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Books > Earth & environment > Earth sciences > Palaeontology > General
1. 1 Nautilus and Allonautilus: Two Decades of Progress W. Bruce Saunders Department of Geology Bryn Mawr College Bryn Mawr PA 19010 wsaunder@brynmawr. edu Neil H. Landman Division of Paleontology American Museum of Natural History New York, New York 10024 landman@amnh. org When Nautilus: Biology and Paleobiology of a Living Fossil was published in 1987, it marked a milestone in cross-disciplinary collaboration. More than half of the contributing authors (36/65) were paleontologists, many of whom were collaborating with neontological counterparts. Their interest in studying this reclusive, poorly known animal was being driven by a search for clues to the mode of life and natural history of the once dominant shelled cephalopods, through study of the sole surviving genus. At the same time, Nautilus offered an opportunity for neontologists to look at a fundamentally different, phylogenetically basal member of the extant Cephalopoda. It was a w- win situation, combining paleontological deep-time perspectives, old fashioned expeditionary zeal, traditional biological approaches and new techniques. The results were cross-fertilized investigations in such disparate fields as ecology, functional morphology, taphonomy, genetics, phylogeny, locomotive dynamics, etc. As one reviewer of the xxxvi Introduction xxxvii book noted, Nautilus had gone from being one of the least known to one of the best understood of living cephalopods.
Three major aspects that distinguish this book are that (1) it contains the most detailed analysis of the sexual reproduction (oogenesis, fertilization and embryonic incubation) in a particular phylum of the aquatic invertebrates (Bryozoa) ever made; this analysis is based on an exhaustive review of the literature on that topic published over the last 260 years, as well as extensive original histological, anatomical and morphological data obtained during studies of both extant and extinct species; (2) this broad analysis has made it possible to reconstruct the major patterns, stages and trends in the evolution of sexual reproduction in various bryozoan clades, showing numerous examples of parallelisms during transitions from broadcasting to embryonic incubation, from planktotrophic to non-feeding larvae and from lecithotrophy to placentation; corresponding shifts in oogenesis, fertilization and embryonic development are discussed in detail; and (3) the key evolutionary novelties acquired by Bryozoa are compared with similar innovations that have evolved in other groups of marine invertebrates, showing the general trends in the evolution of their sexual reproduction. Ecological background of these innovations is considered too. Altogether these aspects make the monograph an “Encyclopedia of bryozoan sexual reproduction,” offering an integral picture of the evolution of this complex phenomenon.
Determining the precise timing for the evolutionary origin of groups of organisms has become increasingly important as scientists from diverse disciplines attempt to examine rates of anatomical or molecular evolution and correlate intrinsic biological events to extrinsic environmental events. Molecular clock analyses indicate that many major groups are twice as old, or more, than a literal reading of the fossil record attests, implying that the fossil record is incomplete. Few paleontologists agree that the fossil record is inadequate, arguing instead that our understanding of the molecular clock is far from ideal. Telling the Evolutionary Time: Molecular Clocks and the Fossil Record represents a discussion between molecular biologists and paleontologists, in which they investigate the significance of competing sources of data, explain the nature of molecular clocks and the fossil record, and strive to develop compromise models that incorporate contradictory opinions. These are presented as a series of case studies dealing with many of the most important groups of complex organisms, such as protists, land plants, flowering plants, complex animals, chordates, vertebrates, tetrapods, and modern birds. Bringing fresh insight and various perspectives to a complicated argument, this book assembles all sides of the debate into one comprehensive text. It is a significant volume for research scientists and advanced students across the field of evolutionary biology.
Paleontologists and geologists struggle with research questions often complicated by the loss or even absence of key paleobiological and paleoenvironmental information. Insight into this missing data can be gained through direct exploration of analogous living organisms and modern environments. Creative, experimental and interdisciplinary treatments of such ancient-Earth analogs form the basis of Lessons from the Living. This volume unites a diverse range of expert paleontologists, neontologists and geologists presenting case studies that cover a spectrum of topics, including functional morphology, taphonomy, environments and organism-substrate interactions.
