As a review of the status of biogeography in the West Indies in the 1980s, the first edition of Biogeography of the West Indies: Past, Present, and Future provided a synthesis of our current knowledge of the systematics and distribution of major plant and animal groups in the Caribbean basin. The totally new and revised Second Edition, Biogeography

These papers deal with various aspects of the histories of geomorphology and Quaternary geology in different parts of the world. They include: the origin of the term 'Quaternary', histories of ideas and debates relating to aspects of fluvial geomorphology, glacial geomorphology and glaciation, desert dunes and the geology of Australia, peneplains in China, a palaeo-Tokyo Bay in Japan, together with biographies of Charles Cotton, Valerija Čepulytė and Česlovas Pakuckas that highlight their respective contributions to the disciplines of geomorphology and Quaternary geology.