palaeontology

This title is not held in stock but we are happy to supply on special order. Please contact us. Vertebrate palaeontology is a lively field, with new discoveries being reported every week. This new edition reflects the international scope of vertebrate palaeontology, with a special focus on exciting new finds from China. Completely revised, the cladistic framework is strengthened, and new functional and developmental spreads are added. Study aids include: key questions, research to be done, and recommendations of further reading and web sites. The book is designed for palaeontology courses in biology and geology departments. It is also aimed at enthusiasts who want to experience the flavour of how the research is done. The book is strongly phylogenetic, and this makes it a source of current data on vertebrate evolution.

The fossil record of insects is incredibly diverse in terms of taxonomic scope, age range (Devonian to recent), mode of preservation (amber and rock) and geographical distribution (fossil insects have been recorded from all continents, including Antarctica). In Fossil Insects the authors aim to help bridge the palaeontology–entomology gap by providing a broadly accessible introduction to some of the best preserved fossil insects from a wide range of deposits from around the globe, many of which are beautifully illustrated by colour photographs. Also covered are insect behaviour and ecology in the fossil record, sub-fossil insects, trace fossils and insect species longevity.

Explores the rich fossil record of the Paleozoic Era, from the Cambrian (545 million years ago) through the Permian (almost 300 million years ago) with 650 high quality color photos and detailed, highly readable text. Following his successful work on the earliest fossils, the author now starts at that time in earth’s history when life blossomed into a variety of body plans (phyla), and explores the successive periods of the Paleozoic Era. These include the Cambrian; the early, mid-, and late Ordovician; the Silurian and Devonian with their numerous marine fossils and some of the earth’s first land plants and early fish; the diverse land plants and peculiar marine life of the Carboniferous (Mississippian and Pennsylvanian periods); and the fossils of the Permian, including many fossils of life forms that would go extinct in the worlds greatest extinction event. This is a great book for fossil hunters of all ilks and anyone interested in the early remnants of life. Those who collect or trade fossils will find a useful guide to the values of the fossils.

Aimed at the general reader, this book presents the life and times of the amazing animals that inhabited Earth more than 500 million years ago. During this critical time in Earth’s history nearly every modern group of animals appeared. Although life had been around for more than 2 million millennia, Cambrian rocks preserve the record of the first appearance of complex animals with eyes, protective skeletons, antennae, and complex ecologies. The cascade of interaction led to an ever-increasing diversification of animal body types. By the end of the period, the ancestors of sponges, corals, jellyfish, worms, mollusks, brachiopods, arthropods, echinoderms, and vertebrates were all in place. The evidence of this Cambrian “explosion” is preserved in rocks all over the world, including North America, where the seemingly strange animals of the period are preserved in exquisite detail in deposits such as the Burgess Shale in British Columbia.
Cambrian Ocean World tells the story of what is, for us, the most important period in our planet’s long history.

Dominating the early oceans of the world, Trilobites are extinct arthropods that evolved into a bewildering array of different forms. Fossil trilobite remains are found on every continent. This book shows some of the best preserved, complete examples from many different countries and includes specimens collected from many ‘classic’ old localities. This book will appeal to everybody interested in trilobites, from academics to fossil enthusiasts and collectors, who will all enjoy the sheer beauty and variety of the trilobites illustrated. This book features almost 700 species, illustrated by 1,000 colour photographs.

This title is not held in stock but we are happy to supply on special order. Please contact us. The Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in Utah, USA is the location of one of the best-known terrestrial records for the late Cretaceous. A recent major effort has documented over 2,000 new vertebrate fossil sites, provided new radiometric dates, and identified five new genera of ceratopsids, two new species of hadrosaur, a probable new genus of hypsilophodontid, new pachycephalosaurs and ankylosaurs, several kinds of theropods (including a new genus of oviraptor and a new tyrannosaur), plus the most complete specimen of a Late Cretaceous therizinosaur ever collected from North America, and much more. This book documents this major stepping stone toward a synthesis of the ecology and evolution of the Late Cretaceous ecosystems of western North America.