Powell, A. James, (editor), 1992

The volume A Stratigraphic Index of Dinoflagellate Cysts is the first in a new series of stratigraphic indexes published under the auspices of the British Micropalaeontological Society. A second volume, on Acritarchs and other Palaeozoic microflora, is promised as forthcoming. Certainly, if the first volume sets the standard, the new series will present a significant amount of information, uniformly presented and of great value to all workers in the field. It will be especially valuable to those working in the British Isles as well as north-western Europe in general, since the book is really a stratigraphic index of dinoflagellate cysts in the British Isles and adjacent areas, not worldwide as the title seems to promise. However, the discrepancy between title and content (which was ordained, I gather, by the publisher) does not detract from the publication's value, since the British Isles contain type and key sections throughout the Mesozoic and Cenozoic record, and hence British dinoflagellate biostratigraphy is of more than just parochial importance.

There are five chapters: one each for the Triassic (by A. J. Powell), the Jurassic (by J. B. Riding and J. E. Thomas), the Cretaceous (by L. I. Costa and R. J. Davey), the Tertiary (by A. J. Powell) and the Quaternary (by R. Harland). For the most part, each chapter has an outline of each system, a history of dinoflagellate cyst studies in Britain, occurrences of dinoflagellate cysts of that interval in northwest Europe, and a detailed biozonation. There are two exceptions to this uniform, comprehensive coverage. One is the Triassic chapter: there are limited occurrences of Triassic dinocysts, especially in Britain, and this limitation is reflected, understandably, in a very short chapter. However, some photomicrographs of Triassic species would have been useful. The second exception to the general format involves the Quaternary chapter; in the Quaternary, biostratigraphy in its stricter pre-Quaternary sense is not as appropriate, climatostratigraphy being the norm for that interval. If a second edition of this work is published in years to come, it would be helpful to have a greater development of the climatostratigraphic theme.

Each chapter, except for the one on the Triassic, contains charts showing the principal dinoflagellate cyst events as well as easy to read range-charts for the entire interval. With regard to the range-charts, it would have been useful to have had a uniform vertical scale and the individual ranges numbered and cross-referenced with an alphabetical index. The plates are adequate, but in some chapters, the space could have been more efficiently used and more specimens illustrated.

Despite these minor cavils, the volume certainly represents an important milestone in biostratigraphic compilations and a place must be found for it on all dinoflagellate biostratigraphers' bookshelves. Jamie Powell, the editor, and his co-workers must be congratulated on a job well done.