This book provides a representative assessment of the state of the art of research on Paleogene rotaliid larger foraminifera. It gives an overview of the current understanding of systematics of this group and, in particular, of its biostratigraphic importance and palaeobiogeography. The senior author of the work, late Professor Hottinger, a leading scientist in the field, both from a systematic and applied side, presents in this book his most recent advances. The foraminiferal family Rotaliidae is a traditional group used frequently which plays an important role for petroleum exploration in the biostratigraphy and palaeobiogeography of Paleogene shallow water deposits in the Middle East. This book aims to introduce rotaliid representatives as index fossils that can be recognized in random thin-sections of cemented rocks. The book is generously illustrated with an unprecedented degree of accuracy. The selection of taxa is restricted to forms having lived in the Paleocene and the Eocene, where their biostratigraphic significance is much higher than during later epochs. However, some additional rotaliid taxa, from the Late Cretaceous or that do not belong to the family Rotaliidae sensu stricto, are included in this book in order to demonstrate particular roots of rotaliid phylogenetic lineages in the previous community maturation cycle or to delimit the taxon Rotaliidae with more precision. This book can be considered as a reference in the field.
The extended continental South American turtle record (Norian to Lujanian) allows us to follow the evolution of this reptile clade from its origins. Several significant stem turtle taxa such as: Palaeochersis talampayensis and Condorchelys antiqua provide information on the first steps of turtle evolution. Others such as: Chubutemys copelloi or Patagoniaemys gasparinae provide clues to the origin of the bizarre horned tortoises of the clade Meiolaniidae. The panpleurodiran species such as Notoemys laticentralis or Notoemys zapatocaensis shed light on the origin of modern pleurodiran turtles. This book explores aquatic and terrestrial cryptodiran turtles, South Gondwana pleurodiran turtles, North Gondwana pleurodiran turtles; Meiolaniforms and early differentiation of Mesozoic turtles.
Non-mammalian synapsids were the dominant terrestrial vertebrates from the Late Carboniferous to the Middle Triassic and play a key role in understanding the origin and evolution of mammals. Despite these facts and the outstanding fossil record of the group, early synapsids remain obscure. This book showcases the full breadth of contemporary research on non-mammalian synapsids, ranging from taxonomy and phylogenetics to functional morphology, biogeography, paleoecology, and patterns of diversity. It also underscores the importance and potential of studying non-mammalian synapsid paleobiology in its own right, not just in the context of mammalian evolution.
Reconstructing the paleobiology of fossil non-human primates, this book is intended as an exposition of non-human primate evolution that includes information about evolutionary theory and processes, paleobiology, paleoenvironment, how fossils are formed, how fossils illustrate evolutionary processes, the reconstruction of life from fossils, the formation of the primate fossil record, functional anatomy, and the genetic bases of anatomy. Throughout, the emphasis of the book is on the biology of fossil primates, not their taxonomic classification or systematics, or formal species descriptions. The author draws detailed pictures of the paleoenvironment of fossil primates, including contemporary animals and plants, and ancient primate communities, emphasizing our ability to reconstruct lifeways from fragmentary bones and teeth, using functional anatomy, stable isotopes from enamel and collagen, and high resolution CT-scans of the cranium. Fossil Primates will be essential reading for advanced undergraduates and graduate students in evolutionary anthropology, primatology and vertebrate paleobiology.
Georges Cuvier (1769-1832), one of the founding figures of vertebrate palaeontology, pursued a successful scientific career despite the political upheavals in France during his lifetime. In the 1790s, Cuvier's work on fossils of large mammals including mammoths enabled him to show that extinction was a scientific fact. In 1812 Cuvier published this collection of his geological and osteological papers, focusing on living and extinct pachyderms, ruminants, horses and pigs. Volume 1 begins with a substantial essay on human origins and the formation of the earth, which was translated into English by Robert Kerr in 1813 (also available). It also includes an essay on the Egyptian ibis mummy brought back from Napoleon's campaign in Egypt, and an updated version of Cuvier's influential 1810 geological description of the Paris basin, co-authored with Alexandre Brogniart (1770-1847), which helped establish the principle of faunal succession in rock strata of different ages.
