Principles of Benthic Marine Paleoecology

Principles of Benthic Marine Paleoecology
Author: Arthur James Boucot
Publisher:
Total Pages: 488
Release: 1981
Genre: Science
ISBN:

This book deals with the paleoecology of the shallow -water marine environment, emphasizing those aspects of both ecology and paleoecology considered to be useful for reconstructing the continental shelf, shallow water environments richly represented in the fossil record.

Evolutionary Paleoecology

Evolutionary Paleoecology
Author: Warren D. Allmon
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Total Pages: 585
Release: 2001-02-14
Genre: Science
ISBN: 0231528523

One of the most important questions we can ask about life is "Does ecology matter?" Most biologists and paleontologists are trained to answer "yes," but the exact mechanisms by which ecology matters in the context of patterns that play out over millions of years have never been entirely clear. This book examines these mechanisms and looks at how ancient environments affected evolution, focusing on long-term macroevolutionary changes as seen in the fossil record. Evolutionary paleoecology is not a new discipline. Beginning with Darwin, researchers have attempted to understand how the environment has affected evolutionary history. But as we learn more about these patterns, the search for a new synthetic view of the evolutionary process that integrates species evolution, ecology, and mass extinctions becomes ever more pressing. The present volume is a benchmark sampler of active research in this ever more active field.

Ichnology

Ichnology
Author: Luis A. Buatois
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 371
Release: 2011-08-11
Genre: Science
ISBN: 1139500643

Ichnology is the study of traces created in the substrate by living organisms. This is the first book to systematically cover basic concepts and applications in both paleobiology and sedimentology, bridging the gap between the two main facets of the field. It emphasizes the importance of understanding ecologic controls on benthic fauna distribution and the role of burrowing organisms in changing their environments. A detailed analysis of the ichnology of a range of depositional environments is presented using examples from the Precambrian to the recent, and the use of trace fossils in facies analysis and sequence stratigraphy is discussed. The potential for biogenic structures to provide valuable information and solve problems in a wide range of fields is also highlighted. An invaluable resource for researchers and graduate students in paleontology, sedimentology and sequence stratigraphy, this book will also be of interest to industry professionals working in petroleum geoscience.

Evolutionary Paleobiology

Evolutionary Paleobiology
Author: James W. Valentine
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Total Pages: 500
Release: 1996-12-15
Genre: Science
ISBN: 9780226389134

Representing the state of the art in evolutionary paleobiology, this book provides a much-needed overview of this rapidly changing field. An influx of ideas and techniques both from other areas of biology and from within paleobiology itself have resulted in numerous recent advances, including increased recognition of the relationships between ecological and evolutionary theory, renewed vigor in the study of ecological communities over geologic timescales, increased understanding of biogeographical patterns, and new mathematical approaches to studying the form and structure of plants and animals. Contributors to this volume—a veritable who's who of eminent researchers—present the results of original research and new theoretical developments, and provide directions for future studies. Individually wide ranging, these papers all share a debt to the work of James W. Valentine, one of the founders of modern evolutionary paleobiology. This volume's unified approach to the study of life on earth will be a major contribution to paleobiology, evolution, and ecology.

Patterns and Processes in the History of Life

Patterns and Processes in the History of Life
Author: D.M. Raup
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 448
Release: 2012-12-06
Genre: Medical
ISBN: 3642708315

Hypothesis testing is not a straightforward matter in the fossil record and here, too interactions with biology can be extremely profitable. Quite simply, predictions regarding long-term consequences of processes observed in liv ing organisms can be tested directly using paleontological data if those liv ing organisms have an adequate fossil record, thus avoiding the pitfalls of extrapolative approaches. We hope to see a burgeoning of this interactive effort in the coming years. Framing and testing of hypotheses in paleon tological subjects inevitably raises the problem of inferring process from pattern, and the consideration and elimination of a broad range of rival hy is an essential procedure here. In a historical science such as potheses paleontology, the problem often arises that the events that are of most in terest are unique in the history of life. For example, replication of the metazoan radiation at the beginning of the Cambrian is not feasible. How ever, decomposition of such problems into component hypotheses may at least in part alleviate this difficulty. For example, hypotheses built upon the role of species packing might be tested by comparing evolutionary dy namics (both morphological and taxonomic) during another global diversi fication, such as the biotic rebound from the end-Permian extinction, which removed perhaps 95% of the marine species (see Valentine, this volume). The subject of extinction, and mass extinction in particular, has become important in both paleobiology and biology.

Bringing Fossils to Life

Bringing Fossils to Life
Author: Donald R. Prothero
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Total Pages: 689
Release: 2013-11-12
Genre: Science
ISBN: 0231158920

The leading textbook in its field, this work 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. Written for biology and geology undergrads, the text bridges the gap between purely theoretical paleobiology and solely descriptive invertebrate paleobiology books, emphasizing the cataloguing of live organisms over dead objects. This third edition revises art and research throughout, expands the coverage of invertebrates, includes a discussion of new methodologies, and adds a chapter on the origin and early evolution of life.

Palaeoecology

Palaeoecology
Author: P.J. Brenchley
Publisher: CRC Press
Total Pages: 432
Release: 2023-07-14
Genre: Science
ISBN: 1000939405

The first palaeoecology book to focus on evolutionary palaeoecology, in both marine and terrestrial environments. Discusses reconstruction of the past ecological world at population, community and biogeographic levels. A well-illustrated and substantial volume giving accessible coverage of the full range of subjects within palaeoecology. Reviews and summarises all the major mass extinctions.

Stratigraphic Paleobiology

Stratigraphic Paleobiology
Author: Mark E. Patzkowsky
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Total Pages: 274
Release: 2012-04-16
Genre: Nature
ISBN: 0226649377

This work weaves important strands of the paleontological literature into a coherent worldview that emphasizes the importance of understanding the geological record.

Limnology in Australia

Limnology in Australia
Author: P. de Deckker
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 669
Release: 2012-12-06
Genre: Science
ISBN: 9400948204

Australia is the world's driest inhabited continent. Water is our limiting resource. It might therefore be thought that our water resources would be the subject of the most intensive study. Certain aspects, it must be conceded, have received much attention, notably the availability of water in terms of actual quantity. The size of the surface water and the groundwater resource is well understood and indeed receives about as much study as can reasonably be expected in a country with as sparse a population and level of scientific manpower as ours. Although the importance of understanding the water resource in terms of quantity is widely accepted, what has not been generally appreciated is that for this resource to be 'available' to human society for all the different uses to which it is put, it is not sufficient that there exists within easy reach of the end users a certain total volume of water. For that water to fulfil its functions-for agriculture, industry, the home, recreation, biological conservation-it must be in a certain state: it must conform to certain chemical, physical and biological criteria, and what has not been sufficiently appreciated in Australian society is that the condition a water is in depends very much on the ecology of the waterbody in which it resides. There are waterbodies in the world, for example high-altitude glacial lakes, which are naturally so pristine that their water could be used for any purpose without treatment.