Crinoids have graced the oceans for more than 500 million years. Among the most attractive fossils, crinoids had a key role in the ecology of marine communities through much of the fossil record, and their remains are prominent rock forming constituents of many limestones. This is the first comprehensive volume to bring together their form and function, classification, evolutionary history, occurrence, preservation and ecology. The main part of the book is devoted to assemblages of intact fossil crinoids, which are described in their geological setting in twenty-three chapters ranging from the Ordovician to the Tertiary. The final chapter deals with living sea lilies and feather stars. The volume is exquisitely illustrated with abundant photographs and line drawings of crinoids from sites around the world. This authoritative account recreates a fascinating picture of fossil crinoids for paleontologists, geologists, evolutionary and marine biologists, ecologists and amateur fossil collectors.

What can long-dead dinosaurs teach us about our future? Plenty, according to world-renowned paleontologist and recent star of BBC show The Day the Dinosaurs Died Dr Kenneth Lacovara, who has discovered some of the largest creatures to ever walk the Earth, including the super-massive Dreadnoughtus. 'Majestic, awe-inspiring and deeply humbling. Kenneth Lacovara reveals how dinosaurs have changed how we understand time, the world and ourselves' DR ALICE ROBERTS, anatomist and anthropologist, television presenter, author and professor 'This is a dinosaur book with a difference. In lyrical prose Kenneth Lacovara shows how an understanding of the past helps to understand the present. The dinosaurs played no role in the great extinction that ended their era: we, on the other hand, are playing a major part in the extinction that is taking place today. And unless we change our ways, if we continue destroying the natural world, this will lead inevitably to our own extinction. But unlike the dinosaurs we have the power to turn things around.' DR JANE GOODALL, DBE, conservationist, founder of the Jane Goodaal Institute and UN Messenger of Peace 'Kenneth Lacovara LOVES Dinosaurs, LOVES science and truly LOVES telling you about it. Few non-fiction writers wield words with more poetic and potent affection for their subject. Ken's deep scholarship and clear enjoyment of his subject always makes ME feel smarter. A man obsessed not just with his subject matter, but with showing us how looking into our deep past can illuminate our future.' ADAM SAVAGE of THE DISCOVERY CHANNEL By tapping into the wonder that dinosaurs inspire, Dr Lacovara weaves together the stories of our geological awakening, of humanity's epic struggle to understand the nature of deep time, the meaning of fossils, and our own place on the vast and bountiful tree of life. Go on a journey, back to when dinosaurs ruled the Earth, to discover how dinosaurs achieved feats unparalleled by any other group of animals. Learn the secrets of how paleontologists find fossils, and explore quirky, but fascinating questions, such as: Is a penguin a dinosaur? How are the tiny arms of T. rex the key to its power and ferocity? In this revealing book, Dr Lacovara offers the latest ideas about the shocking and calamitous death of the dinosaurs and ties their vulnerabilities to our own. Why Dinosaurs Matter is compelling and engaging - a reminder that our place on this planet is both precarious and potentially fleeting. As we move into an uncertain environmental future, it has never been more important to understand the past.

Relying on the latest analytical techniques, this all-embracing new reference offers comprehensive coverage of the development, evolution, and morphology of both fossil and living cephalopods. In 34 in-depth chapters a group of 51 international neontologists and peleontologists offer and opverview of current methods, data, analyses, and interpretations, and posit suggestions for future research. With its unparalleled combination of first-rate contributions on living and fossil cephalopods, this book provides researchers and advanced students in paleontology, invertebrate zoology, evolutionary biology, and allied disciplines with a trove of recent data and authoritative interpretations that will immeasurably benefit their own studies.

The Rhaetian Penarth Group includes the former Westbury Beds, Cotham Beds, and White Lias. It crops out in a narrow strip from the Devon and Dorset coast to the mouth of the Tees, and is particularly well known from the exposures along the Bristol Channel. This diverse suite of late Triassic sedimentary rocks is internationally famous for the fossils that it yields, most notably from the bone beds. Coverage is comprehensive, with separate chapters on foraminifera, gastropods, bivalves, crustaceans, insects, echinoderms, other invertebrates, conodonts, fish, tetrapods, trace fossils and plants. There are background chapters on sedimentology, stratigraphy and the formation of the bone beds. The guide is copiously illustrated with specimens from all major UK public collections of Penarth Group fossils illustrated on 26 plates and 30 text-figures. It will be of use both to collectors who want to know more about this diverse and interesting suite of fossils, as well as to students of geology who wish to understand their conditions of deposition and accumulation.

