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Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
Lake Victoria in East Africa, succinctly described by the author as a "shallow saucer filled with water, about the size of Switzerland, " is a Darwinian "dreampond" brimming with tropical life. In the 1980s, Goldschmidt, a young Dutch zoologist, was dispatched there to study its fish, specifically the amazingly diverse species of small, perchlike fishes called cichlids. The early years of the project were marked by a series of dizzying discoveries of previously unknown species of cichlid; by the mid-1980s, however, Goldschmidt and his colleagues found the species nearing mass extinction. The introduction of the voraciously predatory Nile perch eliminated 70 percent of the cichlid species by 1990. Originally published in Holland, Goldschmidt's account is vividly colored by the allure of his Tanzanian experience.
From Publishers Weekly
There is a whimsical quality to this engaging first-person narrative of a Dutch biologist in a Tanzanian fishing village. There is also a lot of science. Goldschmidt joined an environmental impact study at Lake Victoria in the 1980s and encountered the furu, a fish whose radiation into hundreds of species far exceeds Darwin's better-known Galapagos Island finches. After introducing a "species flock" that includes creatures with such monikers as mud-biters, scale-scrapers, and snail-crushers, Goldschmidt guides the reader through a jungle of evolutionary theory that gets a bit eye-glazing at times. Fortunately, he is equally devoted to his comic misadventures among bureaucrats, missionaries, fisherfolk and fellow mzungu, or European "wanderers." Meanwhile, the prolific Nile perch, introduced in 1985 and hailed as the savior of the Tanzanian economy, appears to be bringing the furu's evolution to an abrupt end. In an early scene that might stand for both the wanderer's predicament and that of the furu, Goldschmidt questions an old man to determine if an expected Dutch boat could get stuck in a narrow Tanzanian tunnel: "'If I understand you correctly, everything can and cannot pass through the tunnel?' 'Eh,' said the old man, grinning broadly... 'You couldn't have put it better. Wewe mwenjiji, you are one of us. Welcome.'"
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.
See all Editorial Reviews
Lake Victoria in East Africa, succinctly described by the author as a "shallow saucer filled with water, about the size of Switzerland, " is a Darwinian "dreampond" brimming with tropical life. In the 1980s, Goldschmidt, a young Dutch zoologist, was dispatched there to study its fish, specifically the amazingly diverse species of small, perchlike fishes called cichlids. The early years of the project were marked by a series of dizzying discoveries of previously unknown species of cichlid; by the mid-1980s, however, Goldschmidt and his colleagues found the species nearing mass extinction. The introduction of the voraciously predatory Nile perch eliminated 70 percent of the cichlid species by 1990. Originally published in Holland, Goldschmidt's account is vividly colored by the allure of his Tanzanian experience.
From Publishers Weekly
There is a whimsical quality to this engaging first-person narrative of a Dutch biologist in a Tanzanian fishing village. There is also a lot of science. Goldschmidt joined an environmental impact study at Lake Victoria in the 1980s and encountered the furu, a fish whose radiation into hundreds of species far exceeds Darwin's better-known Galapagos Island finches. After introducing a "species flock" that includes creatures with such monikers as mud-biters, scale-scrapers, and snail-crushers, Goldschmidt guides the reader through a jungle of evolutionary theory that gets a bit eye-glazing at times. Fortunately, he is equally devoted to his comic misadventures among bureaucrats, missionaries, fisherfolk and fellow mzungu, or European "wanderers." Meanwhile, the prolific Nile perch, introduced in 1985 and hailed as the savior of the Tanzanian economy, appears to be bringing the furu's evolution to an abrupt end. In an early scene that might stand for both the wanderer's predicament and that of the furu, Goldschmidt questions an old man to determine if an expected Dutch boat could get stuck in a narrow Tanzanian tunnel: "'If I understand you correctly, everything can and cannot pass through the tunnel?' 'Eh,' said the old man, grinning broadly... 'You couldn't have put it better. Wewe mwenjiji, you are one of us. Welcome.'"
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.
See all Editorial Reviews
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Citations
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3
books
cite this book:
- Lines in the Water: Nature and Culture at Lake Titicaca by Ben Orlove in Back Matter
- Children Of Prometheus: The Accelerating Pace Of Human Evolution by Christopher Wills in Back Matter
- The Cichlid Fishes: Nature's Grand Experiment in Evolution by George Barlow on page 260 <