The Monkey's Bridge: Mysteries of Evolution in Central America

Ever since the land mass of Central America was formed just three million years ago, it has served as a crucible for evolutionary change. Plant and animal species alike migrated in both directions between North and South America, often changing dramatically during their journeys. Central American ecosystems, much like the species composing them, are remarkably diverse, ranging from wet, tropical rain forest to dry, deciduous forest, from ""cloud"" forests on the rims of active volcanoes to rich coral reef communities. After kicking around the area repeatedly since the early 1970s, Wallace (Adventuring in Central America) found that ""mixed, blurred, unfinished Central America seemed to say something about life that had not been said before,"" and began to compare his own experiences and observations with the way the region is traditionally written about. The result is a book that is part travelogue, part natural history, part historical account and part bio-geographical treatise. Wallace offers a rambling eco-tourism that counts species offhandedly as they cross his path, and that wonders after their evolutionary origins with infectious enthusiasm. His eclectic approach finds him tracking the movements of conquistador Gil Gonzalez Davila, who walked up 300 miles of Pacific coast in 1519, or excising the botfly D. hominis, which can lodge in both humans and monkeys, from his shoulder. His encounters with the natives of wildly differing regions are suffused with a straightforward understanding of how human nature (and bargaining) works in any culture. This is a panoramic look at fascinating territory form an able, amusing guide. (Oct.)