This monograph presents the results of over 10 years of paleontological and geological survey in the Baynunah Formation of the United Arab Emirates. Exposed widely in western Abu Dhabi Emirate, the Baynunah Formation and its fossils provide the only record of terrestrial environments and evolution in the Arabian Peninsula during the late Miocene epoch (12-5 Ma). This volume describes new fossils collected since 2002, presented systematically by taxon, and including mammals, reptiles, and invertebrates, as well as fossil trackways. The discoveries are framed within the results of new geological, geochemical, and geochrononological analyses, providing an updated and synthetic view of the age, environments, and biogeographic relationships of this important fossil assemblage.

This highly accessible introduction to dinosaurs places scientific method at the crux of the studies, teaching students about scientific research and principles as they learn about dinosaurs. Now in its second edition, the text includes updates on recent finds, increased coverage of evolution and physiology, and an expanded and improved illustration program.
Balances scientific rigour with real world examples.
This new edition includes updates on recent finds and an increased coverage of evolution and physiology.
Also features end of chapter discussion questions, easy reference glossary, new references at the end of each chapter, and high-quality, full color figures and photographs throughout.
Supplemented by a dedicated web page, www.blackwellpublishing.com/dinosaurs with interactive material and all art in downloadable form (art also available to instructors on CD-Rom).

How fast is evolution, and why does it matter? The rate of evolution, and whether it is gradual or punctuated, is a hotly debated topic among biologists and paleontologists. This book compiles and compares examples of evolution from laboratory, field, and fossil record studies, analyzing them to extract their underlying rates. It concludes that while change is slow when averaged over many generations, on a generation-to-generation time scale, evolution is rapid. Chapters cover the history of evolutionary studies, from Lamarck and Darwin in the nineteenth century to the present day. An overview of the statistics of variation, dynamics of random walks, processes of natural selection and random drift, and effects of scale and time averaging are also provided, along with methods for the analysis of evolutionary time series. Containing case studies and worked examples, this book is ideal for advanced students and researchers in paleontology, biology, and anthropology.

The highly fossiliferous succession of Smithian (Early Triassic) ammonoids from northwestern Guangxi (South China) provides a key equatorial record, at the boundary between Tethys and Panthalassa. After the end-Permian extinction, ammonoids reached their first major diversity peak during Smithian times, coupled with a marked contrast in their latitudinal distribution. This monograph contains a part of the fundamental taxonomic and biostratigraphic data of a more comprehensive research project addressing patterns of recovery in time and space of Early Triassic ammonoids and other marine clades, in conjunction with global paleoceanographic and paleoclimatic changes.

Nineteenth-century paleontologists boasted that, shown a single bone, they could identify or even reconstruct the extinct creature it came from with infallible certainty--"Show me the bone, and I will describe the animal!" Paleontologists such as Georges Cuvier and Richard Owen were heralded as scientific virtuosos, sometimes even veritable wizards, capable of resurrecting the denizens of an ancient past from a mere glance at a fragmentary bone. Such extraordinary feats of predictive reasoning relied on the law of correlation, which proposed that each element of an animal corresponds mutually with each of the others, so that a carnivorous tooth must be accompanied by a certain kind of jawbone, neck, stomach, limbs, and feet. Show Me the Bone tells the story of the rise and fall of this famous claim, tracing its fortunes from Europe to America and showing how it persisted in popular science and literature and shaped the practices of paleontologists long after the method on which it was based had been refuted. In so doing, Gowan Dawson reveals how decisively the practices of the scientific elite were--and still are--shaped by their interactions with the general public.

