Increasing rate of species extinction in the present day will lead to a huge biodiversity crisis; eventually, this will lead to the paucity of non-renewable resources of energy making our Earth unsustainable in future. To save our mother planet from this crisis, studies need to be performed to discover abundant new fossil sites on Earth for continued access to oil-rich locations. Most importantly, a holistic approach is necessary in solving the present problem of biodiversity loss. This book presents newly developed quantitative models in understanding the biodiversity, evolution and ecology of extinct organisms. This will assist future earth scientists in understanding the natural and anthropogenic causes behind biodiversity crisis and ecosystem collapse. In addition, this study would be of great interest to exploration geologists and geophysicists in potentially unraveling natural resources from our sustainable Earth.

This volume reviews the meaning of taxonomic statements and considers our present knowledge regarding the number and characteristics of species among living and extinct primates, including man and his ancestors. They also examine the relationship of behaviour changes and selection pressures in evolutionary sequences. First published in 1964.

This book is the first of its kind on environmental change research devoted to monsoon-arid environment evolution history and its mechanism involved. Capturing the most prominent features of Asian climate and environmental changes, it gives a comprehensive review of the Asian Monsoon records providing evidence for spatial and temporal climatic and environmental changes across the Asian continent since the Late Cenozoic. The dynamics underlying these changes are explored based on various bio-geological records and in particular based on the evidence of loess, speleothems as well as on mammal fossils. The Asian monsoon-arid climate system which quantifies the controlling mechanisms of climate change and the way it operates in different time scales is described. Attempts to differentiate between natural change and human-induced effects, which will help guide policies and countermeasures designed to support sustainable development on the Chinese Loess Plateau and the arid west.

Fresh insights into the ongoing fascination with dinosaurs and their place in 19th century American nationalism In 1801, the first complete mastodon skeleton was excavated in the Hudson River Valley, marking the climax of a century-long debate in America and Europe over the identity of a mysterious creature known as the American Incognitum. Long before the dinosaurs were discovered and the notion of geological time acquired currency, many citizens of the new republic believed this mythical beast to be a ferocious carnivore, capable of crushing deer and elk in its "monstrous grinders." During the American Revolution, George Washington and Thomas Jefferson avidly collected its bones; for the founding fathers, its massive jaws symbolized the violence of the natural world and the emerging nation's own dreams of conquest. Paul Semonin's lively history of this icon of American nationalism focuses on the link between patriotism and prehistoric nature. From the first fist-sized tooth found in 1705, which Puritan clergyman claimed was evidence of human giants, to the scientific racialism associated with the discovery of extinct species, Semonin traces the evangelical beliefs, Enlightenment thought, and Indian myths which led the founding fathers to view this prehistoric monster as a symbol of nationhood. Semonin also sees the mystery of the mastodon in early America as a cautionary tale about the first flowering of our narcissistic fascination with a prehistoric nature ruled by ferocious carnivores. As such, American Monster offers fresh insights into the genesis of the ongoing fascination with dinosaurs.

Virtual palaeontology, the use of interactive three-dimensional digital models as a supplement or alternative to physical specimens for scientific study and communication, is rapidly becoming important to advanced students and researchers. Using non-invasive techniques, the method allows the capture of large quantities of useful data without damaging the fossils being studied

"Techniques for Virtual Palaeontology" guides palaeontologists through the decisions involved in designing a virtual palaeontology workflow and gives a comprehensive overview, providing discussions of underlying theory, applications, historical development, details of practical methodologies, and case studies. Techniques covered include physical-optical tomography (serial sectioning), focused ion beam tomography, all forms of X-ray CT, neutron tomography, magnetic resonance imaging, optical tomography, laser scanning, and photogrammetry. Visualization techniques and data/file formats are also discussed in detail.

Readership: aAll palaeontologists and students interested in three-dimensional visualization and analysis."New Analytical Methods in Earth and Environmental Science "

Because of the plethora of analytical techniques now available, and the acceleration of technological advance, many earth scientists find it difficult to know where to turn for reliable information on the latest tools at their disposal, and may lack the expertise to assess the relative strengths or limitations of a particular technique. This new series will address these difficulties by providing accessible introductions to important new techniques, lab and field protocols, suggestions for data handling and interpretation, and useful case studies. The series represents an invaluable and trusted source of information for researchers, advanced students and applied earth scientists wishing to familiarise themselves with emerging techniques in their field.

