Palynology, the science of fossil and recent spores/pollen grains, is of high importance, both in many pure and applied fields of the natural sciences (e.g. in botany, geology, climatology, archeology and medicine). It is not only an auxiliary science, but can certainly stand for itself. The "classical" palynology subjects, pollen morphology and systematics, are at present influenced by many modern approaches, e.g. from cell biology, analytical electron microscopy, morphometry, up to com- puter-aided-design of threedimensional reconstruction. In recent years fascinating informations have come to light, and new insights have given rise to changing scientific concepts. During the XIV International Botanical Congress, held in Berlin in 1987, a symposium was devoted to important topics of (actuo)palynology. Nine of its innovative, major contributions are presented in this volume. They cover the comparative morphology and the systematic/evolutionary significance of pollen/spores in critical taxa, aspects of pollen development (cytoskeleton), the substructure of sporopollenin, homologies between wall strata of ferns, gymnosperms and angiosperms, and important (but so far underrated) physical aspects of harmomegathy and pollen transport (fluid versus solid mechanics).

This is the first comprehensive source of information about Mexican fossils to be published in English. The book offers updated information in the fields of stratigraphy, sedimentology, tectonics, paleobiogeography, paleoclimatology and evolution. Included is an extensive bibliography of almost 1000 references related to the central topic, a tribute to two centuries of research.

This richly illustrated book clothes the skeletons of dinosaurs and other Mesozoic reptiles with flesh, and shows how these fascinating animals evolved and probably lived. Expert author John L. Cloudsley-Thompson synthesizes current views on ecology, physiology and behaviour, and outlines the various hypotheses that have been proposed to explain their extinction. Numerous beautiful drawings of the animals and their environment illustrate this exciting monograph.

This Atlas attempts to dispel some of the mystery surrounding stomatocysts, to facilitate the accurate identification of individual cyst morphotypes, and to encourage other workers to begin using these important indicators of environmental change. The terminology is outlined in detail. This is followed by detailed descriptions of cyst morphotypes, which continues from work completed in the first Atlas. Any available biogeographical and ecological information is also provided.
We believe this Atlas will be useful to paleoecologists who wish to include stomatocysts in their studies. We also expect this book will be used by researchers working with living chrysophytes, and those interested in the morphology and ultrastructure of cyst morphotypes. Hopefully these descriptions will further accelerate the continued effort to link cyst morphotypes to the algae that produce them.

This book focuses on two complementary time-scales, the Holocene (approximately the last 11,500 years) and the last glacial-interglacial cycle (approximately the last 130,000 years) to synthesize evidence of climate variability at the regional and continental scale across Europe and Africa. This is the first examination of historical climate variations at such a scale, and thus sets a benchmark for future research.

Mud and mudstone, the most abundant of all sediments and sedimentary rocks, are relevant to many different human activities and disciplines and thus have a widely scattered literature. Our book provides the first elementary overview of mud and mudstone written for a broad spectrum of professionals, teachers and students in geology, petroleum geology and engineering, urban planning and development, paleontology and paleoecology, and architecture and archaeology. Mud and mudstone provide the foundations to master all their aspects and prepares you to dig deeply into the many fascinating questions of their origin, relationships to earth history and practical uses. Key topics include the production of mud, its transport, the important role of bottom oxygen, sites of deposition, burial, provenance, mudstones in basins and an overview of practical uses followed by an appendix and extended glossary.

This volume presents the work of researchers at many sites spanning the East African Pliocene. The authors take a broad approach that seeks to compare paleoenvironmental and paleoecological patterns across localities and among various taxonomic groups. This volume aims to synthesize large amounts of faunal data, and to present the evolution of East African vertebrates in the context of environmental and climatic changes during the Pliocene.

Although the name Pithecanthropus is now seldom used, there are few who study the origin of our species who will fail to recognise the historical place of the usage and its association with Eugene Dubois. During the last thirty or forty years, Australopithecus and its African context has tended to draw attention from the early work on our origins in Java. It is now increasingly common to hear the term 'pithecanthropine' used only to indicate the Asian or Far Eastern examples of Homo erectus which, although probably derived from African ancestry, have some features that in the opinion of some experts may justify their being considered distinctive. This discussion is not within the pages that follow which deal extensively with the work of Eugene Dubois. He was an extraordinary man who did as much as any person since to put the great antiquity of our ancestors firmly in the public domain. Dubois became involved with the study of human origins from a medical and anatomical background as have many since. The jealousies and professional pressures that we think of as a phenomenon of the post-war years were clearly a major factor in deciding the future of his career.

