This unique volume provides a comprehensive and up-to-date examination of all aspects of the biology of the Old World monkey genus, Theropithecus, which evolved alongside our human ancestors. The authors explore the fossil history and evolution of the genus, its biogeography, comparative evolutionary biology and anatomy, and the behaviour and socioecology of the living and extinct representatives of the genus. The parallels between the evolution of Theropithecus and early hominids are discussed. There are also two chapters of particular significance which describe how an innovative and exciting approach to the modelling of the causes of species extinction can be used with great success. This highly multidisciplinary approach provides a rare and insightful account of the evolutionary biology of this fascinating and once highly successful group of primates. Theropithecus will be of interest to researchers in the fields of primatology, anthropology, palaeontology, and mammalian behaviour, physiology and anatomy.

The origins of angiosperms are still debated, despite many years of work by scientists from differing disciplines. The progress made toward resolving the problem is reviewed in this book. The author suggests that the only fruitful method of study is the total integrated use of the fossil record, particularly dispersed palynomorphs. This includes the use of electron microscopy and refined data handling to record the occurrence of microscopic fossils, rather than the extensive use of morphology and cladistics. The methods advocated in this book could result in a rethinking of the current classification of living plants, and it is hoped that the ideas presented will initiate discussion between both professionals and students of paleontology and plant science on the wider possibilities that may clarify the enigmatic origins of the dominant flowering plant groups.

This volume fulfills a long-standing need of vertebrate paleontologists - whether amateurs attending their first excavation or preparators and curators - for a book that describes and explains modern paleontological techniques and practice. The authors of this volume are all exceptional technicians in their field and the book covers everything from field specimen collecting, through conservation methods, chemical preparation, molding, casting and painting, and mounting of vertebrate skeletons, to the final chapter devoted to the use of CT scans and X-ray methods. The book stems from the fact that, up until now, most preparatory techniques and skills have been passed down by example and demonstration, but they have rarely ever been standardized and set down in print. This book attempts to do this, and aims to enlighten workers on the most modern and successful methods that can be used in preserving and studying our fossil heritage.

In this complete and thorough update of Arthur Boucot s seminal work, Evolutionary Paleobiology of Behavior and Coevolution, Boucot is joined by George Poinar, who provides additional expertise and knowledge on protozoans and bacteria as applied to disease. Together, they make the Fossil Behavior Compendium wider in scope, covering all relevant animal and plant groups and all epochs, and providing a detailed review of animal and plant fossil behavior in terrestrial and aquatic environments.

Fossil behavior encompasses not only past evidence of the life history of an organism but also behavioral, predation, and symbiotic interactions, including parasitism. This book compares patterns of behavior and coevolution in the past with those of the present-day descendants. It also discusses how to evaluate the rates of evolution of behavior and coevolution at various taxonomic levels. The compendium emphasizes the interactions between fossils and compares these interactions with present-day counterparts. It also provides new discussions on topics related to fossils in amber.

Keeping Boucot s trademark, easy-to-read style, the book includes new findings never published previously, reports not easily accessed, numerous examples, 40 tables, 285 illustrations some published here for the first time and a four-page color insert. The book provides a concise account of the evidence for varied disease types recognized to date in the fossil record.

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In the past 100 years, many dozens of extraordinary dinosaurs and other fossil amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals have been found in the former Soviet Union. The Permo-Triassic of the Ural Mountains in particular have produced hundreds of superb specimens, and many of the dinosaurs from Mongolia are unique. Written by a group of Russian and Western paleontologists, this volume reveals a range of fossil faunas, in particular reptiles, that have been little known outside Russia. This is the first time that much of this large body of research has been introduced in English. Chapters contain accounts of the history of collecting, the relevant stratigraphy and geogical setting, and the major animal groups prepared by this auspicious collaboration of researchers. More than 300 illustrations and line drawings provide a clear, visual record. This volume will be of interest to graduate students and researchers in paleontology and zoology.

Over centuries, discoveries of fossil bones spawned legends of mythological monsters such as giants and dragons. As the field of earth sciences matured during the 19th century, early fossilists gained appreciation for prehistoric creatures such as Tyrannosaurus, Triceratops and Stegosaurus. This historical study examines how these genuine beasts morphed in the public imagination into mythical, powerful engines of destruction and harbingers of cataclysm, taking their place in popular culture, film, and literature as symbols of 'lost worlds' where time stands still.

Life on Earth can be traced back over three billion years into the past. Many examples of the Earth's former inhabitants are to be found in rocks, preserved as beautiful and fascinating fossils. The earliest life forms were bacteria and algae; these produced the oxygen that enabled more complex life forms to develop. About 600 million years ago multi-cellular organisms appeared on Earth, some of which could protect themselves with hard parts such as shells. Many of these life forms were readily fossilized and are used to subdivide geological time. Numerous species have evolved and most are now extinct. Lineages can be traced and extinctions explained as a consequence of terrestrial and extra-terrestrial events. Now in a revised, updated and expanded Second Edition Introducing Palaeontology will continue to provide readers with a concise and accessible introduction to the science of palaeontology.

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.

