Evolutionary Patterns

Evolutionary Patterns
Author: Alan H. Cheetham
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Total Pages: 416
Release: 2001-08
Genre: Science
ISBN: 0226389316

With all the recent advances in molecular and evolutionary biology, one could almost wonder why we need the fossil record. Molecular sequence data can resolve taxonomic relationships, experiments with fruit flies demonstrate evolution and development in real time, and field studies of Galapagos finches have provided the strongest evidence for natural selection ever measured in the wild. What, then, can fossils teach us that living organisms cannot? Evolutionary Patterns demonstrates the rich variety of clues to evolution that can be gleaned from the fossil record. Chief among these are the major trends and anomalies in species development revealed only by "deep time," such as periodic mass extinctions and species that remain unchanged in form for millions of years. Contributors explore modes of development, the tempo of speciation and extinction, and macroevolutionary patterns and trends. The result is an important contribution to paleobiology and evolutionary biology, and a spirited defense of the fossil record as a crucial tool for understanding evolution and development. The contributors are Ann F. Budd, Efstathia Bura, Leo W. Buss, Mike Foote, Jörn Geister, Stephen Jay Gould, Eckart Hâkansson, Jean-Georges Harmelin, Lee-Ann C. Hayek, Jeremy B. C. Jackson, Kenneth G. Johnson, Nancy Knowlton, Scott Lidgard, Frank K. McKinney, Daniel W. McShea, Ross H. Nehm, Beth Okamura, John M. Pandolfi, Paul D. Taylor, and Erik Thomsen.

Systematics and the Fossil Record

Systematics and the Fossil Record
Author: Andrew B. Smith
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Total Pages: 233
Release: 2009-07-15
Genre: Science
ISBN: 1444313908

This new text sets out to establish the key role played by systematics in deciphering patterns of evolution from the fossil record. It begins by considering the nature of the species in the fossil record and then outlines recent advances in the methodology used to establish phylogenetics relationships, stressing why fossil evidence can be crucial. The way species are grouped into higher taxa, and how this affects their utility in evolutionary studies is also discussed. Because the fossil record abounds with sampling and preservational biases, the book emphasizes that observed patterns can rarely be taken at face value. It is argued that evolutionary trees, constructed from combining phylogenetic and biostratigraphic data, provide the best approach for investigating patterns of evolution through geologic time. The only integrated text covering the study of evolutionary patterns from a phylogenetic stance.

Prehistoric Life

Prehistoric Life
Author: Bruce S. Lieberman
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Total Pages: 405
Release: 2010-03-22
Genre: Science
ISBN: 1444334085

Prehistoric life is the archive of evolution preserved in the fossil record. This book focuses on the meaning and significance of that archive and is designed for introductory college science students, including non-science majors, enrolled in survey courses emphasizing paleontology, geology and biology. From the origins of animals to the evolution of rap music, from ancient mass extinctions to the current biodiversity crisis, and from the Snowball Earth to present day climate change this book covers it, with an eye towards showing how past life on Earth puts the modern world into its proper context. The history of life and the patterns and processes of evolution are especially emphasized, as are the interconnections between our planet, its climate system, and its varied life forms. The book does not just describe the history of life, but uses actual examples from life’s history to illustrate important concepts and theories.

Patterns and Processes of Vertebrate Evolution

Patterns and Processes of Vertebrate Evolution
Author: Robert Lynn Carroll
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 442
Release: 1997-04-28
Genre: Science
ISBN: 9780521478090

The factors that influenced the evolution of the vertebrates are compared with the importance of variation and selection that Darwin emphasised in this broad study of the patterns and forces of evolutionary change.

Applying Evolutionary Archaeology

Applying Evolutionary Archaeology
Author: Michael J. O'Brien
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 481
Release: 2007-05-08
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0306474689

Anthropology, and by extension archaeology, has had a long-standing interest in evolution in one or several of its various guises. Pick up any lengthy treatise on humankind written in the last quarter of the nineteenth century and the chances are good that the word evolution will appear somewhere in the text. If for some reason the word itself is absent, the odds are excellent that at least the concept of change over time will have a central role in the discussion. After one of the preeminent (and often vilified) social scientists of the nineteenth century, Herbert Spencer, popularized the term in the 1850s, evolution became more or less a household word, usually being used synonymously with change, albeit change over extended periods of time. Later, through the writings of Edward Burnett Tylor, Lewis Henry Morgan, and others, the notion of evolution as it applies to stages of social and political development assumed a prominent position in anthropological disc- sions. To those with only a passing knowledge of American anthropology, it often appears that evolutionism in the early twentieth century went into a decline at the hands of Franz Boas and those of similar outlook, often termed particularists. However, it was not evolutionism that was under attack but rather comparativism— an approach that used the ethnographic present as a key to understanding how and why past peoples lived the way they did (Boas 1896).

Species Coexistence

Species Coexistence
Author: M. Tokeshi
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Total Pages: 464
Release: 2009-06-22
Genre: Science
ISBN: 1444313355

As a novel endeavour in ecological science, this book focuses on amajor issue in organismal life on Earth:species coexistence. Thebook crosses the usual disciplinary boundaries betweenpalaeobiology, ecology and evolutionary biology and provides atimely overview of the patterns and processes of species diversityand coexistence on a range of spatio-temporal scales. In thisunique synthesis, the author offers a critical and penetratingexamination of the concepts and models of coexistence and communitystructure, thus making a valuable contribution to the field ofcommunity ecology. There is an emphasis on clarity andaccessibility without sacrificing scientific rigour, making thisbook suitable for both advanced students and individual researchersin ecology, palaeobiology and environmental and evolutionarybiology. Comprehensive and contemporary synthesis. Pulls together the aggregate influence of evolution and ecologyon patterns in communities. Balanced mix of theory and empirical work. Clearly structured chapters with short introduction andsummary.

Controversy Catastrophism and Evolution

Controversy Catastrophism and Evolution
Author: Trevor Palmer
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 463
Release: 2012-12-06
Genre: Science
ISBN: 1461549019

In Controversy, Trevor Palmer fully documents how traditional gradualistic views of biological and geographic evolution are giving way to a catastrophism that credits cataclysmic events, such as meteorite impacts, for the rapid bursts and abrupt transitions observed in the fossil record. According to the catastrophists, new species do not evolve gradually; they proliferate following sudden mass extinctions. Placing this major change of perspective within the context of a range of ancient debates, Palmer discusses such topics as the history of the solar system, present-day extraterrestrial threats to earth, hominid evolution, and the fossil record.

Systematics, Ecology, and the Biodiversity Crisis

Systematics, Ecology, and the Biodiversity Crisis
Author: Niles Eldredge
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Total Pages: 244
Release: 1992
Genre: Nature
ISBN: 9780231075282

This book explores the biological underpinnings of social systems from invertebrates to mammals, particularly humans. These social systems, the authors argue, represent fusions between the economic and reproductive interests of organisms. Their theory reinstates the importance of economics in social organizations of all types, moving away from the more prominent emphasis on reproductive biology at the core of sociobiology.

Bringing Fossils to Life

Bringing Fossils to Life
Author: Donald R. Prothero
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Total Pages: 689
Release: 2013-11-05
Genre: Science
ISBN: 0231536909

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.