Contributions to Marine Biology: Lectures and Symposia given at the Hopkins Marine Station, December 20–21, 1929, at the Midwinter Meeting of the Western Society of Naturalists

Abstract

THE growth of marine stations on the Pacific coast of the United States has induced much experimental research on the biology of organisms and the nature of their environment. The Western Society of Naturalists has instituted mid-winter meetings where this is discussed, and the present volume contains 23 papers presented in 1929. They commence with a most thoughtful lecture by C. A. Kofoid on the “Evolution of the Tintinnoinea”, a group of pelagic ciliates, which he has monographed. They possess an external chitinoid shell, formed perhaps by both daughter cells after fission. The species in a genus are characterised by increase in size, duplication of structural features, elongation, and differentiation of surface pattern. Undigested fæcal residues may be built into the shells, and there is a beautiful picture of the utilisation of coccoliths for this purpose. The known species in polar waters is 101 and in the tropics 515, which approximates to the requirements of Van't Hoff's law. It is suggested that solar radiation is the one outstanding factor capable of inciting genetic change in these animals. Another lecture was given by T. Wayland Vaughan on “The Oceanographic Point of View”. Then follow 21 papers divided into oceanography, permeability, photosynthesis, early development, marine Algæ and growth.

Contributions to Marine Biology: Lectures and Symposia given at the Hopkins Marine Station, December 20–21, 1929, at the Midwinter Meeting of the Western Society of Naturalists.

Pp. viii + 277. (Stanford University, Calif.: Stanford University Press; London: Oxford University Press, 1930.) 35s. net.