British Fossil reptile sites are of international importance since they include remains that fill the time gaps poorly known elsewhere. They include rich classic reptile beds which have been the source of dozens of important specimens. This volume details all those sites that have yielded fossil reptiles. The fifty most important localities are described in detail and an extensive bibliography of everything published on British Fossil reptiles since 1676 is provided.

Morphometrics is concerned with the study of variations and change in the form (size and shape) of organisms or objects adding a quantitative element to descriptions and thereby facilitating the comparison of different objects and organisms. This volume provides an introduction to morphometrics in a clear and simple way without recourse to complex mathematics and statistics. This introduction is followed by a series of case studies describing the variety of applications of morphometrics from paleontology and evolutionary ecology to archaeological artifacts analysis. This is followed by a presentation of future applications of morphometrics and state of the art software for analyzing and comparing shape.

Living material contains about twenty different sorts of atom combined into a set of relatively simple molecules. Astrobiologists tend to believe that abiotic mater ial will give rise to life in any place where these molecules exist in appreciable abundances and where physical conditions approximate to those occurring here on Earth. We think this popular view is wrong, for it is not the existence of the building blocks of life that is crucial but the exceedingly complicated structures in which they are arranged in living forms. The probability of arriving at biologically significant arrangements is so very small that only by calling on the resources of the whole universe does there seem to be any possibility of life originating, a conclusion that requires life on the Earth to be a minute component of a universal system. Some think that the hugely improbable transition from non-living to living mat ter can be achieved by dividing the transition into many small steps, calling on a so-called 'evolutionary' process to bridge the small steps one by one. This claim turns on semantic arguments which seek to replace the probability for the whole chain by the sum of the individual probabilities of the many steps, instead of by their product. This is an error well known to those bookies who are accustomed to taking bets on the stacking of horse races. But we did not begin our investigation from this point of view.

Palaeobiogeography is a complex subject which processes information provided by both Biology and Earth Sciences. It is conceptually and philosophically equivalent to neobiogeography. Nevertheless, its methods are somewhat different, since it is limited by the incompleteness of the fossil record. On the other hand, it has direct access to the time dimension, a key ingredient of organic evolution. Mesozoic benthonic mollusks, and especially bivalves, have a great potential for palaeobiogeographical analysis due to their commonly good preservation, abundance, diversity and high dispersion potential at the larval stage. From a merely descriptive point of view, the analysis of their distribution shows latitudinal gradients and distributional patterns, both at regional and global scales, which are the basis for the recognition of biochoremas or palaeobiogeographical units of different ranks. Moving forward towards a causal
palaeobiogeography, these organisms also provide interesting insight into particular biogeographical questions, such as bipolarity and its origin. The evolution in time of the
recognized biochoremas can be discussed in relation to palaeoclimas and extinction events. Finally, some of the results obtained from the analysis of the distribution of past
bivalve biotas were even used to propose and discuss the development of marine corridors and argue about the distribution of continents in the past.

The Indian Statistical Institute (ISI) was established on 17th December, 1931 by a great visionary Prof. Prasanta Chandra Mahalanobis to promote research in the theory and applications of statistics as a new scienti c discipline in India. In 1959, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, the then Prime Minister of India introduced the ISI Act in the parliament and designated it as an Institution of National Importance because of its remarkable achievements in statistical work as well as its contribution to economic planning. Today, the Indian Statistical Institute occupies a prestigious position in the a- demic rmament. It has been a haven for bright and talented academics working in a number of disciplines. Its research faculty has done India proud in the arenas of Statistics, Mathematics, Economics, Computer Science, among others. Over s- enty ve years, it has grown into a massive banyan tree, like the institute emblem. The Institute now serves the nation as a uni ed and monolithic organization from different places, namely Kolkata, the Headquarters, Delhi, Bangalore, and Chennai, three centers, a network of ve SQC-OR Units located at Mumbai, Pune, Baroda, Hyderabad and Coimbatore, and a branch ( eld station) at Giridih. The platinum jubilee celebrations of ISI have been launched by Honorable Prime Minister Prof. Manmohan Singh on December 24, 2006, and the Govt. of India has declared 29th June as the "Statistics Day" to commemorate the birthday of Prof. Mahalanobis nationally.

