Southeastern Naturalist
B5
Noteworthy Books
2016 Vol. 15, No. 2
The Ancient Origins of Consciousness: How the
Brain Created Experience. Todd Feinberg and
Jon Mallatt. 2016. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA. 366
pp. $35, hardcover. ISBN 9780262034333. How
is consciousness created? When did it first appear
on Earth, and how did it evolve? What constitutes
consciousness, and which animals can be said to be
sentient? In this book, Todd Feinberg and Jon Mallatt
draw on recent scientific findings to answer these
questions—and to tackle the most fundamental question
about the nature of consciousness: how does the
material brain create subjective experience? After
assembling a list of the biological and neurobiological
features that seem responsible for consciousness,
and considering the fossil record of evolution,
Feinberg and Mallatt argue that consciousness appeared
much earlier in evolutionary history than is
commonly assumed. About 520 to 560 million years
ago, they explain, the great “Cambrian explosion” of
animal diversity produced the first complex brains,
which were accompanied by the first appearance of
consciousness; simple reflexive behaviors evolved
into a unified inner world of subjective experiences.
From this they deduce that all vertebrates are and
have always been conscious—not just humans and
other mammals, but also every fish, reptile, amphibian,
and bird. Considering invertebrates, they
find that arthropods (including insects and probably
crustaceans) and cephalopods (including the octopus)
meet many of the criteria for consciousness.
The obvious and conventional wisdom–shattering
implication is that consciousness evolved simultaneously
but independently in the first vertebrates and
possibly arthropods more than half a billion years
ago. Combining evolutionary, neurobiological, and
philosophical approaches allows Feinberg and Mallatt
to offer an original solution to the “hard problem”
of consciousness.
Birdsong, Speech, and Language: Exploring
the Evolution of Mind and Brain. Bolhuis
and Everaert (Editors). 2016. MIT Press,
Cambridge, MA. 542 pp. $34, softcover. ISBN
9780262528849. Scholars have long been captivated
by the parallels between birdsong and
human speech and language. In this book, leading
scholars draw on the latest research to explore
what birdsong can tell us about the biology of human
speech and language and the consequences
for evolutionary biology. After outlining the basic
issues involved in the study of both language
and evolution, the contributors compare birdsong
and language in terms of acquisition, recursion,
and core structural properties, and then examine
the neurobiology of song and speech, genomic
factors, and the emergence and evolution of
language.
Ecotoxicology Essentials: Environmental
Contaminants and Their Biological Effects
on Animals and Plants. Donald W. Sparling.
2016. Elsevier, Maryland Heights, MO. 500
pp. $79.95, softcover. ISBN 9780128019474.
Written with the regulatory framework in mind,
this book provides a fundamental understanding
of ecotoxicology for students and professionals
in ecology, conservation, chemistry, public
health, wildlife management, fisheries, and many
other disciplines. Although new chemicals and
potential problems are developed every year, a
basic education is essential to address these new
challenges, and this work gives such training.
The material guides readers on modeling, how
to conduct assessments, and human and wildlife
risk, and focusing on effects on animals rather
than transport of chemicals.
Environment and Development: Basic Principles,
Human Activities, and Environmental
Implications. Stavros G. Poulopoulos and
Vassilis J. Inglezakis (Editors). 2016. Elsevier,
Maryland Heights, MO. 580 pp. $185, hardcover.
ISBN 9780444627339. The focus for this book is
the adverse impact that human activities, development,
and economic growth have on both natural
and inhabited environments. It presents the
associated problems, along with solutions that
can be used to achieve a harmonic, sustainable
development that provides for the co-existence
of man and natural life. Chapters provide detailed
information on a range of environments including:
atmospheric, aquatic, soil, natural, urban,
energy, and extraterrestrial, as well as the relationship
between the environment and development
and the latest research findings and trends
in global environmental policy for each issue.
Noteworthy Books
Received by the Southeastern Naturalist, Issue 15/4, 2016
The Southeastern Naturalist welcomes submissions of review copies of books that publishers or authors
would like to recommend to the journal’s readership and are relevant to the journal’s mission of publishing
information about the natural history of the southeastern US. Accompanying short, descriptive summaries
of the text are also welcome.