"All titles in this series are available in a variety of full-colour, searchable eBook formats. Titles are also available in an enhanced eBook edition which may include additional features such as DOI linking, high resolution graphics and video.""

The taphonomic approach within paleontology, archaeology, and paleoanthropology continues to produce advances in understanding postmortem biochemical and morphological transformations. Conversely, advances in understanding the early and intermediate postmortem period generated in the forensic realm can and should be brought to the attention of scientists who study the historic and prehistoric past.

Building on the success of Forensic Taphonomy: The Postmortem Fate of Human Remains, Advances in Forensic Taphonomy: Method, Theory, and Archaeological Perspectives presents new and updated techniques. It expands the taphonomic focus on biogeographic context and microenvironments and integrates further the theoretical and methodological links with archaeology and paleontology.

Topics covered include:
o Microenvironmental variation and decomposition in different environments
o Taphonomic interpretation of water deaths
o Mass graves, mass fatalities and war crimes, archaeological and forensic approaches
o Updates in geochemical and entomological analysis
o Interpretation of burned human remains
o Discrimination of trauma from postmortem change
o Taphonomic applications at the scene and in the lab

This comprehensive text takes an interdisciplinary and international approach to understanding taphonomic modifications. Liberally illustrated with photographs, maps, and other images, Advances in Forensic Taphonomy: Method, Theory, and Archaeological Perspectives is a valuable source of information for postmortem death investigation.

Delivering a synthesis of almost one hundred and fifty years of research into the Jordan Rift Valley, this genuinely comprehensive text presents a model explaining the tectonic evolution of this part of the Syrian-African Rift Valley, which may affect opinions regarding the geotectonic pattern of the entire western Levant.
Also including datings and paleoenvironmental reconstructions for all important phases in the history of the Jordan Valley, particular focus is placed on the last two million years, when numerous habitation sites, the oldest of which represents the initial spread of Man out of Africa, indicate the region was almost continuously populated.

‘Steve Brusatte, the author of The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs, brings mammals out from the shadow of their more showy predecessors in a beautifully written book that . . . makes the case for them as creatures who are just as engaging as dinosaurs.’ – The Sunday Times, ‘Best Books For Summer’ 'In this terrific new book, Steve Brusatte . . . brings well-known extinct species, the sabre-toothed tigers and the woolly mammoths, thrillingly back to life' – The Times The passing of the age of the dinosaurs allowed mammals to become ascendant. But mammals have a much deeper history. They – or, more precisely, we – originated around the same time as the dinosaurs, over 200 million years ago; mammal roots lie even further back, some 325 million years. Over these immense stretches of geological time, mammals developed their trademark features: hair, keen senses of smell and hearing, big brains and sharp intelligence, fast growth and warm-blooded metabolism, a distinctive line-up of teeth (canines, incisors, premolars, molars), mammary glands that mothers use to nourish their babies with milk, qualities that have underlain their success story. Out of this long and rich evolutionary history came the mammals of today, including our own species and our closest cousins. But today’s 6,000 mammal species - the egg-laying monotremes including the platypus, marsupials such as kangaroos and koalas that raise their tiny babies in pouches, and placentals like us, who give birth to well-developed young – are simply the few survivors of a once verdant family tree, which has been pruned both by time and mass extinctions. In The Rise and Reign of the Mammals, palaeontologist Steve Brusatte weaves together the history and evolution of our mammal forebears with stories of the scientists whose fieldwork and discoveries underlie our knowledge, both of iconic mammals like the mammoths and sabre-toothed tigers of which we have all heard, and of fascinating species that few of us are aware of. For what we see today is but a very limited range of the mammals that have existed; in this fascinating and ground-breaking book, Steve Brusatte tells their – and our – story.

Initially, this work was designed to document and study the diversification of modern mammalian groups and was quite successful and satisfying. However, as field and laboratory work continued, there began to develop a suspicion that not all of the Eocene story was being told. It became apparent that most fossil samples, especially those from the American West, were derived from similar preservational circumstances and similar depositional settings. A program was initiated to look for other potential sources of fossil samples, either from non-traditional lithologies or from geographic areas that were not typically sampled. As this program of research grew it began to demonstrate that different lithologies and different geographic areas told different stories from those that had been developed based on more typical faunal assemblages. This book is conceived as an introduction to non-traditional Eocene fossils samples, and as a place to document and discuss features of these fossil assemblages that are rare or that come from rarely represented habitats.

