The question of the existence of other worlds and other living beings has been present in the human quest for knowledge since as far as Epicurus. For centuries this question belonged to the fields of philosophy and theology. The theoretical problem of the formation of the Solar System, and hence of other planetary systems, was tackled only during the 18th century, while the first observational attempts for a detection started less than one hundred years ago. Direct observation of an extra-solar planetary system is an extraordinarily difficult problem: extra-solar planets are at huge distances, are incredibly faint and are overwhelmed by the bright light of their own stars. With virtually no observational insight to test their models, theoreticians have remained for decades in a difficult position to make substantial progress. Yet, the field of stellar formation has provided since the 1980s both the the oretical and observational evidences for the formation of discs at the stage of star birth and for debris materials orbiting the very young stellar systems. It was tempting to consider that these left-overs might indeed later agglomerate into planetary systems more or less similar to ours. Then came observational evidences for planets outside the Solar System.

When fossils of birds from China's Jehol region first appeared in scientific circles, the world took notice. These Mesozoic masterpieces are between 120 and 131 million years old and reveal incredible details that capture the diversity of ancient bird life. Paleontologists all over the world began to collaborate with Chinese colleagues as new and wondrous fossil-related discoveries became regular events. The pages of National Geographic and major scientific journals described the intricate views of feathers as well as food still visible in the guts of these ancient birds. Now, for the first time, a sweeping collection of the most interesting of Jehol's avian fossils is on display in this beautiful book. Birds of Stone makes visible the unexpected avian diversity that blanketed the earth just a short time (geologically speaking) after a dinosaur lineage gave rise to the first birds. Our visual journey through these fossils is guided by Luis M. Chiappe, a world expert on early birds, and Meng Qingjin, a leading figure in China's natural history museum community. Together, they help us understand the "meaning" of each fossil by providing straightforward narratives that accompany the full-page photographs of the Jehol discoveries. Anyone interested in the history of life-from paleontologists to inquisitive birders-will find Birds of Stone an irresistible feast for the eyes and mind.

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.

Presenting new data on the now classical aspects of Gondwana geology, this work also highlights the increasing international interest as to how the Gondwana supercontinent was assembled. The book is organized according to three themes: assembly, evolution and dispersal, containing 57 papers of specialists in the area.
Assembly: Late Proterozoic-Early Palaeozoic mobile belts of Gondwana, South America, Africa & Australo-Antarctica.
Evolution: Detailed palynological & palaeontological research of Late Palaeozoic- Mesozoic palaeoclimate.
Dispersal: Novel approach to predicting past plate motions followed by series of papers covering the break-up history of Gondwana;

With their spectacularly enlarged canines, sabertooth cats are among the most popular of prehistoric animals, yet it is surprising how little information about them is available for the curious layperson. What's more, there were other sabertooths that were not cats, animals with exotic names like nimravids, barbourofelids, and thylacosmilids. Some were no taller than a domestic cat, others were larger than a lion, and some were as weird as their names suggest. Sabertooths continue to pose questions even for specialists. What did they look like? How did they use their spectacular canine teeth? And why did they finally go extinct? In this visual and intellectual treat of a book, Mauricio Anton tells their story in words and pictures, all scrupulously based on the latest scientific research. The book is a glorious wedding of science and art that celebrates the remarkable diversity of the life of the not-so-distant past. -- Indiana University Press

1. 1 Objectives of this Study The vertebrate middle ear has attracted the interest of morphologists for more than a century. Its difficult structure, its complicated evolutionary derivation, and its integration of branchial, cranial, and otic materials into a single func- tional unit have made it a key organ for the understanding of vertebrate structures and their evolutionary history. Gaupp's (1898, 1913) and Reichert's (1837) comparative morphological studies of the vertebrate middle ear repre- sented milestones for anatomy in the general recognition and acceptance of Darwin's theory of evolution. These fundamental studies notwithstanding, today's knowledge of avian middle ear structures is still characterized by descriptive studies focusing on character sampling to elucidate high-level phylogeny. Phylogenetic studies have considered either structural aspects of the bony stapes exclusively (Feduccia 1974, 1975a,b, 1976, 1977, 1978), or focused on the anatomy of the middle ear cavity, neglecting the sound trans- mission apparatus (Saiff 1974, 1976, 1978a,b, 1981, 1982, 1983, 1988). Other studies have investigated late-stage embryos and concentrated on the develop- ment of the skull, considering middle ear structures only as a side aspect. However, there are considerable structural differences between the middle ears of late-stage embryos, hatchlings, and adults of the same species. Although vertebrate morphology requires a meticulous knowledge of comparative middle ear data and calls upon an elaborate system of homologies, it turns out that knowledge of middle ear structural details is widely dispersed among different species and different developmental stages, making a comparison even more difficult.