Contemporary research in evolutionary developmental biology has been predominantly devoted to interpreting basic features of animal architecture in molecular genetics terms. Considerably less time has been spent on the exploitation of the wealth of facts and concepts from traditional disciplines, such as comparative morphology. This book integrates traditional morphological and contemporary molecular genetic approaches and deals with postembryonic development as well. It offers unconventional views on the basic features of animal organization, such as body axes, symmetry, segments, body regions, appendages and related concepts. This book is of particular interest to graduate students and researchers in evolutionary and developmental biology, cell biology, genetics, and zoology.

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.

This expanded and updated second edition offers a comprehensive look at macroevolution and its underpinnings, with a primary emphasis on animal evolution. From a Neodarwinian point of view, the book integrates evolutionary processes at all levels to explain the diversity of animal life. It examines a wide range of topics including genetics, speciation, development, evolution, constructional and functional aspects of form, fossil lineages, and systematics, and --in a major new chapter--takes a hard look at the Cambrian explosion. The author delves into the age of molecular science and integrates important recent contributions made to our understanding of evolution.

This expanded and updated second edition offers a comprehensive look at macroevolution and its underpinnings, with a primary emphasis on animal evolution. From a Neodarwinian point of view, the book integrates evolutionary processes at all levels to explain the diversity of animal life. It examines a wide range of topics including genetics, speciation, development, evolution, constructional and functional aspects of form, fossil lineages, and systematics, and --in a major new chapter--takes a hard look at the Cambrian explosion. The author delves into the age of molecular science and integrates important recent contributions made to our understanding of evolution.

The story of two nineteenth-century scientists who revealed one of the most significant and exciting events in the natural history of this planet: the existence of dinosaurs. In 'The Dinosaur Hunters' Deborah Cadbury brilliantly recreates the remarkable story of the bitter rivalry between two men: Gideon Mantell uncovered giant bones in a Sussex quarry, became obsessed with the lost world of the reptiles and was driven to despair. Richard Owen, a brilliant anatomist, gave the extinct creatures their name and secured for himself unrivalled international acclaim.

Although herbivory probably first appeared over 300 million years ago, it only became established as a common feeding strategy during Late Permian times. Subsequently, herbivory evolved in numerous lineages of terrestrial vertebrates, and the acquisition of this mode of feeding was frequently associated with considerable evolutionary diversification in those lineages. This book represents a comprehensive overview of the evolution of herbivory in land-dwelling amniote tetrapods in recent years. In Evolution of Herbivory in Terrestrial Vertebrates, leading experts review the evolutionary history and structural adaptations required for feeding on plants in the major groups of land-dwelling vertebrates, especially dinosaurs and ungulate mammals. As such, this volume will be the definitive reference source on this topic for evolutionary biologists and vertebrate paleontologists.

The defining masterwork on the evolution of reptiles. Over 300 million years ago, an early land vertebrate developed an egg that contained the embryo in an amnion, allowing it to be deposited on land. This moment marked the first step in the fascinating and complex evolutionary journey of the reptiles. In The Rise of Reptiles, paleontologist Hans-Dieter Sues explores the diversity of reptilian lineages, discussing the relationships among turtles, crocodylians, lizards and snakes, and many extinct groups. Reflecting the tremendous advances in the study of reptilian diversity and phylogeny over recent decades, this book is the first detailed, contemporary synthesis of the evolutionary history of these remarkable animals. Reptiles have always confused taxonomists, who have endlessly debated and rewritten their classifications. In this book, Sues adopts an explicitly phylogenetic framework to sift through the evidence and discuss the origin and diversification of Reptilia in a way no one has before. He also examines the genealogical link between dinosaurs and birds and sheds new light on the Age of Reptiles, a period that saw the rise and fall of most dinosaurs. With this single meticulously researched volume, Sues paints a complete portrait of reptilian evolution. Numerous photographs of key specimens from around the world introduce readers to the reptilian fossil record, and color images of present-day reptiles illustrate their diversity. The extensive bibliography provides an invaluable guide for readers who are interested in exploring individual topics more deeply. Accurate, synthetic, and sweeping, The Rise of Reptiles is the definitive work on the subject.

Were Jurassic dinosaurs social creatures? Can you determine the shape of a ram's horns from the evidence of its footprints? Paleontologist Martin Lockley answers these and other fascinating questions in this highly original tale of tracking and track making. Filled with fascinating anecdotes and surprising discoveries, "The Eternal Trail" initiates us into the art and science of tracking, while offering a poetic reflection on the continuity of life.

