Skip to main content
Elsevier

Books in Paleobiology

  • Vertebrate Ichnology

    Tetrapod Tracks and Trackways
    • 1st Edition
    • Spencer G Lucas + 2 more
    • English
    Vertebrate Ichnology: Introduction, History, Methodology and Devonian-Neogene Tetrapod Tracks is a complete review and analysis of vertebrate trace fossils, including how vertebrate trace fossils inform our understanding of major evolutionary events. It covers all aspects of the vertebrate trace fossil record including tetrapod footprints, fish traces and other trails, burrows, nests and more. Each record is reviewed by prominent experts with extensive illustrations and can be used as a tool to solve problems of vertebrate biochronology and biogeography. Megabiases in the record are identified, and trace fossils applied to analysis and the understanding of major events in the evolutionary history of vertebrates.This is a useful daily reference for paleontologists and geologists; and teaching professors or other researchers working in trace fossils and related fields, including university and graduate students.

  • Reconstructing Olduvai

    The Behavior of Early Humans at David's Site
    • 1st Edition
    • Manuel Domínguez-Rodrigo + 5 more
    • English
    Reconstructing Olduvai: The Behavior of Early Humans at David's Site provides the necessary information for future generations of archaeologists to peer into the lifestyle of early humans. Much of what is known about these hominins originates from the detailed excavations that Mary Leakey carried out at Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania. Since then, work at Olduvai has produced a wealth of new fossils, resulting in the discovery of David's Site, the biggest early Pleistocene site in the world. This will be an indispensable resource for students, academics, and researchers who share an interest in the evolution of early human behavior.Written by leaders of present-day excavations at Olduvai Gorge, this book is systematically divided into three parts to deliver a clear account of the research advancements at David's Site. Part I focuses on the presentation of the site and the description of its geological and palaeoecological reconstruction. Part II examines hominin feeding habits, including how they brought, processed, and consumed animals at the site. Part III explores hominin technologies, including reconstruction of the stone-tool activities carried out at the site.

  • Cognitive Archaeology, Body Cognition, and the Evolution of Visuospatial Perception

    • 1st Edition
    • Emiliano Bruner
    • English
    Cognitive Archaeology, Body Cognition, and the Evolution of Visuospatial Perception offers a multidisciplinary and comprehensive perspective on the evolution of the visuospatial ability in the human genus. It presents current topics in cognitive sciences and prehistoric archaeology, to provide a bridge between evolutionary anthropology and neurobiology. This book explores how body perception and spatial sensing may have evolved in humans, as to enhance a “prosthetic capacity” able to integrate the brain, body, and technological elements into a single functional system. It includes chapters on touch and haptics, peripersonal space, parietal lobe evolution, somatosensory integration, neuroarchaeology, visual behavior, attention, and psychometrics. Cognitive Archaeology, Body Cognition, and the Evolution of Visuospatial Perception represents an essential resource for evolutionary biologists, anthropologists, archaeologists, and neuroscientists who are interested in the role of body perception and spatial ability in human cognition.

  • Earth's Core

    Geophysics of a Planet's Deepest Interior
    • 1st Edition
    • Vernon F. Cormier + 2 more
    • English
    Earth’s Core: Geophysics of a Planet’s Deepest Interior　provides a　multidisciplinary approach to　Earth’s core, including　seismology... mineral physics, geomagnetism, and geodynamics.　The book　examines　curren... experiments,　and　the... outstanding research questions;　and　sugge... future directions for study.　 With topics ranging from the structure of the core-mantle boundary region, to the chemical and physical properties of the core, the workings of the　geodynamo, inner core seismology and dynamics, and core formation,　this　book... a multidisciplinary perspective　on what we know and what we know　we have yet to discover.　The book begins with　the　fundamental material and concepts in seismology, mineral physics,　geomagnetis... geodynamics, accessible　from　a wide range of backgrounds. The book then builds on this foundation　to introduce current research, including observations, experiments, and theories. By identifying unsolved problems and promising routes to their solutions, the book is intended to motivate further research, making it a valuable resource　both　for students entering Earth and planetary sciences and for researchers in a particular subdiscipline who need to broaden their understanding.

