The Atlas of the Living World by David Attenborough

The Atlas of the Living World Cox, Barry; Attenborough, David; Whitfield, Philip; Moore, Peter D. Hardcover (missing dust jacket) This is a lovely book to browse through--lots of colorful illustrations, diagrams, charts, maps, and easy-to-understand text. Unfortunately, the subject matter--geology, ecology, climate, environment, evolution and dispersal of species, and human impact on the world--can't possibly be covered adequately in this format. Some concepts are simplified to the point of inaccuracy; and in a book purporting to explain evolutionary relationships, omitting humans from the diagram of vertebrate animal families is inexcusable. Attenborough wrote introductions to each of the six major sections; the rest of the material was apparently written by other authors, all faculty (in zoology, biogeography, or parasitology) at the University of London. For factual natural history information in one volume, the Cambridge Encyclopedia of Life Sciences ( LJ 12/1/85) is a better buy.