This thorough reference shows how stable isotopes can be applied to understanding the palaeoenvironment, with chapters on the interpretation of isotopes in water, tree rings, bones and teeth, lake sediments, speleothems and marine sediments. The book offers detailed advice on calibration, including a multi-proxy approach, using isotope signals from different materials or combined with other palaeoenvironmental techniques, to enhance the reliability of readings.

Concern about the effects of global change on our planet's future has driven much research into the last few thousand years of earth history. In contrast, this volume takes a much longer viewpoint to provide a historical perspective to recent and future global change. Over 40 international specialists investigate the reaction of life to global environmental changes, from Cretaceous times to the turn of the century. During this time earth's climate has changed from a very warm, 'greenhouse' phase with no significant ice sheets to today's 'ice-house' world. A wide spectrum of animal, plant and protistan life is discussed, encompassing terrestrial, shallow-marine and deep-marine realms. Each chapter considers a particular taxonomic group, looking first at the general picture and then focusing on more specialized aspects such as extinctions, diversity and biogeography. This volume will form an invaluable reference for researchers and graduate students in paleontology, geology, biology, oceanography and climatology.

This book discusses procedures for handling information derived from the fossil record, and the application of this information to solving problems in geological succession and earth history. The main purpose of the book is to analyse shortcomings of the existing procedures, and to propose in their place an alternative set of data-handling arrangements of much greater simplicity and efficiency. The author argues that the procedures in current use are cumbersome and inefficient, and that, partly as a consequence of these information-handling methods, palaeontology has failed to make advances commensurate with technological improvements. In this book he proposes a system which could make possible the integrated use of every detail of geological information taken from the rocks. This would achieve better resolution in sequence correlation, in paleoecologic interpretation and in logging the course of evolution. Compatibility of style with existing records has been maintained to avoid any danger of loss of valuable data, and to simplify the process of reevaluating old records. The book will be of interest to all paleontologists, particularly those dealing with microfossils, and is intended to stimulate discussion and criticism of both the analysis and the proposals.

Coccolithophores are one of the primary algal groups in the oceans. They are the focus of recent research in many disciplines because of their importance in paleoenvironmental reconstruction and stratigraphy. The book starts with a history of coccolithophore studies, followed by chapters discussing coccolithophore biology, and the composition, function, and classification of their skeletal elements. At the heart of the book are taxonomic and atlas chapters with 140 scanning electron micrographs of coccolithophore species. Through a series of contributions from key workers in the field, the reader can then follow the path of the organisms from the ocean surface, through the water column to the ocean floor and the addition to the sedimentary rock record. The book concludes with a chapter on geochemical tracers, and the implication of these studies for stratigraphy and paleoenvironmental change.

The present book combines three main aspects: five major mass extinctions; contributions on some other minor extinctions; and more importantly contributions on the current mass extinction. All three aspects are introduced through interesting studies of mass extinctions in diverse organisms ranging from small invertebrates to mammals and take account of the most accepted subjects discussing mass extinctions in insects, mammals, fishes, ostracods and molluscs.

Glaciers provide an unparalleled tool for studying global environmental change. This book is the first of its kind concentrating on the paleoenvironmental record archived in mid- and low-latitude glaciers. By concentrating mainly on the last 500 years of these records, we can now see that laws enacted to protect our environment in Europe and North America are providing positive results. Documenting global mid- and low-latitude paleoenvironmental records in glaciers, this volume forms a timely and essential complement to the wealth of literature on polar and Greenland ice sheet records.

This text is directed towards undergraduate and graduate university audiences and forms an ideal supplement in courses dealing with climate and global environmental change, glaciology, and natural resources management. It is also suitable in helping teach application of innovative analytical and interpretive methods and would be an excellent example of the rapidly emerging discipline of "Forensic Earth Science."

This book offers a thorough and up-to-date treatment of the use of morphometric procedures in a wide variety of contexts. As one of the most dynamic and popular fields on the contemporary biological scene, morphometrics is gaining notice among researchers and students as a necessary complement to molecular studies in the understanding and maintenance of biodiversity. This is the first reference to meet that growing need.

The user This manual is designed for the use of geo-scientists with an interest and need in developing palaeobiological materials as a potential source of data. To meet this objective practical procedures have been formatted for use by both professional and semi professional students with an initial understanding of palaeo biological research aims as a primary source of scientific data. I have attempted to provide an explanation and understanding of practical procedures which may be required by students undertaking palaeobiological projects as part of a degree course. The layout of this manual should be particularly beneficial in the instruction and training of geotechnologists and museum preparators. Graduate students and scientists requiring an outline of a preparation procedure will also be able to use the manual as a reference from which to assess the suitability of a procedure. This manual is also intended for use by the "committed amateur." Many of the techniques described in this manual have been devised by non-palaeontologists, and developed from methods used in archaeology, zoology and botany, as well as other areas of geology. A considerable number of the methods can be undertaken by the amateur, and in the case of many of the field procedures, should be used. This will ensure that specimens and samples can be conserved in such a manner as to facilitate any later research, and not invalidate the results of subsequent geochemical analytical techniques which might be employed."

