappear from the Earth. Many books try to give us an idea of the loss through descriptions and stories. What sets this book above the rest are the illustrations by Schouten. Often working with only skins, parts of the animal, or old drawings, he has created hauntingly beautiful illustrations of what these animals might have looked like were we to see them in their natural habitats. And that is what you will take away from this book, more than just the scope of loss, but the physical beauty and diversity that these animals represent. And that is a shame. Many of these animals were only seen a few times, so the information on them is sketchy, yet Schouten breathes life into these ancient corpses. The book's message will stay with you. Let's hope that we can cut back on contributing to the next volume in the world today.
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