Review

Book reviews in this article:
ANIMAL PHYLOGENY AT LAST IN THE MAINSTREAM
Animal evolution: Interrelationships of living Phyla .—Claus Nielsen.     

Review

The Collected Papers of Paul Ehrlich. (in four volumes). Compiled and edited by F. H immelweit with the assistance of M artha M arquardt , under the editorial direction of S ir H enry D ale .     

Review

Bird Recognition—An Aural Index, by Victor C. Lewis. Recorded and published by His Master's Voice, E.M.I. Records, London 1965–6. 3 vols. Price per volume, 32s 3d. Obtainable from the British Trust for Ornithology.     

Review

Book review in this article:
Introdução histórica à biologia comparada com especial referência à biogeografia, vols. I, II e III (Historical introduction to comparative biology with special reference to biogeography —(Vols. I, II and III) (In Portuguese) by Nelson Papavero.
New concepts in global tectonics edited by Sankar Chatterjee and Nicholas Hotton, III.     

Review

Most photosynthetic dinoflagellates harbour the peridinin plastid. This plastid is surrounded by three membranes and its characteristic pigments are chlorophyll c and the carotenoid peridinin. The evolutionary origin of this peculiar plastid remains controversial and is hotly debated. On the recently published tree of concatenated plastid-encoded proteins, dinoflagellates emerge from within the Chromista (clade containing cryptophytes, heterokonts, and haptophytes) and cluster specifically with Heterokonta. These data inspired a new version of the ‘chromalveolate’ model, according to which the peridinin plastid evolved by ‘descent with modification’ from a heterokont-like plastid that had been acquired from a rhodophyte by an ancestral chromalveolate. However, this model of plastid evolution encounters serious obstacles. Firstly, the heterokont plastid is surrounded by four membranes, which means that the ancestral peridinin plastid must have lost one of these primary membranes. However, such a loss could be traumatic, because it could potentially disturb protein import into and/or within the plastid. Secondly, on the phylogenetic tree of Dinoflagellata and Heterokonta, the first to diverge are not plastid, but heterotrophic, aplastidal taxa. Thus, when accepting the single origin of the heterokont and peridinin plastids, we would have to postulate multiple plastid losses, but such a scenario is highly doubtful when the numerous non-photosynthetic functions of plastids and their existence in heterotrophic protists, including parasitic lineages, are considered. Taking these obstacles into account, we suggest an alternative interpretation of the concatenated tree of plastid-encoded proteins. According to our hypothesis, the peridinin plastid evolved from a heterokont alga through tertiary endosymbiosis.     

Review

Coastal Waders and Wildfowl in Winter. Edited by P.R. Evans, J.D. Goss-Custard and W.G. Hale, for the British Ornithologists' Union. 1984. Cambridge University Press. 331 pages. Price £27.50. Mike Moser     

Review

Book reviews in this article:
Phyla, phylogeny and fantasy
Wonderful life. The Burgess Shale and the nature of history Stephen J. Gould.
Wonderful life. The Burgess Shale and the nature of history .—Stephen Jay Gould.     

Review

Census Catalogue of the Flora of Ireland (Clär de Phlandai na hÉireann) Second edition by Mary J. P. Scannell and Donal M. Synnott.