Improved dating methods have increased our ability to more precisely determine the timing and durations of glaciations. Utilizing glacial and loess deposits, we have compared glaciations that occurred in North and South America in order to determine if events are synchronous or not, to explore forcing mechanisms, and to compare glaciations with cold periods of the Marine Oxygen Isotope stages and the loess/paleosol records of China. Stratigraphic sections containing a variety of glacial deposits, some with interbedded volcanics, as well as loess deposits, were used in reconstructing the glacial history. The Late Pleistocene (Brunhes Chron) Last Glacial Maximum is recognized in mountain and continental areas of North America but only in the mountains of South America. Commonly our comparisons indicate roughly synchronous glaciations on the two continents, whereas other glaciations are more elusive and difficult to compare. Although our comparisons are at low resolutions, the results suggest that Milankovitch forcing is most likely the dominant trigger for hemispheric glaciation modified by local factors.

The successful early adaptations of man involve a complex interplay of biological and cultural factors. There is a rapidly growing number of paleontologists and paleoanthropologists who are concerned with hominid foraging and the evolution of hunting. New techniques of paleoanthropology and taphonomy, and new information on human remains are added to the traditional approaches to the study of past human hunting and other foraging behavior. There is also a resurgence of interest in the early peopling of the New World. The present book is the result of the Ninth Annual Spring Systematics 10, 1986, in the Symposium, on the Evolution of Human Hunting, held on May Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago. We are grateful to the NSF (grant no. BNS 8519960) for partial financial support in arranging the symposium. In preparation of this volume we have received assistance from many people, particularly the reviewers of individual chapters; it is impossible to name them all. We must however single out Drs. Richard G. Klein and Glen H. Cole for their encouragement at various stages of preparation of the symposium and this volume, and for being a help to the anthropological knowledge. Zbigniew Jastrzebski assisted with the figures and Paul K. Johnson diligently typed the camera-ready copy, and patiently coordinated the endless book-making chores.

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 address major problems raised by earlier excavations at the site from 1937 to 1954. These earlier excavations produced two sets of problematic data : first, the Lower Paleolithic stone tool industry, the Tayacian, that differs in fundamental ways from other contemporary industries, 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.

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.

A comprehensive treatment of primate paleontology. Profusely illustrated and up to date, it captures the complete history of the discovery and interpretation of primate fossils. The chapters range from primate origins to the advent of anatomically modern humans. Each emphasizes three key components of the record of primate evolution: history of discovery, taxonomy of the fossils, and evolution of the adaptive radiations they represent. The Primate Fossil Record summarizes objectively the many intellectual debates surrounding the fossil record and provides a foundation of reference information on the last two decades of astounding discoveries and worldwide field research for physical anthropologists, paleontologists and evolutionary biologists.

The romantic landscapes and exotic cultures of Arabia have long captured the int- ests of both academics and the general public alike. The wide array and incredible variety of environments found across the Arabian peninsula are truly dramatic; tro- cal coastal plains are found bordering up against barren sandy deserts, high mountain plateaus are deeply incised by ancient river courses. As the birthplace of Islam, the recent history of the region is well documented and thoroughly studied. However, legendary explorers such as T.E. Lawrence, Wilfred Thesiger, and St. John Philby discovered hints of a much deeper past during their travels across the subcontinent. Drawn to Arabia by the magnifcent solitude of its vast sand seas, these intrepid adventurers learned from the Bedouin how to penetrate its deserts and returned with stirring accounts of lost civilizations among the wind-swept dunes. We now know that, prior to recorded history, Arabia housed countless peoples living a variety of lifestyles, including some of the world's earliest pastoralists, c- munities of incipient farmers, fshermen dubbed the "Ichthyophagi" by ancient Greek geographers, and Paleolithic big-game hunters who were among the frst humans to depart their ancestral homeland in Africa. In fact, some archaeological investigations indicate that Arabia was inhabited by early hominins extending far back into the Early Pleistocene, perhaps even into the Late Pliocene.

