| Description | The book is about the ideas, methodology and scope of contemporary palaeobiology, rather than a comprehensive, detailed survey of the factual basis of the subject. It addresses the issue of how on the one hand evolutionary theory is necessary for interpretation of the fossil record, and yet on the other the fossils themselves can contribute to evolutionary theory. This is shown not to be the
circular argument between pattern and process sometimes alleged, but a matter of understanding carefully the interrelationship between palaeontological and neontological evidence.
The book is organised into two sections. Part 1 consists of four chapters outlining the principles, namely: the nature of the pattern/process relationship, taxonomic methods and the analysis of pattern,
evolutionary theory and the analysis of process and the nature of incompleteness of the fossil record and what to do about it. Armed with these principles and methods, Part 2 is devoted to the five central areas of contemporary research in evolutionary palaeobiology. These are: fossils and phylogenetic inference; the mechanism of speciation; taxonomic turnover on the geological time-scale;
mass-extinctions; the origin of new higher taxa. In each case the nature of the questions and the relevant kinds of evidence, including such new sources as molecular sequence data and stable isotope ratios where appropriate, are reviewed. The extent to which palaeobiology has, and has not yet, contributed to providing the sought after answers is made clear. |
Readership: Main. Undergraduate evolutionary biology courses in Biological Sciences (all years). Undergraduate courses in palaeobiology in Earth Sciences (all years). Subsidiary. Amateur enthusiasts for fossils, evolution and natural history.
| Contents |
1.
Introduction
Part I PRINCIPLES
2.
Some fundamental ideas
3.
Evolutionary theory: analysing process
4.
Taxonomy: analysing pattern
5.
Incompleteness and what to do about it
Part II PRACTICES
6.
Fossils and phylogeny: if only we had more fossils
7.
Speciation: gradual, punctuated, or what?
8.
Rules and laws of taxonomic turnover: are there any?
9.
Mass extinctions: resetting the evolutionary clock
10.
The origin of new higher taxa: the ultimate question
11.
Epilogue: where next?
References
Index
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| Authors, editors,
and contributors |
Tom Kemp, Lecturer in Zoology, and Curator of the Zoological Collections, Oxford University Museum of Natural History
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