Historical sciences like paleontology and archaeology have uncovered unimagined, remarkable and mysterious worlds in the deep past. How should we understand the success of these sciences? What is the relationship between knowledge and history? In Scientific Knowledge and the Deep Past: History Matters, Adrian Currie examines recent paleontological work on the great changes that occurred during the Cretaceous period - the emergence of flowering plants, the splitting of the mega-continent Gondwana, and the eventual fall of the dinosaurs - to analyse the knowledge of historical scientists, and to reflect upon the nature of history. He argues that distinctively historical processes are 'peculiar': they have the capacity to generate their own highly specific dynamics and rules. This peculiarity, Currie argues, also explains the historian's interest in narratives and stories: the contingency, complexity and peculiarity of the past demands a narrative treatment. Overall, Currie argues that history matters for knowledge.

This reference provides comprehensive information on the taxonomy and distribution in time and space of all currently recognized southern African fossil mammals. After an introductory background chapter on southern Africa, mammals, sites and dating, the following chapters are presented by epoch, covering the Eocene, Miocene, Pliocene, Pleistocene and Holocene. Individual maps provide information on where in the landscape specific taxa have been found, and a comprehensive index lists all the fauna and site locations. The book ends with a chapter on how the book can be used, and lines of future research. Collecting a vast amount of information together in an accessible format, this is an essential reference for non-specialist taxonomists and palaeontologists, as well as for those using fossil data for other applications, such as archaeology, neontology and nature conservation. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.

Human life, and how we came to be, is one of the greatest scientific and philosophical questions of our time. This compact and accessible book presents a modern view of human evolution. Written by a leading authority, it lucidly and engagingly explains not only the evolutionary process, but the technologies currently used to unravel the evolutionary past and emergence of Homo sapiens. By separating the history of palaeoanthropology from current interpretation of the human fossil record, it lays numerous misconceptions to rest, and demonstrates that human evolution has been far from the linear struggle from primitiveness to perfection that we've been led to believe. It also presents a coherent scenario for how Homo sapiens contrived to cross a formidable cognitive barrier to become an extraordinary and unprecedented thinking creature. Elegantly illustrated, Understanding Human Evolution is for anyone interested in the complex and tangled story of how we came to be.

This book presents perspectives on the past and present state of the understanding of snake origins. It reviews and critiques data and ideas from paleontology and neontology (herpetology), as well as ideas from morphological and molecular phylogenetics. The author reviews the anatomy and morphology of extant snakes. Methods are also critiqued, including those empirical and theoretical methods employed to hypothesize ancestral ecologies for snakes. The modern debate on squamate phylogeny and snake ingroup phylogeny using molecules and morphology is examined critically to provide insights on origins and evolution. Key Features Important major evolutionary transformation in vertebrate evolution Continuing historical debate in vertebrate paleontology Of wide interest to a core audience of paleontologists, herpetologists, and morphologists Author acknowledged as prominent contributor to debate over snake origins Based on remarkable well preserved fossil specimens

This book provides a comprehensive overview of the taxonomy, biology, sedimentation, and carbonate geochemistry of modern species. Students, early career and advanced scientists alike will profit from a broad synthesis of the current understanding of planktic foraminifers as an ecological indicator, biogeochemical factories, and proxies in paleoceanography. The classification of modern species is amply illustrated with electron and light microscope images of morphotypes, addresses the state-of-the-art of molecular genetics of species, and provides a detailed guide for any laboratory analyses. The biology of planktic foraminifers is extensively discussed in chapters dedicated to the cellular ultrastructure, nutrition, symbionts, reproduction, ontogeny, and test architecture. Building on the biological prerequisites, the distribution of planktic foraminifers is discussed at regional to global scale. The geochemistry and sedimentation of tests are considered in relation to the ecology of the living animal. In the final chapter, which examines the most common methods in planktic foraminifer research, hands-on information is provided on sampling, processing and analyzing samples in the laboratory, as well as selected established methods for data interpretation. The various topics discussed in this book are aimed at the application of planktic foraminifers as sensitive indicators of the changing climate and marine environment.

A paleontology publication of the Scandinavian University Press The detailed written study, Silurian Nuculoid and Modiomorphid Bivalves from Sweden, is part of an international series on stratigraphy and paleontology.

