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EVOLUTION OF THE AMPHIBIAN SKULL. Natalia S. Lebedkina. [Translated and edited by Sergei V. Smirnov.] 2004. Advances in Amphibian Research in the former Soviet Union. S. L. Kuzmin and R. Altig, Editors. Volume 9. Pensoft, Sofia, Bulgaria. ISSN 1310-8840; ISBN 954-642-222-3. 265 p. 44.50 euro (paperback).-Natalia Lebedkina's book originally was published in Russian in 1979. I suspect that countless copies, like mine, languished on bookshelves for 25 years because most scientists in the U.S. and western Europe lacked the knowledge of Russian necessary to use the volume, which details the development of the cranium in five taxa of salamanders-two hynobiids, Ranodon sibiricus and Salamandrella keyserlingii; one ambystomatid, Ambystoma mexicanum; and two salamandrids, Pleurodeles uialtl and Triturus karelinii. Examination of the references suggests that the volume is a compendium of both Lebedkina's and Regel's published work that appeared primarily during the 1960's.
The book consists of four chapters, the first of which is the most important because the author details and compares the development of the skulls in the five taxa of salamanders from the embryo, through the larval period and metamorphosis, to the adult. Her observations are based on examination of an astounding number of specimens-776 sectioned heads, 1530 alizarinstained whole-mount specimens, and 157 progressively stained whole mounts. The data derived from these specimens have lost none...