Book review

This impressive book with 31 contributions provides a fine overview of frontiers in bivalve research. The book combines insights from very different disciplines, including palaeontology, molecular biology and ecology. The contributions are grouped in four themes, from which I will indicate some of the highlights. Under the heading ‘Bivalve classification and phylogeny’ two chapters are devoted to the molecular phylogeny of bivalve genera and families. Both contributions agree more or less on the superfamily level, but the grouping of especially pterioid genera is not entirely in agreement. Two chapters deal with the classification of Palaeozoic bivalve groups. The shell-morphological characters seem hardly appropriate for cladistic analyses (an analysis of 61 taxa produced 411 most parsimonous trees), nevertheless they provide usefull insights into the early evolution of bivalve groups. Two chapters are devoted to sperm characteristics in classification. The phylogeny and evolution of two very distinct groups, i.e. the extinct Mesozoic reef-building rudists, and the carnivorous Anomalodesmata, are also treated.