Georges Cuvier (1769-1832), one of the founding figures of vertebrate palaeontology, pursued a successful scientific career despite the political upheavals in France during his lifetime. In the 1790s, Cuvier's work on fossils of large mammals including mammoths enabled him to show that extinction was a scientific fact. In 1812 Cuvier published this four-volume illustrated collection of his papers on palaeontology, osteology and stratigraphy. It was followed in 1817 by his famous Le regne animal, available in the Cambridge Library Collection both in French and in Edward Griffith's expanded English translation (1827-35). Volume 2 of Recherches sur les ossemens fossiles describes eleven species of pachyderm found in recent alluvial deposits. They include elephants, mastodons, rhinoceros, hippopotamus, tapir and the hyrax (which Cuvier classified as an ungulate rather than a rodent). Cuvier argued from osteological comparisons with living species that all should be considered distinct species in their own right.
Georges Cuvier (1769-1832), one of the founding figures of vertebrate palaeontology, pursued a successful scientific career despite the political upheavals in France during his lifetime. In the 1790s, Cuvier's work on fossils of large mammals including mammoths enabled him to show that extinction was a scientific fact. In 1812 Cuvier published this four-volume illustrated collection of his papers on palaeontology, osteology (notably dentition) and stratigraphy. It was followed in 1817 by his famous Le regne animal, available in the Cambridge Library Collection both in French and in Edward Griffith's expanded English translation (1827-35). Volume 3 of Recherches sur les ossemens fossiles recounts Cuvier's excitement at acquiring fossils from gypsum quarries near Paris, and the challenges of piecing the fragments together correctly. Cuvier describes the methodical reconstruction of the pachyderm fossils and lists other fossils occurring in the same rock formations: carnivores, an opossum, birds, reptiles, and fish.
Georges Cuvier (1769-1832), one of the founding figures of vertebrate palaeontology, pursued a successful scientific career despite the political upheavals in France during his lifetime. In the 1790s, Cuvier's work on fossils of large mammals including mammoths enabled him to show that extinction was a scientific fact. In 1812 Cuvier published this four-volume illustrated collection of his papers on palaeontology, osteology (notably dentition) and stratigraphy. It was followed in 1817 by his famous Le regne animal, available in the Cambridge Library Collection both in French and in Edward Griffith's expanded English translation (1827-35). Volume 4 of Recherches sur les ossemens fossiles focuses first on ruminants, horses and pigs. Cuvier then discusses fossils of carnivores, including bears, hyenas and big cats. The book concludes by describing fossil sloths, and the oviparous reptiles found in older strata, such as crocodiles, turtles, and marine dinosaurs.
This monograph on the Central European Magdalenian aims to provide a comprehensive overview of the archaeological record of this period. It sheds new light on five regional groups between the Rhône valley to the west and the Vistula-valley to the east, which existed roughly between 20,000 and 14,000 years ago. Readers will discover that these groups are characterized with regard to their environmental setting (including faunal and vegetational aspects), lithic raw material and mollusk shell procurement, typology, technology and artesian craftworks. The work also explores an alternative interpretation of bidirectional recolonization from both Franco-Cantabria and Eastern Central Europe after the Last Glacial Maximum. This book will appeal to researchers and scholars in archaeology and cognate fields.
This book broadens readers' understanding of the stratigraphic framework and structural styles for improved hydrocarbon prospectivity in the intermediate and deeper horizons of the eastern Coastal Swamp Depo-belt of Nigeria's Niger Delta Basin. It equips readers to interpret complex sedimentary units, such as the paralic sequence of the Niger Delta Basin, using sequence stratigraphic tools integrated with well logs, biostratigraphic, paleobathymetric and seismic data. It also offers numerous tips and insights into reservoirs, seals, source rocks and hydrocarbon-type trends/distribution across several production fields, and provides a valuable guide to support exploration and production.
