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Books > Earth & environment > Earth sciences > Palaeontology > General
The graptolites constitute one of the geologically most useful
taxonomic groups of fossils for dating rock successions,
understanding paleobiogeography and reconstructing plate tectonic
configurations in the Lower Palaeozoic. Graptolites were largely
planktic, marine organisms, and as one of the first groups that
explored the expanses of the world s oceans are vital for
understanding Palaeozoic ecology. They are the best and often the
only fossil group for dating Lower Palaeozoic rock successions
precisely. Thousands of taxa have been described from all over the
planet and are used for a wide variety of geological and
palaeontological (biological) research topics. The recent
recognition of the modern pterobranch Rhabdopleura as a living
benthic graptolite enables a much better understanding and
interpretation of the fossil Graptolithina. In the decades since
the latest edition of the Graptolite Treatise, the enormous
increase of knowledge on this group of organisms has never been
synthesised in a compelling and coherent way, and information is
scattered in scientific publications and difficult to sort through.
This volume provides an up-to-date insight into research on
graptolites. Such research has advanced considerably with the use
of new methods of investigation and documentation. SEM
investigation and research on ultrastructure of the tubaria has
made it possible to compare extant and extinct taxa in much more
detail. Cladistic interpretation of graptolite taxonomy and
evolution has advanced the understanding of this group of organisms
considerably in the last two decades, and has highlighted their
importance in our understanding of evolutionary processes. This
book will show graptolites, including their modern, living
relatives, in a quite new and fascinating light, and will
demonstrate the impact that the group has had on the evolution of
the modern marine ecosystem. This book is aimed not only at earth
scientists but also at biologists, ecologists and oceanographers.
It is a readable and comprehensible volume for students at the MSc
level, while remaining accessible to undergraduates and
non-specialists seeking up-to-date information about this
fascinating topic in palaeobiology.
"Lucy is a 3.2-million-year-old skeleton who has become the
spokeswoman for human evolution. She is perhaps the best known and
most studied fossil hominid of the twentieth century, the benchmark
by which other discoveries of human ancestors are judged.""-"From
"Lucy's Legacy
"
In his "New York Times" bestseller, "Lucy: The Beginnings of
Humankind, " renowned paleoanthropologist Donald Johanson told the
incredible story of his discovery of a partial female skeleton that
revolutionized the study of human origins. Lucy literally changed
our understanding of our world and who we come from. Since that
dramatic find in 1974, there has been heated debate and-most
important-more groundbreaking discoveries that have further
transformed our understanding of when and how humans evolved.
In "Lucy's Legacy," Johanson takes readers on a fascinating tour of
the last three decades of study-the most exciting period of
paleoanthropologic investigation thus far. In that time, Johanson
and his colleagues have uncovered a total of 363 specimens of
Australopithecus afarensis (Lucy's species, a transitional creature
between apes and humans), spanning 400,000 years. As a result, we
now have a unique fossil record of one branch of our family
tree-that family being humanity-a tree that is believed to date
back a staggering 7 million years.
Focusing on dramatic new fossil finds and breakthrough advances in
DNA research, Johanson provides the latest answers that post-Lucy
paleoanthropologists are finding to questions such as: How did Homo
sapiens evolve? When and where did our species originate? What
separates hominids from the apes? What was the nature of Neandertal
and modern human encounters? What mysteries about human evolution
remain to be solved?
Donald Johanson is a passionate guide on an extraordinary journey
from the ancient landscape of Hadar, Ethiopia-where Lucy was
unearthed and where many other exciting fossil discoveries have
since been made-to a seaside cave in South Africa that once
sheltered early members of our own species, and many other
significant sites. Thirty-five years after Lucy, Johanson continues
to enthusiastically probe the origins of our species and what it
means to be human.
"From the Hardcover edition."