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.

I am pleased to present this volume of invited reviews and research case studies, produced to mark the retirement of Professor A. G. Smith - one of the leading researchers in Holocene palaeoecology. A. G. Smith took his first degree at the University of Sheffield, graduating in 1951 with a first-class honours degree in Botany. His doctorate was awarded in 1956 for a study in late-Quaternary vege tational history, based in the Sub-Department of Quaternary Research at the University of Cambridge, under the supervision of the late Sir Harry Godwin, FRS. He then researched and taught at Queen's University, Belfast, from 1954, leading the Nuffield Quaternary Research Unit there, becoming Co-Director of the Palaeoecology Laboratory from 1964. He was appointed Professor and Head of the Department of Botany (later, Plant Science) at University College, Cardiff, in 1973, and retired from the School of Pure and Applied Biology at the renamed University of Wales College, Cardiff, in August 1991. Although his principal interests have been concerned with the post-glacial environmental history of the British Isles, Professor Smith has significantly in fluenced many researchers elsewhere in their interpretation of biological and other evidence for human modification of the natural environment.

A Companion to Paleopathology offers a comprehensive overview of this rapidly growing sub- field of physical anthropology. * Presents a broad overview of the field of paleopathology, integrating theoretical and methodological approaches to understand biological and disease processes throughout human history * Demonstrates how paleopathology sheds light on the past through the analysis of human and non-human skeletal materials, mummified remains and preserved tissue * Integrates scientific advances in multiple fields that contribute to the understanding of ancient and historic diseases, such as epidemiology, histology, radiology, parasitology, dentistry, and molecular biology, as well as archaeological, archival and historical research. * Highlights cultural processes that have an impact on the evolution of illness, death and dying in human populations, including subsistence strategies, human environmental adaptations, the effects of malnutrition, differential access to resources, and interpersonal and intercultural violence

Recent developments in Pleistocene research have prompted the authors to produce this up-to-date, concise account of environmental changes during the past two million years. Well-illustrated and referenced, it possesses a unique position in the literature on Pleistocene events in the British Isles.

The geologie term "'Tethys" introduced by Eduard Suess (1893) into Reience waR originally a paleogeographic one. Since its original des- eription it has been used in various ways. One of them is Tethys as a paleo-biogeographie eoneept. This eoneept was adopted for IGCP Project 262, Tethyan Cretaeeous Correlation. It was proposed by G. CSASZAR and Heim; A. KOLLMANN and has been approved by the IGCP Board in February 1987. The projeet haR its aimH primarily in the improvement of the stra- tigraphie cOl'relation between the heterogenous faeies of the Tethyan realm. The requests to paleontology in this programme are of variouR kindH: The delimitation of the Tethyan realm in spaee and time needH a dear statements on the eomposition of Tethyan faunal 01' floral assem- blages. Riozones based on various fossil groups have to be eRtablished fOI' biostratigraphie eorrelation. Finally, Tethyan bioprovinees have to be established. TheHe problems have been diseussed in a special meeting of the palaeontologieal group of the projeet whieh was held on January 25-27, 1988, in Vienna. Papers presented at this meeting are published in this volume. Heinz A. KOLI.MANN 1. Cretaceous Tethys versus Mesogee Xew Aspects on Tethyan Cretaceous Fossil Assemblages. Band 9 Schriftenreihe der Erdwissenschaftlichen Kommissionen der Osterreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften. 15-33.

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. The geological evidence for ancient climates is examined, such as the distribution of climate-sensitive sediments - including coals, evaporites and glacial deposits, the environmental tolerances of fossil plants and animals, and the geochemical record. 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. What are the causes of climatic change? 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.

Most people are familiar with the dodo and the dinosaur, but extinction has occurred throughout the history of life, with the result that nearly all the species that have ever existed are now extinct. Today, species are disappearing at an ever increasing rate, whilst past losses have occurred during several great crises. Issues such as habitat destruction, conservation, climate change, and, during major crises, volacanism and meteorite impact, can all contribute towards the demise of a group. In this Very Short Introduction, Paul B. Wignall looks at the causes and nature of extinctions, past and present, and the factors that can make a species vulnerable. Summarising what we know about all of the major and minor exctinction events, he examines some of the greatest debates in modern science, such as the relative role of climate and humans in the death of the Pleistocene megafauna, including mammoths and giant ground sloths, and the roles that global warming, ocean acidification, and deforestation are playing in present-day extinctions ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.