Seven original case-studies are presented in this volume, each describing the application of micropaleontology and palynology in applied geology: (1) a study of the modern distribution of coccolith sedimentation in the North Sea and its potential for future application in basin analysis; (2) ostracods are shown to be good paleoenvironmental indicators in the early Cretaceous and Tertiary; (3) a biogenic gas seep in the North Sea is shown to be marked by diagnostic benthonic foraminifera; (4) in the North Sea hydrocarbon exploration, integrated studies of micropaleontology have provided invaluable data; (5) palynofacies analysis are shown to be vital in determining depositional events and hydrocarbon source rock potential; (6) the application of paleontology and sedimentology to sequence stratigraphy is demonstrated in the early Cretaceous; and (7) the application of micropaleontology is shown to be an essential tool in both engineering and economic geology. Most chapters have been prepared by earth scientists from industry. The study of microfossils presented in this book provides invaluable data for stratigraphers, petroleum geologists and for engineers and economic geologists working in hydrocarbon exploration and basin analysis.

This is the first time that a single book has attempted to cover the whole of the fossil history of insects so comprehensively. The volume embraces the history of insect palaeontology, methods for studying fossils, the taphonomic processes leading to their formation, the diagnostic features of all insect orders, both extant and extinct, the major fossils of each order, and the implications that can be drawn from the palaeoentomological record about past ecology and climates. Many new insights are presented.
It is the product principally of the largest palaeoentomological group in the world, in Moscow, and makes full use of the remarkable collection that these workers have developed. It includes a very large number of illustrations showing both real fossils and reconstructions of extinct taxa. The systematic part is treated in a phylogenetic framework, with information on fossil groups being used to help interpret relationships. An appendix provides information on virtually all sites where fossil insects have been found. This book is essential to all students of palaeoentomology and contains a wealth of information that will be of interest to students of insect evolutionary relationships and of palaeontology in general.

The volume contains summaries of facts, theories, and unsolved problems pertaining to the unexplained extinction of dozens of genera of mostly large terrestrial mammals, which occurred ca. 13,000 calendar years ago in North America and about 1,000 years later in South America. Another equally mysterious wave of extinctions affected large Caribbean islands around 5,000 years ago. The coupling of these extinctions with the earliest appearance of human beings has led to the suggestion that foraging humans are to blame, although major climatic shifts were also taking place in the Americas during some of the extinctions. The last published volume with similar (but not identical) themes -- Extinctions in Near Time -- appeared in 1999; since then a great deal of innovative, exciting new research has been done but has not yet been compiled and summarized. Different chapters in this volume provide in-depth resumes of the chronology of the extinctions in North and South America, the possible insights into animal ecology provided by studies of stable isotopes and anatomical/physiological characteristics such as growth increments in mammoth and mastodont tusks, the clues from taphonomic research about large-mammal biology, the applications of dating methods to the extinctions debate, and archeological controversies concerning human hunting of large mammals."

Paleolimnology is a rapidly developing science that is now being used to study a suite of environmental and ecological problems. This volume is the fourth handbook in the Developments in Paleoenvironmental Research book series. The first volume (Last & Smol, 2001a) examined the acquisition and archiving of sediment cores, chronological techniques, and large-scale basin analysis methods. Volume 2 (Last & Smol, 2001b) focused on physical and chemical methods. Volume 3 (Smol et al. , 2001), along with this book, summarize the many biological methods and techniques that are available to study long-term environmental changeusing information preserved in sedimentary profiles. A subsequent volume (Birks et al. , in preparation) will deal with statistical and data handling procedures. It is our intent that these books will provide sufficient detail and breadth to be useful handbooks for both seasoned practitioners as well as newcomers to the area of paleolimnology. These books will also hopefully be useful to non-paleolimnologists (e. g. , limnologists, archeologists, palynologists, geographers, geologists, etc. ) who continue to hear and read about pal- limnology, but have little chance to explore the vast and sometimes difficult to access journal-based reference material for this rapidly expanding field. Although the chapters in these volumes target mainly lacustrine settings, many of the techniques described can also be readily applied to fluvial, glacial, marine, estuarine, and peatland environments. This current volume focuses on zoological indicators preserved in lake sediments, whilst Volume 3 focused on terrestrial, algal, and siliceous indicators.