Here twenty-one leading paleontologists use important refinements
in fossil diversity data to provide critical evaluations of older
hypotheses of diversification and extinction processes and to
propose fresh interpretations. Originally published in 1986. The
Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology
to again make available previously out-of-print books from the
distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These
editions preserve the original texts of these important books while
presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The
goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access
to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books
published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.
This study is organized around three themes: the origin and early
diversification of life during the Archean Eon; the maturation of
life and the Earth during the long Proterozoic Eon; and the
explosive diversification of multicellular life that marks the dawn
of the Phanerozoic Eon. The contributors discuss the coherence of
history, the combinatorial generation of taxonomic diversity, early
Metazoan evolution, and the Cambrian explosion.
Fossils provide a powerful tool for the study of the nearly
4-billion-year history of life, and its role in the evolution of
Earth systems. They also provide important data for evolutionary
studies, and contribute to our understanding of the extinction of
organisms and the origins of modern biodiversity.
"Fossils At A Glance" is written for students taking an
introductory level course in paleontology. Short chapters introduce
the main topics in the modern study of fossils. The most important
fossil groups are discussed, from microfossils through
invertebrates to vertebrates and plants, followed by a brief
narrative of life on Earth.
Diagrams are central to the book and allow the reader to see
most of the important data "at a glance." Each topic covers two
pages and provides a self-contained suite of information or a
starting point for future study.
This second edition has been thoroughly revised and brought up
to date. It includes new line diagrams as well as photographs of
selected fossils
Picture a world of dog-sized scorpions and millipedes as long as a
car; tropical rainforests with trees towering over 150 feet into
the sky and a giant polar continent five times larger than
Antarctica. That world was not imaginary; it was the earth more
than 300 million years ago in the Carboniferous period of the
Paleozoic era. In Carboniferous Giants and Mass Extinction, George
R. McGhee Jr. explores that ancient world, explaining its origins;
its downfall in the end-Permian mass extinction, the greatest
biodiversity crisis to occur since the evolution of animal life on
Earth; and how its legacies still affect us today. McGhee
investigates the consequences of the Late Paleozoic ice age in this
comprehensive portrait of the effects of ancient climate change on
global ecology. Carboniferous Giants and Mass Extinction examines
the climatic conditions that allowed for the evolution of gigantic
animals and the formation of the largest tropical rainforests ever
to exist, which in time turned into the coal that made the
industrial revolution possible-and fuels the engine of contemporary
anthropogenic climate change. Exploring the strange and fascinating
flora and fauna of the Late Paleozoic ice age world, McGhee focuses
his analysis on the forces that brought this world to an abrupt and
violent end. Synthesizing decades of research and new discoveries,
this comprehensive book provides a wealth of insights into past and
present extinction events and climate change.
1. DIE SCHOPFUNG SCHRIFfLICHER ANAPHORENFORMULARE AM AUSGANG DER
ANTllill Es wird haufig betont, wie peinlich genau die Romer in
ihrem Gotterkult auf die prazise Wiedergabe von Gebetsformeln
achteten. Urn versehentliche Abweichungen und die hiervon
befUrchteten schlimmen Folgen zu vermei- den, trugen sie die Gebete
nicht auswendig vor, sondem verlasen sie in der 2 Regel aus
Zeremonialbiichem. Auch die jiidische Tempelliturgie war in eine
feste Form gefaBt, die wohl kaum Gelegenheit zur freien Gestaltung
bot. 3 Sollte sie doch die unverriickbare kosmische Ordnung
symbolisieren. Hingegen herrschte beim offentlichen Gebet im
Gottesdienst der Urchri- sten groBte Freiheit nicht nur im
Wortlaut,4 sondem auch in der Gesamtdis- position. Welch breiter
Raum anfanglich der Eingebung des Augenblicks auch in Form von
Glossolalie und von Offenbarungen sowie ihrer jeweiligen Auslegung,
die man als Werk des Heiligtm Geistes betrachtete,5 gewahrt wurde,
zeigen die von Paulus aufgestellten Grundregeln, die den Ablauf der
Eucharistiefeier in der korinthischen Gemeinde zu ordnen suchten,
indem die Teilnehmer u.a. dazu angehalten wurden, wenigstens
einzeln hintereinander zu reden (1 Cor. 14,26-31). Auch im zweiten
und dritten lahrhundert wurde das gottesdienstliche Ge- 6 bet oft
aus der Eingebung des Augenblicks heraus improvisiert. Soweit
iiberhaupt einmal, wie in einem Abschnitt der wohl schon zu Beginn
des 2. 2 Vgl. G. Wissowa, Religion und Kultus der Romer = HdbAW 5,
4 (2Munchen 1912) 397f mit Anm. 7 und 9; K. Latte, Romische
Religionsgeschichte = HdbA W 5, 4 (Munchen 1960) 392; F.J. DOlger,
Antike und Christentum 2 (1930) 242f.