This book provides an overview, research compendium and an introduction to the science of molecular paleontology, including literature overview for non-geochemists. Analytical methods employed are included as a part of each chapter that underpin this branch of paleontology and indeed geochemistry. The primary usefulness of this volume is for organic geochemists, molecular palaeontologists, and molecular archeologists. Researchers, graduate students and academics interested in astrobiology from a paleontological perspective may also find this to be valuable.
For the physician and natural historian John Woodward (c.1655-1728), fossils were the key to unlocking the mystery of the Earth's past, which he attempted to do in this controversial work, first published in 1695 and here reissued in the 1723 third edition. Woodward argues that the 'whole Terrestrial Globe was taken all to Pieces, and dissolved at the Deluge', and that fossilised remains were proof of the flood as described in the Bible. In the first part of the work, Woodward examines other theories of the Earth's history before presenting evidence - much of it based on his own fossil collection - in support of his theory. The work immediately prompted heated debate among his scientific contemporaries. Despite the controversy, Woodward was acknowledged as an expert on fossil classification, cementing this reputation with his influential Fossils of All Kinds (1728), which is also reissued in the Cambridge Library Collection.
Barthelemy Faujas de Saint-Fond (1741 1819) abandoned the legal profession to pursue studies in natural history. Appointed a royal commissioner of mines in 1785, he also served as professor of geology at the natural history museum in Paris from 1793 until his death. His keen interest in rocks, minerals and fossils led to a number of important discoveries, among which was confirmation that basalt was a volcanic product. The present work appeared in three parts between 1803 and 1809. The second volume was divided into two. This second part lists the principal active volcanoes around the world and classifies volcanic products. Of related interest in the history of geology, Mineralogie des volcans (1784) and the revised English edition of A Journey through England and Scotland to the Hebrides in 1784 (1907) are two other works by Faujas which are also reissued in this series."
Recent genetic data showing that Neanderthals interbred with modern humans have made it clear that deeper insight into the behavioral differences between these populations will be critical to understanding the rapid spread of modern humans and the demise of the Neanderthals. This volume, which brings together scholars who have worked with faunal assemblages from Europe, the Near East, and Africa, makes an important contribution to our broader understanding of Neanderthal extinction and modern human origins through its focus on variability in human hunting behavior between 70-25,000 years ago-a critical period in the later evolution of our species.
This book provides a summary of the discoveries made during the course of excavations at the Paleolithic cave site of Fontechevade, France, between 1994 and 1998. The excavation team used modern field and analytic methods to address major problems raised by earlier excavations at the site from 1937 to 1954. These earlier excavations produced two sets of data that have been problematic in light of data from other European Paleolithic sites: first, the Lower Paleolithic stone tool industry, the Tayacian, that differs in fundamental ways from other contemporary industries and, second, the human skull fragment that has been interpreted as modern in nature but that apparently dates from the last interglacial, long before there is any evidence for humans from any other site in Europe. By applying modern stratigraphic, lithic, faunal, geological, geophysical, and radiometric analyses, the interdisciplinary team demonstrates that the Tayacian industry is a product of site formation processes and that the actual age of the Fontechevade I fossil is compatible with other evidence for the arrival of modern humans in Europe."
Originally published in 1921, this book presents a detailed account 'of the two Devonian land floras'. Illustrative figures and textual notes are incorporated throughout. This book will be of value to anyone with an interest in the Devonian period, botany and the history of science.