When Darwin wrote his Origin of Species, one of his main concerns was with the perceived shortness of the fossil record of life. Until the work of J. William Schopf and his colleagues, much of this history was thought to be unknowable. This book, through a memoire of Schopf's personal recollections, documents astonishing discoveries revealing the first 85% of the history of life. These earliest periods of life on Earth emerge as a tale of individual and internationally collaborative exploration told by a scholar whose 60 years of research contributed to the recognition of the richness and diversity which forms the foundation of today's biodiversity. Key Features Documents, through personal narrative, a paradigm shift is the study of the earliest life Summarizes a fossil record largely unknown until relatively recently Addresses one of Darwin's most troubling concerns about his theory of natural selection Predicts future developments in the study of first life

Gideon Mantell and the Discovery of Dinosaurs is a scholarly yet accessible biography--the first in a generation--of a pioneering dinosaur hunter and scholar. Gideon Mantell discovered the Iguanodon (a famous tale set right in this book) and several other dinosaur species, spent over twenty-five years restoring Iguanodon fossils, and helped establish the idea of an Age of Reptiles that ended with their extinction at the conclusion of the Mesozoic Era. He had significant interaction with such well-known figures as James Parkinson, Georges Cuvier, Charles Lyell, Roderick Murchison, Charles Darwin, and Richard Owen. Dennis Dean, a well-known scholar of geology and the Victorian era, here places Mantell's career in its cultural context, employing original research in archives throughout the world, including the previously unexamined Mantell family papers in New Zealand.

This volume arises from the NATO Advanced Research Workshop (ARW) on 'North African Cretaceous rudist and coral formations and their contributions to carbonate platform development , which was held in Tunisia, on 13-18 May, 2002. It was convened by M. El Hedi Negra (Universite 7 Novembre de Carthage, now Universite de Tunis El Manar, Tunisia) and Eulalia Gili (Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona, Spain). The aims of the ARW were: (1) to review and critically assess currently available data on rudist/coral formations in North African Cretaceous carbonate platforms, and their correlations, and to integrate these data with other studies around the Mediterranean; (2) to place the findings in a global context, noting both similarities with other regions of platform development as well as local differences, and (3) exploring possible reasons for these; and to help promote the creation of a vibrant peri-Mediterranean collaborative research community, embracing researchers from the entire region, to carry forward this ambitious research programme. Twenty-two presentations (oral and poster) provided both topical reviews (covering rudist evolution, and ecology, mineralogical changes, applications of strontium isotope, and graphic correlation methods, and platform typology) as well as regional syntheses (Tunisian reservoirs, Moroccan platform history, Tunisian platforms and rudist/coral facies, Algerian platforms, and Egyptian platforms). Fifteen of these presentations are expanded here as papers. The workshop was attended by 24 academic staff, 4 geologists from the oil industry, plus several observers and students.

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.

The early Mesozoic period was a critical period in the evolution of life on land when most of todays major groups of terrestrial vertebrates arose and dinosaurs and pterosaurs rose to prominence. In recent years this period has received a great deal of attention from palaeontologists, and it is now felt that the small vertebrates which lived in the shadows of the first dinosaurs tell us a great deal about the evolution of modern terrestrial ecosystems. This book is an attempt to collate all the information on the small vertebrates and features contributions by experts with international reputations in their fields. There are chapters on the taxonomy and phylogeny of the key vertebrate groups followed by a section dealing with the most significant fossiliferous assemblages worldwide. The final section looks at how faunal turnover at this time is measured and examines the possibility of mass extinctions.

This is a new and completely rewritten edition of the well-known text "Microfossils" (first published in 1980) covering all the major microfossil groups, with information on taxonomy, phylogeny, ecology and palaeoecology. Particular attention is given to the uses of microfossils in environmental reconstruction and biostratigraphy. It contains numerous line and half-tone illustrations. It also emphasizes on practical applications of micropalaeontology. Only student-friendly micropaleontology text is available.

Paleomagnetic data are useful in many applications in Earth Science from determining paleocurrent directions to analyzing the long-term behavior of the geomagnetic field.

In this book, an attempt has been made to draw together the various principles and practices within paleomagnetism in a consistent and up-to-date manner. It includes many practical examples that illustrate various applications of paleomagnetism. A companion software package implements the theory explained in the text.

Audience: This volume is aimed at professional Earth Scientists using paleomagnetic data for their research. It is also suitable for use as a text book for students in courses with a paleomagnetic content. In addition, this volume will be of value to other professionals with an interest in the analysis of vector and tensor data in general.

The transition from the Eocene to the Oligocene epoch, occurring approximately 47 to 30 million years ago, was the most dramatic episode of climatic and biotic change since the demise of the dinosaurs. The mild tropical climates of the Paleocene and early Eocene were replaced by modern climatic conditions and extremes, including glacial ice in Antarctica. The first part of this book summarizes the latest information in the dating and correlation of the strata of late middle Eocene through early Oligocene age in North America. 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, oreodonts and deer of the Badlands. This is the first comprehensive treatment of these topics in over sixty years, and will be invaluable to vertebrate paleontologists, geologists, mammalogists and evolutionary biologists.

In the last couple of decades the study of dinosaur eggs and babies has proved to be one of the most exciting and profitable areas of dinosaur research. This is the first book solely devoted to this topic and reviews, in scientific detail, our present state of knowledge about this exciting area of palaeontology. Chapters in the book discuss all aspects of the science including the occurrence of eggs, nests and baby skeletons, descriptive osteology of juvenile skeletons, comparative histology of juvenile bone, analyses of eggs and egg shells, palaeoenvironments of nesting sites, nesting behaviour and developmental growth of baby dinosaurs. The volume will be an invaluable addition to the book collections of vertebrate palaeontologists and their graduate students.