  • Made in Africa

    Hominin Explorations and the Australian Skeletal Evidence
    • 1st Edition
    • Steve Webb
    • English
    Made in Africa: Hominin Explorations and the Australian Skeletal Evidence describes and documents the largest collection of modern human remains in the world from its time period. These Australian fossils, which represent modern humans at the end of their great 20,000 km journey from Africa, may be reburied in the next two years at the request of the Aboriginal community. Part one of the book provides an overview of modern humans, their ancestors, and their journeys, explores the construct of human evolution over the last two and half million years, and defines the background to the first hominins and later modern humans to leave Africa, cross the world and meet other archaic peoples who had also travelled and undergone similar evolutionary pathways. Part two focuses on Australia and the evidence for its earliest people. The Willandra Lakes fossils represent the earliest arrivals and are the largest and most diverse late Pleistocene collection from this part of the world. Although twenty to twenty-five thousand years younger than the oldest archaeological site in Australia, they exemplify the migrating end-point of the human story that reflect a diversity and culture not recorded elsewhere in the world. Part three records the Willandra Lake Collection itself from a photographic and descriptive perspective. Evolutionary biologists and geneticists will find this book to be a valuable documentation of the 20,000 km hominid migration from Africa to the most distant parts of the world, and of the challenges and findings of the Willandra Lake Collection.

  • Evolutionary Paleobiology of Behavior and Coevolution

    • 1st Edition
    • A.J. Boucot
    • English
    This book is the culmination of many years of research by a scientist renowned for his work in this field. It contains a compilation of the data dealing with the known stratigraphic ranges of varied behaviors, chiefly animal with a few plant and fungal, and coevolved relations. A significant part of the data consists of ``frozen behavior'', i.e. those in which an organism has been preserved while actually ``doing'' something, as contrasted with the interpretations of behavior of an organism deduced from functional morphology, important as the latter may be.The conclusions drawn from this compilation suggest that both behaviors and coevolved relations appear infrequently, following which there is relative fixity of the relation, i.e., two rates of evolution, very rapid and essentially zero. This conclusion complies well with the author's prior conclusion that community evolution followed the same rate pattern. In fact, communities are regarded here, as in large part, expressions of both behavior and coevolved relations, rather than as random aggregates controlled almost wholly by varied, unrelated physical parameters tracked by organisms, i.e., the concept that communities have no biologic reality, being merely statistical abstractions.The book is illustrated throughout with more than 400 photographs and drawings. It will be of interest to ethologists, evolutionists, parasitologists, paleontologists, and palaeobiologists at research and post-graduate levels.

  • Primate Adaptation and Evolution

    • 3rd Edition
    • John G. Fleagle
    • English
    Primate Adaptation and Evolution, Third Edition, is a thorough revision of the text of choice for courses in primate evolution. The book retains its grounding in the extant primate groups as the best way to understand the fossil trail and the evolution of these modern forms. However, this coverage is now streamlined, making reference to the many new and excellent books on living primate ecology and adaptation – a field that has burgeoned since the first edition of Primate Adaptation and Evolution. By drawing out the key features of the extant families and referring to more detailed texts, the author sets the scene and also creates space for a thorough updating of the exciting developments in primate palaeontology – and the reconstruction through early hominid species – of our own human origins. This updated version covers recent developments in primate paleontology and the latest taxonomy, and includes over 200 new illustrations and revised evolutionary trees. This text is ideal for undergraduate and post-graduate students studying the evolution and functional ecology of primates and early fossil hominids.