This monograph describes early Ordovician (Ibexian:Tremadocian early Floian) trilobites from Northern Spitsbergen from the section through the Kirtonryggen Formation adjacent to Hinlopen Strait. The Formation is divided into three Members, each with distinct trilobites collectively representing the fullest known succession from the Bathyurid biofacies of the eastern Laurentian carbonate platform. Previous research on the Ordovician of Spitsbergen is summarised and correlations with similar faunas previously described from Canada, Greenland, western Newfoundland, Vermont New York State, Oklahoma and Missouri are discussed. Taxonomic problems are discussed in detail leading to the recognition of 53 species, of which 15 are new, belonging to 31 genera including four new. Twenty-four taxa are described under open or tentative nomenclature. The lower Member yields the earliest known occurrences of the Illaenoidea, Proetoidea and Scutelluoidea, supporting the hypotheses relating the origin of new major clades to inshore habitats.

Understanding Fossils is the first introductory level palaeontology text which demonstrates the importance of fossils in geological and biological studies, particularly in understanding evolutionary patterns, palaeoenvironmental analysis, and stratigraphy. The book contains three parts. Part One explores several key concepts: the processes of fossil preservation, the determination of evolutionary patterns, ancient ecologies and use of fossils as stratigraphical tools. Part Two introduces the main fossil groups of value in these applied fields. Each group is described with reference to their most important characters, and each has summaries of classification, evolutionary history and applications. Part Three concentrates on the examination of important case histories which demonstrate the use of fossils in diverse practical examples. Evolutionary studies, palaeoenvironmental analysis and stratigraphical applications are documented using up-to-date examples supported by overviews of the principles.

"A comprehensive and entertaining historical and botanical review, providing an enjoyable and cognitive read."-Nature The foods we eat have a deep and often surprising past. From almonds and apples to tea and rice, many foods that we consume today have histories that can be traced out of prehistoric Central Asia along the tracks of the Silk Road to kitchens in Europe, America, China, and elsewhere in East Asia. The exchange of goods, ideas, cultural practices, and genes along these ancient routes extends back five thousand years, and organized trade along the Silk Road dates to at least Han Dynasty China in the second century BC. Balancing a broad array of archaeological, botanical, and historical evidence, Fruit from the Sands presents the fascinating story of the origins and spread of agriculture across Inner Asia and into Europe and East Asia. Through the preserved remains of plants found in archaeological sites, Robert N. Spengler III identifies the regions where our most familiar crops were domesticated and follows their routes as people carried them around the world. With vivid examples, Fruit from the Sands explores how the foods we eat have shaped the course of human history and transformed cuisines all over the globe.

The first English translation of Johannes Weigelt's 1927 classic makes available the seminal work in taphonomy, the study of how organisms die, decay, become entombed in sediments, and fossilize over time. Weigelt emphasized the importance of empirical work and made extensive observations of modern carcasses on the Texas Gulf Coast. He applied the results to evidence from the fossil record and demonstrated that an understanding of the postmortem fate of modern animals is crucial to making sound inferences about fossil vertebrate assemblages and their ecological communities. Weigelt spent sixteen months on the Gulf Coast in the mid-1920s, gathering evidence from the carcasses of cattle and other animals in the early stages of preservation. This book reports his observations. He discusses death and decomposition; classifies various modes of death (drowning, cold, dehydration, fire, mud, quicksand, oil slicks, etc.); documents and analyzes the positions of carcasses; presents detailed data on carcass assemblages at the Smither's Lake site in Texas; and, in a final chapter, makes comparisons to carcass assemblages from the geologic past. He raises questions about whether much of the fossil record is a product of unusual events and, if so, what the implications are for paleoecological studies. The English edition of Recent Vertebrate Carcasses includes a foreword and a translator's note that comment on Weigelt's life and the significance of his work. The original bibliography has been brought up to date, and, where necessary, updated scientific and place names have been added to the text in brackets. An index of names, places, and subjects is included, and Weigelt's own photographs of carcasses and drawings of skeletons illustrate the text.