This volume is a collection of papers presented to Professor Tom Barnard by former students, colleagues and friends to mark thirty-two years of teaching and research in micropalaeontology at University College London. This period represents the major part of Tom Barnard's career with microfossils, which actually began rather earlier, but in 1949 his first postgraduate students were registered. Since then some 150 students have worked for higher degrees studying foraminifera, ostracods, calcareous nannofossils, dino of Research flagellates and palynomorphs, in company with a series Assistants and Visiting Scientists. The nature of micropalaeontology at 'UC' under Tom Barnard has always been unashamedly biostratigraphical. As a result many students have entered and continue to enter the petroleum industry, not least of all because their mentor has always had a pragmatic view of academic research and its direction. Despite this emphasis, with a particular attention to Mesozoic foraminifera, a major investigation of Recent Caribbean foraminiferal faunas has been carried out and most recently MSc classes have worked with material from the continental shelf of southern Africa. Work with Mesozoic ostracods was initiated in 1956 and during the past decade a growing number of students have concentrated on calcareous nannofossils. A book sum marising the results of biostratigraphical work with nannofossils is at present in the press (Lord, A. R. (ed. ) A stratigraphical index of calcareous nanno fossils. Chichester: Ellis Horwood)."

South America is a unique place where a number of past climate archives are ava- able from tropical to high latitude regions. It thus offers a unique opportunity to explore past climate variability along a latitudinal transect from the Equator to Polar regions and to study climate teleconnections. Most climate records from tropical and subtropical South America for the past 20,000 years have been interpreted as local responses to shift in the mean position and intensity of the InterTropical Conv- gence Zone due to tropical and extratropical forcings or to changes in the South American Summer Monsoon. Further South, the role of the Southern Hemisphere westerly winds on global climate has been highly investigated with both paleodata and coupled climate models. However the regional response over South America during the last 20,000 years is much more variable from place to place than pre- ously thought. The factors that govern the spatial patterns of variability on millennial scale resolution are still to be understood. The question of past natural rates and ranges of climate conditions over South America is therefore of special relevance in this context since today millions of people live under climates where any changes in monsoon rainfall can lead to catastrophic consequences.

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).

It is a widely held belief that a climax vegetation of closed forest systems covered the lowlands of Central and Western Europe before humans intervened in prehistoric times to develop agriculture. If this intervention had not taken place, it would still be there and so if left, the grassland vegetation and fields we see today would revert to its natural closed forest state, although with a reduced number of wild species. This book challenges this view, using examples from history, pollen analyses and studies on the ecology of tree and shrub species such as oak and hazel. It tests the hypotheses that the climax vegetation is a closed canopy forest against the alternative one in which species composition and succession of vegetation were governed by herbivores and that the Central and Western European lowlands were covered by a park-like landscape consisting of grasslands, scrub, solitary trees and groves bordered by a mantle and fringe vegetation. Comparative information from North America is also included, because the forests there are commonly regarded as being analogous to the primeval vegetation in Europe. This title is a revised, updated and expanded translation of book published in Dutch.

In Plants and the K-T Boundary, two of the world's leading experts in palynology and paleobotany provide a comprehensive account of the fate of land plants during the 'great extinction' about 65 million years ago. They describe how the time boundary between the Cretaceous and Paleogene Periods (the K-T boundary) is recognized in the geological record, and how fossil plants can be used to understand global events of that time. There are case studies from over 100 localities around the world, including North America, China, Russia and New Zealand. The book concludes with an evaluation of possible causes of the K-T boundary event and its effects on floras of the past and present. This book is written for researchers and students in paleontology, botany, geology and Earth history, and everyone who has been following the course of the extinction debate and the K-T boundary paradigm shift.