One of the leading textbooks in its field, Bringing Fossils to Life
applies paleobiological principles to the fossil record while
detailing the evolutionary history of major plant and animal phyla.
It incorporates current research from biology, ecology, and
population genetics, bridging the gap between purely theoretical
paleobiological textbooks and those that describe only invertebrate
paleobiology and that emphasize cataloguing live organisms instead
of dead objects. For this third edition Donald R. Prothero has
revised the art and research throughout, expanding the coverage of
invertebrates and adding a discussion of new methodologies and a
chapter on the origin and early evolution of life.
From his stunning discovery of "Tyrannosaurus rex "one hundred
years ago to the dozens of other important new dinosaur species he
found, Barnum Brown led a remarkable life (1873OCo1963), spending
most of it searching for fossilsOCoand sometimes oilOCoin every
corner of the globe. One of the most famous scientists in the world
during the middle of the twentieth century, BrownOCowho lived fast,
dressed to the nines, gambled, drank, smoked, and was known as a
ladiesOCO manOCobecame as legendary as the dinosaurs he uncovered.
"Barnum Brown "brushes off the loose sediment to reveal the man
behind the legend. Drawing on BrownOCOs field correspondence and
unpublished notes, and on the writings of his daughter and his two
wives, it discloses for the first time details about his life and
travelsOCofrom his youth on the western frontier to his spying for
the U.S. government under cover of his expeditions. This absorbing
biography also takes full measure of BrownOCOs extensive scientific
accomplishments, making it the definitive account of the life and
times of a singular man and a superlative fossil hunter.
Offering the most comprehensive and up-to-date review of fossil
footprints, for both dinosaurs and other vertebrates, in the
western United States, "Dinosaur Tracks" covers the fossil record
from the Paleozoic through the Cenozoic era. A series of
illustrations depict dinosaurs in the their natural habitat, and an
appendix lists museums and other major repositories of tracks and
replicas, and gives details on tracksites open to the public.
Includes annotated references and detailed descriptions of
important specimens, describing how these trackways can help
interpret behavior.
Here twenty-one leading paleontologists use important
refinements in fossil diversity data to provide critical
evaluations of older hypotheses of diversification and extinction
processes and to propose fresh interpretations.
Originally published in 1986.
The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand
technology to again make available previously out-of-print books
from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press.
These paperback editions preserve the original texts of these
important books while presenting them in durable paperback
editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly
increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the
thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since
its founding in 1905.
Paleopalynology, second edition, provides profusely illustrated
treatment of fossil palynomorphs, including spores, pollen,
dinoflagellate cysts, acritarchs, chitinozoans, scolecodonts, and
various microscopic fungal and algal dispersal bodies. The book
serves both as a student text and general reference work.
Palynomorphs yield information about age, geological and biological
environment, climate during deposition, and other significant
factors about the enclosing rocks. Extant spores and pollen are
treated first, preparing the student for more difficult work with
fossil sporomorphs and other kinds of palynomorphs. Recognizing
that palynomorphs occur together in rocks because of chemical
robustness and stratigraphic distribution, not biological
relationship, the central sections are organized stratigraphically.
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