Sinossi
Authoritative essays on the pace and nature of evolutionary change.
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Descrizione del libro
This book brings together palaeontologists and evolutionary biologists to discuss the recent evidence and to consider the role of extinctions in the evolutionary process. All aspects are covered, ranging from extinctions in the fossil record through to threatened extinctions associated with human activity.
Contenuti
Preface; Introduction; 1. The causes of extinction; 2. What, if anything, are mass extinctions?; 3. Synchronology, taxonomy and reality; 4. Evolution and extinction in the marine realm; 5. Plants at the Cretaceous-Tertiary boundary; 6. Ammonoid extinction events; 7. There are extinctions and extinctions: examples from the lower Palaeozoic; 8. The biology of mass extinction: a palaeontological view; 9. Mass extinctions among tetrapods and the quality of the fossil record; 10. The Cretaceous-Tertiary boundary and the last of the dinosaurs; 11. Diversification and extinction patterns among Neogene perimediterranean mammals; 12. The case for extraterrestrial causes of extinction; 13. The case for sea-level change as a dominant causal factor in mass extinction of marine vertebrates; 14. Natural extinctions on islands; 15. The present, past and future of human-caused extinctions; 16. Mass extinction and the evolution of the human species.
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