This book is divided in two parts, the first of which shows how, beyond paleontology and systematics, macroevolutionary theories apply key insights from ecology and biogeography, developmental biology, biophysics, molecular phylogenetics and even the sociocultural sciences to explain evolution in deep time. In the second part, the phenomenon of macroevolution is examined with the help of real life-history case studies on the evolution of eukaryotic sex, the formation of anatomical form and body-plans, extinction and speciation events of marine invertebrates, hominin evolution and species conservation ethics. The book brings together leading experts, who explain pivotal concepts such as Punctuated Equilibria, Stasis, Developmental Constraints, Adaptive Radiations, Habitat Tracking, Turnovers, (Mass) Extinctions, Species Sorting, Major Transitions, Trends and Hierarchies – key premises that allow macroevolutionary epistemic frameworks to transcend microevolutionary theories that focus on genetic variation, selection, migration and fitness. Along the way, the contributing authors review ongoing debates and current scientific challenges; detail new and fascinating scientific tools and techniques that allow us to cross the classic borders between disciplines; demonstrate how their theories make it possible to extend the Modern Synthesis; present guidelines on how the macroevolutionary field could be further developed; and provide a rich view of just how it was that life evolved across time and space. In short, this book is a must-read for active scholars and because the technical aspects are fully explained, it is also accessible for non-specialists. Understanding evolution requires a solid grasp of above-population phenomena. Species are real biological individuals and abiotic factors impact the future course of evolution. Beyond observation, when the explanation of macroevolution is the goal, we need both evidence and theory that enable us to explain and interpret how life evolves at the grand scale.
To the naturalist John Woodward (c.1665 1728), fossils were 'much neglected, and left wholly to the Care and Treatment of Miners and meer Mechanicks'. He had built up a large personal collection of these samples of the Earth's petrified remains and spent much of his life developing a system for their classification, the results of which were published in this important illustrated work of 1728. A distinguished physician and a fellow of the Royal Society, Woodward wrote extensively on scientific topics, and had developed a theory that fossils were creatures destroyed in the flood described in the Bible. These ideas attracted critics and supporters in equal measure, but his contribution to techniques of fossil collection and classification were influential. In the present work, he devotes the early chapters to questions of description and classification, while the later sections contain some of his letters to his scientific contemporaries, including Isaac Newton."
Employed early on in his career by Sir Joseph Banks, the botanist John Lindley (1799 1865) went on to conduct important research on the orchid family and also recommended that Kew Gardens should become a national botanical institution. This pioneering three-volume work of palaeobotany, first published between 1831 and 1837, catalogues almost 300 species of fossil plants from the Pleistocene to the Carboniferous period. The geologist and palaeontologist William Hutton (1797 1860), with whom Lindley collaborated, was responsible for collecting the fossil specimens from which the 230 plates were drawn. The first serious attempt at organising and interpreting the evidence of Britain's primeval plant life, this resource is notable also for its prefatory discussion of topics such as coal seams and prehistoric climate. Volume 1 opens with a context-setting introduction and list of genera, followed by the descriptions of plates 1-79."
Employed early on in his career by Sir Joseph Banks, the botanist John Lindley (1799 1865) went on to conduct important research on the orchid family and also recommended that Kew Gardens should become a national botanical institution. This pioneering three-volume work of palaeobotany, first published between 1831 and 1837, catalogues almost 300 species of fossil plants from the Pleistocene to the Carboniferous period. The geologist and palaeontologist William Hutton (1797 1860), with whom Lindley collaborated, was responsible for collecting the fossil specimens from which the 230 plates were drawn. The first serious attempt at organising and interpreting the evidence of Britain's primeval plant life, this resource is notable also for its prefatory discussion of topics such as coal seams and prehistoric climate. Volume 2 opens with a preface on coal, followed by descriptions of some of the fossil plants found therein (plates 80-156)."
Employed early on in his career by Sir Joseph Banks, the botanist John Lindley (1799 1865) went on to conduct important research on the orchid family and also recommended that Kew Gardens should become a national botanical institution. This pioneering three-volume work of palaeobotany, first published between 1831 and 1837, catalogues almost 300 species of fossil plants from the Pleistocene to the Carboniferous period. The geologist and palaeontologist William Hutton (1797 1860), with whom Lindley collaborated, was responsible for collecting the fossil specimens from which the 230 plates were drawn. The first serious attempt at organising and interpreting the evidence of Britain's primeval plant life, this resource is notable also for its prefatory discussion of topics such as coal seams and prehistoric climate. Volume 3 includes a note on the action of water on plants. This is followed by the descriptions of plates 157 230." |
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