Cetaceans (whales, dolphins, and porpoises) have fascinated and bewildered humans throughout history. Their mammalian affinities have been long recognized, but exactly which group of terrestrial mammals they descend from has, until recently, remained in the dark. Recent decades have produced a flurry of new fossil cetaceans, extending their fossil history to over 50 million years ago. Along with new insights from genetics and developmental studies, these discoveries have helped to clarify the place of cetaceans among mammals, and enriched our understanding of their unique adaptations for feeding, locomotion and sensory systems. Their continuously improving fossil record and successive transformation into highly specialized marine mammals have made cetaceans a textbook case of evolution - as iconic in its own way as the origin of birds from dinosaurs. This book aims to summarize our current understanding of cetacean evolution for the serious student and interested amateur using photographs, drawings, charts and illustrations.

A magisterial exploration of the natural history of the first four thousand million years of life on and in the earth, by one of Britain's most dazzling science writers. What do any of us know about the history of our planet before the arrival of man? Most of us have a dim impression of a swirling mass of dust solidifying to form a volcanic globe, briefly populated by dinosaurs, then by woolly mammoths and finally by our own hairy ancestors. This book, aimed at the curious and intelligent but perhaps mildly uninformed reader, brilliantly dispels such lingering notions forever. At the end of the book we understand the complexity of the history of life on earth, and the complexity of how it has come to be understood, as, perhaps, from no other single volume. The result is enthralling.

Donald R. Prothero's Evolution is an entertaining and rigorous history of the transitional forms and series found in the the fossil record. Its engaging narrative of scientific discovery and well-grounded analysis has led to the book's widespread adoption in courses that teach the nature and value of fossil evidence. Evolution tackles flood geology, rock dating, neo-Darwinism, and macroevolution. It includes extensive coverage of the primordial soup, invertebrate transitions, the development of the backbone, the reign of the dinosaurs, and the transformation from chimpanzee to human. The book details the many "missing links," including some of the most recent discoveries, that flesh out the fossil timeline and the evolutionary process. In this second edition, Prothero describes new transitional fossils from various periods, vividly depicting such bizarre creatures as the Odontochelys, or the "turtle on the half shell," fossil snakes with legs, and the "Frogamander," a new example of amphibian transition. Prothero's discussion of intelligent-design arguments includes more historical examples and careful examination of the "experiments" and observations that are exploited by creationists seeking to undermine sound science education. With new perspectives, Prothero reframes creationism more as a case study in denialism and pseudoscience than as a field with its own intellectual dynamism. The first edition was hailed as the best book on the fossil evidence for evolution, and this second edition will be welcome in the libraries of scholars, teachers, and general readers who stand up for sound science.

This volume provides individual treatments of the major molluscan taxa. Each chapter provides an overview of the evolution, phylogeny and classification of a group of molluscs, as well as more specific and detailed coverage of their biology (reproduction, feeding and digestion, excretion, respiration etc.), their long fossil record and aspects of their natural history. The book is illustrated with hundreds of colour figures. In both volumes, concepts are summarised in colour-coded illustrations. Key selling features: Comprehensively reviews molluscan biology and evolutionary history Includes a description the anatomy and physiology of anatomical systems Up to date treatment with a comprehensive bibliography Reviews the phylogenetic history of the major molluscan lineages

The Pliocene-Pleistocene Crags of East Anglia are an incredibly rich source of fossil shells, many belonging to extant Boreal and Mediterranean genera. Dominated by marine gastropods and bivalves, the deposits also contain evidence of terrestrial and non-marine gastropods and bivalves, brachiopods, and extensive epifauna including bryozoans. Published between 1848 and 1879 in four volumes, the latter two being supplements with further descriptions and geological notes, this monograph by Searles Valentine Wood (1798-1880) covers more than 650 species and varieties of fossil mollusc. For each species Wood gives a synonymy, diagnosis (in Latin), full description, dimensions, occurrence and remarks. The supplements also provide a breakdown of the species and their current distribution. The detailed plates were prepared by the conchologist George Brettingham Sowerby and his namesake son. Volume 1 (1848) covers gastropods and scaphopods, illustrated in 21 plates.