In 2002 the multidisciplinary research project ''Nasca: development and adaptation of archaeometric techniques for the investigation of cultural history'' (Nasca: Entwicklung und Adaption archa]ometrischer Techniken zur Erforschung der Kulturgeschichte) started, funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education andResearch(Bundesministerium fu]r Bildung und Forschung, BMBF ) in its priority program ''New scientific methods and technologies for the humanities'' (Neue Naturwissenschaftliche Methoden und Technologien fu]r die Geisteswissenschaften, NTG). This new project continued and in a certain way fulfilled a lasting goal of the ministry to integrate different branches of scientific activities and to foster the transfer of expertise gained in natural sciences to the humanities and vice versa. Archaeometry, by definition the application of scientific methods in archaeological investigation, has been a major focus of the priority program since its beginnings in 1989. After funding numerous fruitful research projects that developed new archaeometric techniques mostly in bilateral cooperation, an even greater outcome was expected from a more multifaceted approach with the participation of various scientific disciplines around a well-defined, archaeological research topic. Furthermore, it was intended to establish a project outside the traditional research areas in central Europe or the Mediterranean. It was the great merit of the person formerly in charge of the BMBF priority program, Dr. Edgar Pusch, to develop these far-reaching perspectives and we are extremely grateful that after a rigorous screening our project among other interesting ones was selected for funding."

Benthic foraminifera from the classic southern Caribbean region are presented in this book, to provide valuable information on ranges for biostratigraphers working in the region and beyond. Around 1000 of the more important species are assembled - from the Barremian (early Cretaceous) to the middle Miocene, approximately 120 to 10 million years before the present. The deeper water benthic species are tied in to the zonal scheme used in Plankton Stratigraphy, published by Cambridge University Press in 1985. The taxa have been brought up to date generically, and in many cases new comparisons between species have been made - the late Cretaceous and early Paleogene are particularly detailed. This information, together with detailed illustrations, will enable the taxa to be used stratigraphically.

The changes in the Earth's climate over the past 600 million years, from the Cambrian to the Quaternary, come under scrutiny in this book, first published in 1992. The geological evidence for ancient climates is examined, such as the distribution of climate-sensitive sediments. The Earth's climate has changed many times throughout the Phanerozoic. Thus in this book the climate history has been divided into Warm and Cool modes, intervals when either the Earth was in a former 'greenhouse' state with higher levels of atmospheric CO2 and polar regions free of ice, or the global climate was cooler and ice was present in high latitudes. The studies presented here highlight the complex interactions between the carbon cycle, continental distribution, tectonics, sea level variation, ocean circulation and temperature change as well as other parameters. In particular, the potential of the carbon isotope records as an important signal of the past climates of the Earth is explored. This book will be useful to all students and researchers with an interest in palaeoclimates and palaeoenvironments.

This book examines case studies of North American Quaternary mammalian evolution within the larger domain of modern evolutionary theory. It presents previously unpublished studies of a variety of taxa (xenarthrans, rodents, carnivores, ungulates) examined over several temporal scales, from a few thousand years during the Holocene to millions of years of late Pliocene and Pleistocene time. Different organizational levels are represented, from mosaic population variation, to a synopsis of Quaternary evolution of an entire order (Rodentia). In addition to specific case histories, the book includes purely theoretical and methodological contributions, for example, on the statistical recognition of stasis in the fossil record, new ways to calculate evolutionary rates, and the use of digital image analysis in the study of dental ontogeny. Perhaps the most important aspect of the studies reported in this book is that they span the time between the "ecological moment" and "deep time." Modern taxa can be traced back into the fossil record, and variation among extant taxa can be used as a control against which variation in the extinct ones can be understood.

During the transition from the Eocene to the Oligocene epochs, the mild tropical climates of the Paleocene and early Eocene were replaced by modern climatic conditions and extremes, including glacial ice in Antarctica. The best terrestrial record of the Eocene-Oligocene transition is found in North America, including the spectacular cliffs and spires of the Big Badlands National Park, in South Dakota. The first part of this book summarises the latest information in dating and correlation of the strata of late middle Eocene through early Oligocene age in North America, including the latest insights from argon/argon dating and magnetic stratigraphy. The second part reviews almost all the important terrestrial reptiles and mammals found near the Eocene-Oligocene boundary in the White River chronofauna, from the turtles, snakes and lizards to the common rodents, carnivores, artiodactyls, and perissodactyls. This is the first comprehensive treatment of these rocks and fossils in over sixty years and will be an invaluable resource to vertebrate palaeontologists, geologists, mammalogists and evolutionary biologists.