  • Archaean Geochemistry

    Proceedings of the Symposium on Archaean Geochemistry: the Origin and Evolution of Archaean Continental Crust, held in Hyderabad, India, November 15-19, 1977
    • 1st Edition
    • Volume 1
    • English

  • The Late Neogene

    Biostratigraphy, geochronology, and paleoclimatology of the last 15 million years in marine and continental sequences
    • 1st Edition
    • Volume 2
    • English

  • Stratigraphic Micropaleontology of Atlantic Basin and Borderlands

    • 1st Edition
    • Volume 6
    • English

  • Precambrian of the Northern Hemisphere

    • 1st Edition
    • Volume 3
    • English

  • Calcareous algae

    • 1st Edition
    • Volume 4
    • English

  • The Jehol Fossils

    The Emergence of Feathered Dinosaurs, Beaked Birds and Flowering Plants
    • 1st Edition
    • Mee-Mann Chang + 3 more
    • English
    No other single volume reference to the Jehol site and its fossils exists and nowhere is there such a collection of fine photos of the fossils concerned. This book has pieced together the most up-to-date information on the Jehol Biota, a place that has shown the world some of the most astonishing fossil finds including the first complete skeleton of Archaeopteryx in 1861, four-winged dinosaurs- many feathered ones, the first beaked bird, the first plants with flowers and fruits, and thousands of species of invertebrates. Authors shed new light on a number of interesting theoretical issues in evolutionary biology today, such as the origin and early evolution of some major taxonomic groups. The first two chapters give an inviting introduction to the Jehol Biota in terms of its history of study, its main components, its scientific importance, its geographical, geological and biostratigraphic framework, and its renowned fossil discoveries. Each of the remaining chapters deals with a particular organismal group of the Biota written by leading experts. The book is lavishly illustrated with nearly 280 illustrations, which include 200 photographs that show the diversity of the taxa and beauty of their preservation. The colored life restorations, elegantly done by some of China's most celebrated scientific illustrators, give a kiss of life to the dead bones. Although targeted primarily at an educated public, the book is also an invaluable source of information for students and professionals in paleontology, geology, evolutionary biology and science education in general.

  • Trace Fossils

    Concepts, Problems, Prospects
    • 1st Edition
    • William Miller III
    • English
    This book serves as an up-to-date introduction, as well as overview to modern trace fossil research and covers nearly all of the essential aspects of modern ichnology. Divided into three section, Trace Fossils covers the historical background and concepts of ichnology, on-going research problems, and indications about the possible future growth of the discipline and potential connections to other fields. This work is intended for a broad audience of geological and biological scientists. Workers new to the field could get a sense of the main concepts of ichnology and a clear idea of how trace fossil research is conducted. Scientists in related disciplines could find potential uses for trace fossils in their fields. And, established workers could use the book to check on the progress of their particular brand of ichnology. By design, there is something here for novice and veteran, insider and outsider, and for the biologically-oriente... workers and for the sedimentary geologists.

  • Biogeography and Plate Tectonics

    • 1st Edition
    • Volume 10
    • J.C. Briggs
    • English
    One needs to look at only a small portion of the enormous literature on plate tectonics published in the last 15 years to realize that there are many differences between the various reconstructions that have been presented. It becomes obvious that, although there is a general agreement about the presence of an assembly of continents (a Pangaea) in the early Mesozoic, there is considerable disagreement among earth scientists as to the configurement of the assembly and the manner and timing of the subsequent dispersal. While the revolution in geophysics was taking place, systematic work in paleontology and neontology was being carried out. This book is an attempt to incorporate the biological evidence into the theory of plate tectonics.The author traces the changing relationships among the various biogeographic regions and demonstrates how such changes may often be correlated with the gradual geographic alteration of the earth's surface. He analyses recent information about the distribution of widespread groups of terrestrial and freshwater vertebrates, invertebrates and plants, and discusses the biogeographical effects of the movement of oceanic plates.It is particularly important to obtain dependable information about certain critical times in the history of continental relationships. We need to know when the terrestrial parts of the earth were broken apart and when they were joined together. The present investigation makes it clear that we cannot depend entirely on evidence from plate tectonics nor will purely biological evidence suffice. This book thus provides much of interest to systematists working on contemporary groups of plants and animals, paleontologists, evolutionary biologists, and professors teaching courses in biogeography.

  • Patterns of evolution, as illustrated by the fossil record

    • 1st Edition
    • Volume 5
    • English