The spectacular cover of The Crato Fossil Beds of Brazil is adorned with a photo of the magnificent fossil cicada (strictly speaking a palaeontinid cicadomorph) Baeocossus cf. fortunatus, described by F. Menon and S. W. Heads in Reference Menon and Heads2005. Preservation here is so good that even the detailed colour patterning on its outstretched wings is still evident. The editors of this Window into an Ancient World (along with the publishers Cambridge University Press) are to be congratulated on producing such an attractive and useful work which will, no doubt, join OUP's Messel book, the Smithsonian's book on Florissant, etc., on our library shelves for decades to come.
Written by an international cast of 33 authors, this big book has 21 chapters, grouped into five parts, beginning with a general introduction to the Crato Formation Konservat Lagerstätte (in six chapters) and then runs through the invertebrate fauna (11 chapters with the insects being further divided into another 21 sections), the vertebrates (seven chapters), flora (two chapters) and finally miscellaneous bits and pieces; each chapter and section has its own bibliography. A glance through the references shows that for such a big book, that must have taken some time to put together, the individual authors have managed to be pretty well up to date with references to work published as recently as 2005 and 2006. Finally, there is a very useful species list and systematic index but no general index.
For palaeontologists, no matter what your specialization, this is a book to enjoy at your leisure even if it is just for the innumerable excellent illustrations which include 32 colour plates and countless drawings of the marvellous diversity of arthropods, especially the insects (over 100 species). As Günter Bechly points out, the early Cretaceous (probably late Aptian) age Crato Formation limestones and their fossils preserve an unusual mix and diversity of terrestrial and aquatic taxa. Furthermore, they record a time ‘when plant/insect co-evolution was in its early stages’ and since both plants and insects are particularly well preserved here, the biota is of particular interest over and above the obvious attributes of diversity and quality of preservation. However, the most frequent groups are ‘Orthoptera, Blattaria, Hemiptera and Ephemeroptera . . . which together represent more than 80% of the fossil arthropod material based on a study of 3651 fossil arthropod(s) . . .’.
As with many historically famous fossils from platy limestones, most of the fossils from the Crato Formation have been found by stone workers in the course of splitting the rock for commercial purposes. The fossils are put aside for sale through a network of dealers and eventually the best reach an international market. Without such commerce most would never be found. However, the entire Chapada Araripe region has now come under protective environmental legislation and is in the process of becoming Brazil's first Geopark which will protect a number of internationally significant localities and provide educational facilities. Hopefully this will ensure a good balance between necessary commercial activity and protection of scientifically important sites.
