Comments on Nielsen's Review of Mollusk Shells as Bio-Geo-Archives. Evaluating Environmental Changes During the QuaternaryCOMMENTS ON NIELSEN'S REVIEW OF MOLLUSK SHELLS AS BIO-GEO-ARCHIVES. EVALUATING ENVIRONMENTAL CHANGES DURING THE QUATERNARY. Sandra Gordillo , María Sol Bayer , Gabriella Boretto and Melisa Charó . 2013, 78 p. Springer, Dordrecht Heidelberg, Germany, ISBN 978-3-319-03476-8.статья из журнала
Аннотация: We thank Sven Nielsen for reviewing our work. However we believe some comments are necessary in order to provide better information on the SpringerBriefs series and the main objective of this work, i.e. to update and summarize great part of the achievements of our research group. We got involved in this project upon being invited to prepare a monograph on our field research by a book series editor of SpringerBriefs in Earth System Sciences. The series focuses on interdisciplinary research on the Earth system and publishes peer-reviewed monographs under the editorial supervision of an international advisory board. Taking Dr. Nielsen comments on the positive side, he mentions that “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.” On the negative side, Dr. Nielsen pointed out that “Anyone truly involved in this subject, however, will want to read the original articles that this book is based on”. “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”. In response, we must say that Dr. Nielsen is right when he states that anyone truly involved in this subject will want to read the original articles. Yes, that is true because –as mentioned in the preface– the aim of this work is to provide an approach to how mollusk shell remains are used in the reconstruction of Quaternary marine environments in southern South America. Thus, following the criteria of the series – which only publish concise summaries of cutting-edge research and practical applications for a wider interdisciplinary audience, in compact volumes (between 20,000-30,000 words in our case)– we explain on the basis of our own research how different proxies (taphonomy, paleoecology and biotic interactions, paleobiogeography, morphometry, sclerochronology) are useful for environmental reconstructions offering independent lines of evidence that can be integrated depending on survey. In another section of his comments, Dr. Nielsen states his disappointment with the non-inclusion of gastropods in the taphonomic analysis, and the use of the same molluscan bivalves and no other molluscan groups. Is it really necessary to clarify that we have not yet made taphonomic analysis on gastropods, although we did it in some bivalves and chitons as exemplified in this work? Important to mention is that we disagree with Dr. Nielsen in a comment on the chapter about biogeography, when he says that we present the case of “a few selected” extinct Pleistocene species. However, these are not “selected”; they represent the total number of extinct marine mollusk species found as Quaternary fossils in the studied region. Concerning the last chapters on stable isotopes and sclerochronology, Dr. Nielsen mentions that we present unpublished stable isotope data without much detailed information regarding methods or interpretation. In response to this, it is clear that we do offer explanations on the methodology when it is useful, providing references for non-specialists, and we briefly explain our interpretation of our preliminary data. We are currently working on this topic, as it is a tool recently incorporated into our research –a fact we mention in these two last chapters. The monograph itself answers most of these comments and others, so we invite undergraduate and graduate students, researchers, and interested readers to read our contribution. Thank you very much.
Год издания: 2014
Издательство: Asociación Paleontológica Argentina
Источник: Ameghiniana
Ключевые слова: Paleontology and Stratigraphy of Fossils, Maritime and Coastal Archaeology, Geological formations and processes
Открытый доступ: closed
Том: 51
Выпуск: 3
Страницы: 267–267