The previously unpublished correspondence of T.H.Huxley with Rev. George Gordon is an important new addition to the literature on Huxley and Victorian science. The correspondence is self-contained and wholely scientific, concerning the unexpected discovery of reptilian fossils and footprints near Elgin, and relates to a most important aspect of Huxley's career: defining the relationship between geology and palaentology. The letters are complemented by an incisive analysis of Huxley's work as a palaentologist and the development of his views on evolution.

This volume is dedicated to the interdisciplinary study of dynamic biological changes through the Phanerozoic which are associated with mass extinction events and similar biotic crises, and their causal mechanisms. In particular, it documents in detail the complex nature of terrestrial and extraterrestrial feedback loops that are associated with many mass extinction intervals. Authors have been asked to represent most of the known mass extinction events through time, and to comment on the complex earthbound or extraterrestrial causes (or both) for global biotic crises. The reader is offered new perspectives of extinction boundaries, a more innovative and diverse approach to causal mechanisms and mass extinction theory, blended views of paleobiologists, oceanographers, geochemists, volcanologists, and sedimentologists by an international cast of authors. No other book on extinction presents such a broad spectrum of data and theories on the subject of mass extinction.

The Laboratory for Vertebrate Paleontology at the University of Allberta houses type specimens of fossil fishes. This book is a catalogue of these specimens. Included for each entry is taxonomy, detailed collection locality information, the citation wherein the species was originally described, and a list of individual type specimens. This is the first list ever compiled of the fossil fish types deposited in the collections of the University of Alberta Laboratory for Vertebrate Paleontology (UALVP). This collection contains 88 fish holotypes, 966 fish paratypes, 55 casts of fish holotypes from other museums, and 20 casts of fish paratypes from other museums. Key selling features: List all of the type specimens of fossil fishes currently housed in the collection of the Laboratory of Vertebrate Paleontology at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada. Provides details of all 88 holotypes and nearly 1000 paratypes as well as casts of types specimens held in other museum collections. Includes information on unpublished "types" - type specimens of not yet described new species.

'What are we going to do with a parcel of old stones?' wrote the director of an African museum a century and a half ago, when one of my ancestors presented him with a splendid collection of fossils of mammal-like reptiles. Old stones, however intriguing, are difficult to interpret, dusty, and do not fit well in the neatly ordered contents of a house of learning. Archaean geology, which is the study of the Earth's history in the period from after 9 the end of planetary accretion (4.5-4.4 x 10 years ago) up to the beginning 9 of the Proterozoic (2.5 x 10 years ago) is much the same - a parcel of old stones seemingly impossible to understand. Yet these stones contain the history of our origins: they can tell us a story that is interesting not just to the geologist (for whom this book is primarily written) but instead addresses the human condition in general.

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

The term "carbon cycle" is normally thought to mean those processes that govern the present-day transfer of carbon between life, the atmosphere, and the oceans. This book describes another carbon cycle, one which operates over millions of years and involves the transfer of carbon between rocks and the combination of life, the atmosphere, and the oceans. The weathering of silicate and carbonate rocks and ancient sedimentary organic matter (including recent, large-scale human-induced burning of fossil fuels), the burial of organic matter and carbonate minerals in sediments, and volcanic degassing of carbon dioxide contribute to this cycle. In The Phanerozoic Carbon Cycle, Robert Berner shows how carbon cycle models can be used to calculate levels of atmospheric CO 2 and O 2 over Phanerozoic time, the past 550 million years, and how results compare with independent methods. His analysis has implications for such disparate subjects as the evolution of land plants, the presence of giant ancient insects, the role of tectonics in paleoclimate, and the current debate over global warming and greenhouse gases

Transformative Paleobotany: Papers to Commemorate the Life and Legacy of Thomas N. Taylor features the broadest possible spectrum of topics analyzing the structure, function and evolution of fossil plants, microorganisms, and organismal interactions in fossil ecosystems (e.g., plant paleobiography, paleoecology, early evolution of land plants, fossil fungi and microbial interactions with plants, systematics and phylogeny of major plant and fungal lineages, biostratigraphy, evolution of organismal interactions, ultrastructure, Antarctic paleobotany). The book includes the latest research from top scientists who have made transformative contributions. Sections are richly illustrated, well concepted, and characterize and summarize the most up-to-date understanding of this respective and important field of study.