Central theoretical issues regarding behavioural reconstruction in human osteological research are raised in this analytical volume. Because behavioural reconstructions have become increasingly common, especially with palaeopathology, this work seeks to review the scientific basis for such an approach. For example, osteological scenarios seeking to link the onset of skeletal conditions such as osteoarthritis, dental disease, and trauma with specific behaviours in the past populations, are critically examined. Questions are also raised as to the scientific rigor of such hypotheses, the ethnohistoric evidence used to support them, and ultimately, the soundness of such claims. In addition, commentary is included that broadens the scope to include anthropology, and explains the utility of behavioural reconstructions in palaeoanthropology and the biocultural perspective as it is used in contemporary anthropology.

This study brings together decades of research on the modern natural environment of Washington's Olympic Peninsula, reviews past research on paleoenvironmental change since the Late Pleistocene, and finally presents paleoecological records of changing forest composition and fire over the last 14,000 years. The focus of this study is on the authors' studies of five pollen records from the Olympic Peninsula. Maps and other data graphics are used extensively. Paleoecology can effectively address some of these challenges we face in understanding the biotic response to climate change and other agents of change in ecosystems. First, species responses to climate change are mediated by changing disturbance regimes. Second, biotic hotspots today suggest a long-term maintenance of diversity in an area, and researchers approach the maintenance of diversity from a wide range and angles (CITE). Mountain regions may maintain biodiversity through significant climate change in 'refugia': locations where components of diversity retreat to and expand from during periods of unfavorable climate (Keppel et al., 2012). Paleoecological studies can describe the context for which biodiversity persisted through time climate refugia. Third, the paleoecological approach is especially suited for long-lived organisms. For example, a tree species that may typically reach reproductive sizes only after 50 years and remain fertile for 300 years, will experience only 30 to 200 generations since colonizing a location after Holocene warming about 11,000 years ago. Thus, by summarizing community change through multiple generations and natural disturbance events, paleoecological studies can examine the resilience of ecosystems to disturbances in the past, showing how many ecosystems recover quickly while others may not (Willis et al., 2010).

The new edition of this work includes an appendix listing criteria for the identification of ichnotaxa. It covers all aspects of tiering trace fossil diversity and ichnoguilds, and is aimed at advanced undergraduates and postgraduates in palaeoecology, paleobiology and sedimentology.

These papers show how new research in the classic areas and Germany, but particularly in Eastern Europe, is radically altering views of the stratigraphy and palaeocology of the early-middle Pleistocene period, showing that major glaciations did not begin only in the late- middle Pleistocene.

Documents the early history of paleontology and the role played by ammonoids Describes the basic anatomy of a diverse and long persisting lineage Summarizes the classification and diversity of ammonoids Lavishly illustrated with beautiful reconstructions Highlights recent findings and outstanding controversies

Phylogenetic analysis and morphometrics have been developed by biologists into rigorous analytic tools for testing hypotheses about the relationships between groups of species. This book applies these tools to paleontological data.

The fossil record is our one true chronicle of the history of life, preserving a set of macroevolutionary patterns; thus various hypotheses about evolutionary processes can be tested in the fossil record using phylogentic analysis and morphometrics.

The first book of its type, Fossils, Phylogeny, and Form will be useful in evolutionary biology, paleontology, systematics, evolutionary development, theoretical biology, biogeography, and zoology. It will also provide a practical, researcher-friendly gateway into computer-based phylogenetics and morphometrics.

New material attributable to Deltasuchus motherali, a neosuchian from the Cenomanian of Texas, provides sampling across much of the ontogeny of this species. Detailed descriptions provide information about the paleobiology of this species, particularly with regards to how growth and development affected diet. Overall snout shape became progressively wider and more robust with age, suggesting that dietary shifts from juvenile to adult were not only a matter of size change, but of functional performance as well. These newly described elements provide additional characters upon which to base more robust phylogenetic analyses. The authors provide a revised diagnosis of this species, describing the new material and discussing incidents of apparent ontogenetic variation across the sampled population. The results of the ensuing phylogenetic analyses both situate Deltasuchus within an endemic clade of Appalachian crocodyliforms, separate and diagnosable from goniopholidids and pholidosaurs, herein referred to as Paluxysuchidae. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.

This book includes a collection of papers, dedicated to Tjalling Waterbolk, on various topics, including palaeobotanical and archaeological research, prehistoric settlement in the province of Drenthe and the coastal areas of Groningen and Friesland, and radiocarbon dating of archaeological samples.

