Paleobiology print books and ebooks | Elsevier

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