Part of an series of monographs and memoirs in palaeontology and biostratigraphy The publication, Brachiopods from the Maastrichtian Danian Boundary Sequence, at Nye Klov, Jylland, Denmark is Number 20 in the international Fossils and Strata series.

This book is volume 33 of the yearbook series 'Palaeoecology of Africa' presenting the outcome of a 'tribute conference' to the internationally recognized South African researcher and palynologist Professor Louis Scott. He has recently retired, but is continuing his active research career. The conference proceedings and articles published here highlight and celebrate Prof. Scott's contribution to palaeoscience and to the natural sciences in general. The conference was organized in July 2014 by the National Museum, Bloemfontein and the University of the Free State, South Africa, and focused on both past and present environments, ecosystems and climates of the arid regions of southern Africa, an area that serves as major focus of Prof. Scott's research. Louis Scott's research interests include stratigraphic palynology, long-term continental environmental change during the Cainozoic, and interpretation of palaeoenvironmental records associated with archaeological sites. His research has contributed insights into the origin of our current environment by identifying long-term patterns of climate change. Results have been applied in numerical models of vegetation change in Africa and globally. The results of these studies are relevant across the fields of botany, geology, climatology, archaeology, anthropology and palaeontology. The chapters revisit and discuss the scientific work of Prof. Scott: among others the reconstructions of vegetation and climatic history in various areas of southern Africa, including the Tswaing Crater with a record of 200 000 years, that give insights into environmental conditions during the Last Glacial Period and the subsequent development of modern conditions. Some observations also provide key baseline information, contributing to understanding past human and environmental contexts and climatic change and the effects of global warming.

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.

Why are humans so fond of water? Why is our skin colour so variable? Why aren't we hairy like our close ape relatives? A savannah scenario of human evolution has been widely accepted primarily due to fossil evidence; and fossils do not offer insight into these questions. Other alternative evolutionary scenarios might, but these models have been rejected. This book explores a controversial idea - that human evolution was intimately associated with watery habitats as much or more than typical savannahs. Written from a medical point of view, the author presents evidence supporting a credible alternative explanation for how humans diverged from our primate ancestors. Anatomical and physiological evidence offer insight into hairlessness, different coloured skin, subcutaneous fat, large brains, a marine-type kidney, a unique heat regulation system and speech. This evidence suggests that humans may well have evolved, not just as savannah mammals, as is generally believed, but with more affinity for aquatic habitats - rivers, streams, lakes and coasts. Key Features: Presents the evidence for a close association between riparian habitats and the origin of humans Reviews the "savannah ape" hypothesis for human origins Describes various anatomical adaptations that are associated with hypotheses of human evolution Explores characteristics from the head and neck such as skull and sinus structures, the larynx and ear structures and functions

Polycystine radiolaria are exclusively marine protists and are found in all ocean waters, from polar regions to the tropics, and at all water depths. There are approximately 600 distinct described living species and several thousand fossil species of polycystines. Radiolarians in general, and polycystines in particular, have recently been shown to be a major component of the living plankton and important to the oceanic carbon cycle. As fossils radiolarians are also fairly common, and often occur in sediments where other types of fossils are absent. This has made them very valuable for certain types of geologic research, particularly estimating the geologic age of the sediments containing them, and as guides to past oceanic water conditions. As our current understanding of the biology, and even taxonomy of the living fauna is still very incomplete, evolutionary studies based on living polycystines are still rare. However, the common occurrence of numerous specimens for many species, and in a wide variety of oceanic environments, provides an excellent opportunity to study the processes of biologic evolution in the fossil record. Paleobiology of the Polycystine Radiolaria is the first major book on radiolarians to appear in the western literature since 2001. Focusing on living and fossil siliceous shelled radiolarians, it is notable for its emphasis not upon morphologic or taxonomic detail but on concepts and applications. The book attempts to provide a balanced, critical review of what is known of the biology, ecology, and fossil record of the group, as well as their use in evolutionary, biostratigraphic and paleoceanographic research. Full chapters on the history of study, and molecular biology, are the first ever in book form. Written for an audience of advanced undergraduate to doctoral students, as well as for a broad range of professionals in the biological and Earth sciences, Paleobiology of the Polycystine Radiolaria summarizes current understanding of the marine planktonic protist group polycystine radiolaria, both in living and fossil form.