"The Diversity of Fish Otoliths Past and Present" (222 p. and 359 pl.) by Dirk NOLF is a monograph in natural sciences from the Operational Directorate “Earth and History of Life” of the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences (www.naturalsciences.be/institute/structure/index_ html#earth). It contains a historical and nomenclatural overview of otolith research in paleontology, with special emphasis on their great impact on the evaluation of the fossil record of teleostean fishes, and a systematic overview (with iconography) of the 1391 fossil species considered to be valid and of all Recent species for which otoliths have been found as fossil. For every species, the stratigraphic and geographic origin of the type material is given, and where available, also the collection numbers and depository of the holotype. Fossil species based on skeletons with otoliths in situ, but which do not have exclusively otolith-based primary types, are also included. An alphabetic list of all the 1797 nominal otolith-based fossil fish species, with an evaluation of their validity and their updated nomenclature is provided.

Peer Review, RBINS Collection(s)

Fishes, Biodiversity, Fossils, Paleontology