Quantitative Paleozoology describes and illustrates how the remains of long-dead animals recovered from archaeological and paleontological excavations can be studied and analyzed. The methods range from determining how many animals of each species are represented to determining whether one collection consists of more broken and more burned bones than another. All methods are described and illustrated with data from real collections, while numerous graphs illustrate various quantitative properties.

Biominerals are generated by the subtle interaction of biological organization and mineral growth. They belong both to the living and the inanimate world and as such their genesis is among the most intri guing and fundamental subjects in science. However, the conceptual and technical resources that are available in physical chemistry and in the biological sciences is often inadequate for the elucidation of the pro blems involved, and hence this field is particularly difficult to ex plore. This may be an important reason why fundamental research on bio mineralization mechanisms has traditionally been carried out by a com paratively small group of scientists. There are signs, however, that the situation is ripe for a change. Various meetings on biomineralization have been organized in the last few years, particularly in the medical sector. It is generally felt that further developments in the therapy of bone and tooth diseases will be largely dependent on an improved understanding of the fundamen tal underlying mechanisms of biomineralization."

In 1971 I published a review of ichnology other concentrating only on traces made (Houston AAPG: SEPM Trace Fossil Field by a certain group of organisms, regardless Trip Guidebook) that I thought could be of their setting. Nevertheless, needless re dundancy has hopefully been eliminated. expanded rather easily into a worthwhile Some of the chapters are more special book on the subject. I probed that possi ized than others (because of the nature of bility for a while, thinking that I would particular topics); hence, these may be write the book myself. As I began to out somewhat less familiar or "comprehensible" line the chapters in more detail, however, than others-depending upon the reader's it soon became apparent that my personal own interests and background. Other dif knowledge of too many facets of ichnology ferences in the scope and content of vari scraped bottom all too soon. I quickly de ous chapters stem from the simple fact cided that a better book could be produced that a considerably greater backlog of pre by soliciting specific contributions from vious work is available in certain facets of other workers who, collectively, had first ichnology than in others. But we hope hand experience with virtually every aspect that all of the chapters will prove to be use of the field. That became the actual plan, ful to anyone wishing to delve 'into them. the result of which is this book."

No other disjunct pieces of land present such striking similarities as the widely sepa 1 rated regions with a mediterranean type of climate, that is, the territories fringing the Mediterranean Sea, California, Central Chile and the southernmost strips of South Mrica and Australia. Similarities are not confined to climatic trends, but are also reflected in the physiognomy ofthe vegetation, in land use patterns and frequently in the general appearance of the landscape. The very close similarities in agricultural practices and sometimes also in rural settlements are dependent on the climatic and edaphic analogies, as well as on a certain commonality in qdtural history. This is certainly true for the Mediterranean Sea basin which in many ways represents a sort of ecological-cultural unit; this is also valid for CaUfornia and Chile, which were both settled by Spaniards and which showed periods of vigorous commercial and cultural interchanges as during the California gold rush. One other general feature is the massive interchange of cultivated and weed species of plants that has occurred between the five areas of the world that have a mediterranean-type climate, with the Mediterranean basin region itself as a major source. In spite of their limited territorial extension, probably no other parts of the world have played a more fundamental role in the history of mankind. Phoenician, Etruscan, Hellenic, Jewish, Roman, Christian andArab civilizations, among others, haveshapedmanyofman's present attitudes, including his position and perception vis-a-vis nature."

