Bringing Fossils to Life An Introduction to Paleobiology

About this book

Combining both paleontology and paleobiology, this text is targeted at undergraduate geology and biology majors, with the emphasis on organisms, rather than dead objects to be described and catalogued. Current ideas from modern biology, ecology, population genetics, and many other concepts are applied to the study of the fossil record.

Contents

The Fossil Record: A Window on the Past1 The Fossil Record2 Variation in Fossils3 Species and Speciation4 Systematics5 Evolution6 Extinction7 Functional Morphology8 Paleoecology9 Biogeography10 BiostratigraphyLife of the Past and Present11 Micropaleontology: Fossil Protistans12 Colonial Life: Sponges, Archaeocyathans, and Cnidarians 13 The Lophophorates: Brachiopods and Bryozoans14 Jointed Limbs: The Arthropods15 Kingdom of the Seashell: The Molluscs16 Spiny Skins: The Echinoderms17 Dry Bones: Vertebrates and Their Relatives18 Fossilized Behavior: Trace Fossils19 Traces of the Earth's Green Mantle: Paleobotany

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