Dazzling in their variety of sizes, shapes, and colors, the cichlids (small perch-like fishes) of Lake Victoria, like the finches of the Galapagos Islands and Hawaii's Honeycreepers, have been geographically isolated long enough to undergo unusually broad speciation. These small fish form a species flock—closely related species that have descended from a common ancestor and radiated, or fanned, into different specializations—that is the most spectacular in the world, fascinating anatomists, ecologists, ethologists, and evolutionary biologists alike. The process of speciation was still under way until just recently, when the introduction of the large, predatory Nile perch so disrupted the Lake's intricate ecosystem that the glorious spectrum of cichlids has almost vanished. Darwin's Dreampond tells the evolutionary story of the extraordinary "furu" and the battlefield leading to extinction. Tijs Goldschmidt skillfully blends a masterful discussion of the principles of neo-Darwinian evolution and speciation with a history of Lake Victoria's ecosystem. The science unfolds in the context of the engaging first-person narrative of Goldschmidt's adventures and misadventures as a field researcher. An astute observer and a clear and witty writer, he warmly portrays the colors and textures of the landscapes and the lives of the local people as he interacts with them during the course of his fieldwork. 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. Goldschmidt is an expert in evolutionary biology, with a particular interest in cichlids, a small perchlike fish. He gave his book its title because the cichlids of Africa's lakes are the "aquatic variation of Darwin's finches" in the Galapagos. This book, which won the Science Prize from the Dutch Organization for Scientific Research, combines scientific analysis with natural history memoir. The underlying patience and drudgery of much of scientific research is ably demonstrated and interestingly presented, with some side information on the native cultures near Lake Victoria. The questions Goldschmidt raises help explain concepts: speciation and species flock; the importance of the "furu," the native name for all the species of cichlids, to the ecosystem of Lake Victoria; and the researcher's frustration with and inability to halt the extinction of species caused by the introduction of the Nile perch. Recommended for collections with an interest in natural history, ecology, extinction, or evolution.?Jean E. Crampon, Hancock Biology & Oceanography Lib., Univ. of Southern California, Los Angeles Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. Because of their intricate environmental adaptations, an East African family of fish--cichlids, or furu , their local name--is as beloved of evolutionists as are the finches of the Galapagos Islands. Nevertheless, the fish have been less intensely studied than the birds, a situation Goldschmidt spent 1981^-86 trying to amend. The Dutch scientist set up shop in the lake port town of Mwanza in Tanzania to collect specimens from Lake Victoria for taxonomic and genetic analysis. He knew from DNA evidence that the lake's 250 cichlid species descended from a single ancestor, and he investigated how this spectacular radiation occurred and how its variety is being devastated by the introduction of the nonnative Nile perch. His crystalline explication of the complex evolutionary process is the essence of his narrative, and its subtext--the encounter of his westernized outlook with that of the Tanzanians--adds interesting cultural insights. On both accounts, that of evolution and that of culture, Goldschmidt has concocted a fascinating book. Gilbert Taylor "Tijs Goldschmidt has trapped a ghost image in this solid and highly perceptive work - the glorious, haunting, and indecipherable complexity of biological life. Goldschmidt also shows us, however, that the human desire both to understand and to exploit such life is equally thought-provoking. Thus does Darwin's Dreampond become a first rate account of a modern scientist's field work among the cychlids and the Sukuma people of Lake Victoria." — Barry Lopez , author of Arctic Dreams Based in the Netherlands, Tijs Goldschmidt is