This volume is the fourth in the series of the Proceedings of the College Park Colloquia on Chemical Evolution. These Colloquia, and the resulting Proceedings, are presented in the interest of fostering the impact of the interdisciplinary nature of chemical evolu tion on contemporary scientific thought. vii EDITORS'INTRODUCTION The Fourth College Park Colloquium on Chemical Evolution was held on October 18 - 20, 1978 at the University of Maryland. The meeting, supported by the National Aero nautics and Space Administration and the National Science Foundation, centered on the variable environments, both past and present, in which living organisms have survived, grown, and evolved - the limits of life. Previous colloquia had emphasized the Giant Planets (1974) 1, Early Life during the Precambrian (1975)2 and Comparative Planetology (1976)3. The College Park Colloquia have been noted for the broad interdisciplinary nature of the training and interests of the participants. The fourth meeting was no ex ception with the participation of approximately 85 researchers, representing many academic fields. As with previous meetings, the interdisciplinary approach to the question of the limits of life encouraged the exchange of knowledge and information. A major scientific aspiration is to understand why living systems are restricted to certain environments."

This volume is a record of the 6th International Conference on the Origins of Life and the 3rd Meeting of the International Society for the Study of the Origins of Life. The conference was held under the auspices of the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities at Jerusalem from June 22nd to June 27th 1980. A few weeks prior to the conference, Academician Aleksander Ivanovich Oparin passed away. Oparin, the father and founder of the study of the origins of life, proposed over 50 years ago that modern biological molecules had abidogical origins in the past, thus the beginning of life on Earth was preceded by a long period of abiogenic molecular evolution. Oparin was planning to report on his latest work in the opening session of the meeting - "Natural Selection: A Leading Factor in Transition from the Non-Living Matter to Life." This lecture will never be delivered. In Hebrew we say of those who have died "may their memory be bound with the bonds of eternal life." For Aleksander Ivanovich Oparin those words have particular significance, for surely his pioneering work will endure as long as the spirit of scientific enquiry prevails. This meeting was dedicated to the memory of Aleksander Ivanovich Oparin.

This is a book for beginners. Not geological beginners, because an introductory course in paleontology and some knowledge of the petrographic microscope is assumed, but for beginners in the study of the petrography of fossil constituents in sedimentary rocks. Fossils are studied for various reasons: 1) to provide chron ologic (time) frameworks, 2) to delineate rock units and ancient environments, or 3) to understand the past development (evolu tion) of living plants and animals. All of these uses may be at tained through petrographic studies of thin sections of fossils embedded in sedimentary rocks. Some knowledge of the appear ance of fossils in thin section is also fundamental for general stratigraphic studies, biofacies analyses, and is even useful in studying some metamorphic rocks. Commonly, fossils are essen tial for the delineation of carbonate rock types (facies or bio facies). We have written this book for sedimentary petrologists and stratigraphers, who routinely encounter fossils as part of their studies but who are not specialists in paleontology, and for students who are seeking a brief review and an introduction to the literature of the petrography of fossiliferous sedimentary rocks. Although experienced paleontologists may be appalled by the many generalized statements on size, shape, and principal fossil characters recited herein, we counter that we have had some success in introducing non-paleontologically oriented geologists to the use and identification of fossil constituents without using excessive paleontological terminology and detailed systematics."

Palaeomagnetism and archaeomagnetism are fascinating specialized studies because they are applicable to such a wide range of problems in geology, archaeology and geophysics. They can also be undertaken cheaply, when compared with most other geophysical techniques, and, at first sight, simply. In fact, real comprehension of the magnetic processes that have occurred in rocks and other types of material over several thousands or many millions of years is still extremely difficult to assess and measure. On this basis, this book cannot explain all such features, nor can it attempt to cover all the actual and potential applications of the method. All that can be attempted is to give an impression of the ways in which such techniques can be used in a wide variety of fields, and how these techniques are usually applied. The magnetization of rocks is, in fact, one of the earliest of the true sciences, but we are still not in a position to answer many of the problems posed. Consequently some of the examples given of applications are, essentially, state-of-the-art comments, rather than being a review as such. The changing position of the geomagnetic poles with time is still not adequately defined, for example, and some of the more recent conventional views are given, although the emphasis is placed on more subjective, probably more controversial, evaluations.