This volume is a record of the 6th International Conference on the Origins of Life and the 3rd Meeting of the International Society for the Study of the Origins of Life. The conference was held under the auspices of the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities at Jerusalem from June 22nd to June 27th 1980. A few weeks prior to the conference, Academician Aleksander Ivanovich Oparin passed away. Oparin, the father and founder of the study of the origins of life, proposed over 50 years ago that modern biological molecules had abidogical origins in the past, thus the beginning of life on Earth was preceded by a long period of abiogenic molecular evolution. Oparin was planning to report on his latest work in the opening session of the meeting - "Natural Selection: A Leading Factor in Transition from the Non-Living Matter to Life." This lecture will never be delivered. In Hebrew we say of those who have died "may their memory be bound with the bonds of eternal life." For Aleksander Ivanovich Oparin those words have particular significance, for surely his pioneering work will endure as long as the spirit of scientific enquiry prevails. This meeting was dedicated to the memory of Aleksander Ivanovich Oparin.

The richly fossiliferous Neogene stratigraphic sections of the Dominican Republic serve as one of only a few geological research systems in the world where morphological stasis and punctuated speciation have been investigated in multiple lineages. This research system provides unprecedented opportunities for comparative studies of evolutionary stasis and change and their environmental and ecological contexts. In this volume, a diverse group of geologists and paleobiologists collectively focus their attention on this research system, providing an updated geological framework and a series of novel studies of evolutionary stasis and change among different lineages and associated ecological communities. This collection of studies illustrates the immense potential of collaborative, multidisciplinary, and field-based paleobiological research for studies of macroevolutionary change in the fossil record.

Peter Ward, a distinguished paleontologist and author of five trade books, recreated, in dramatic and colorful language, the global environment of the end of the last great Ice Age. The last of the great woolly mammoths existed on Wrangel Island thousands of years after their extinction elsewhere on earth. Ward examines competing theories about the courses of the great extinction and considers in detail the role of human settlements on these events.

Bryozoa are a colonial animal phylum with a long evolutionary history, having existed from the early Ordovician (480 My) onward and still flourishing today. Several mass extinctions in earth history shaped and triggered bryozoan evolution through drastic turnover of faunas and new evolutionary lineages. Bryozoa are widespread across all latitudes from Equator to Polar Regions and occur in marine and freshwater environments. They are shaping benthic ecosystems and recording ambient environmental conditions in their skeletons. The book provides a synthesis of the current main topics of research in the field of Bryozoology including combined research on both extant, and extinct taxa. Fields or current research span molecular genetics and phylogeny, life history, reproduction and anatomy, biodiversity and evolutionary patterns in time and space, taxonomy, zoogeography, ecology, sediment interactions, and climate response.

Dinosaurs is a simplified reference guide to the main types of dinosaurs and how and when they evolved to become the dominant land animal on Earth for over 100 million years. This beautifully illustrated guide highlights over 40 familiar species and includes a map on the world's dinosaur-finding hotspots. Also includes detailed information on familiar post-cretaceous species including saber-toothed cats and mammoths, how fossils are preserved and where and how to hunt for them. This convenient guide is an ideal, portable source of practical information for naturalists of all ages. Made in the USA.www.waterfordpress.com

What was the state of wildlife in Britain and Ireland before modern records began? The Atlas of Early Modern Wildlife looks at the era before climate change, before the intensification of agriculture, before even the Industrial Revolution. In the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries, beavers still swim in the River Ness. Isolated populations of wolves and lynxes linger in the uplands. Sea eagles are widespread around the coasts. Wildcats and pine martens remain common in the Lake District. In this ground-breaking volume, the observations of early modern amateur naturalists, travellers and local historians are gathered together for the very first time. Drawing on more than 10,000 records from across Britain and Ireland, the book presents maps and notes on the former distribution of over 160 species, providing a new baseline against which to discuss subsequent declines and extinctions, expansions and introductions. A guide to identification describes the reliable and unreliable names of each species, including the pre-Linnaean scientific nomenclature, as well as local names in early modern English and, where used in the sources, Irish, Scots, Scottish Gaelic, Welsh, Cornish and Norn. Raising a good number of questions at the same time as it answers many others, this remarkable resource will be of great value to conservationists, archaeologists, historians and anyone with an interest in the natural heritage of Britain and Ireland.