Michael J. Benton - Introduction to Paleobiology and the Fossil Record

1. Chapter 2
2. Chapter 4
3. Chapter 5
4. Chapter 6
5. Chapter 11
6. Chapter 12
7. Chapter 20

1. Chapter 1
2. Chapter 2
3. Chapter 3
4. Chapter 4
5. Chapter 5
6. Chapter 6
7. Chapter 7
8. Chapter 8
9. Chapter 9
10. Chapter 10
11. Chapter 11
12. Chapter 12
13. Chapter 13
14. Chapter 14
15. Chapter 15
16. Chapter 16
17. Chapter 17
18. Chapter 18
19. Chapter 19
20. Chapter 20

SECOND EDITION

Michael J. Benton

University of Bristol, UK

David A. T. Harper

Durham University, UK

This second edition first published 2020 2020 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Edition History

John Wiley & Sons, Ltd (1e, 2009)

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Library of Congress CataloginginPublication Data

Names: Benton, M. J. (Michael J.), author. | Harper, D. A. T., author. Title: Introduction to paleobiology and the fossil record / Michael J. Benton, David A. T. Harper. Description: Second edition. | Hoboken, NJ : WileyBlackwell, 2020. | Includes index. Identifiers: LCCN 2019058768 (print) | LCCN 2019058769 (ebook) | ISBN 9781119272854 (paperback) | ISBN 9781119272861 (adobe pdf) | ISBN 9781119272885 (epub) Subjects: LCSH: Evolutionary paleobiology. | Paleobiology. | Paleontology. Classification: LCC QE721.2.E85 B46 2020 (print) | LCC QE721.2.E85 (ebook) | DDC 560dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019058768LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019058769

Cover Design: Wiley

Cover Images: (top, left to right) Robert Reisz, Sun Ge, Julia Molnar and Stephanie Pierce, used with permission, Ma Xiaoya, Wang Xiaofeng, David A. T. Harper, (bottom) Gentle Giant, featuring Tamisiocaris Nicholls/Paleocreations 2017

The history of life is documented by fossils through the past 3.5 billion years. Paleobiology provides a unique longterm perspective, which is important for three reasons: ancient life and environments can inform us about global change and the origins of modern biodiversity, and so provide information about how the world might change in the future; extinct plants and animals make up 99% of all species that ever lived, and so we need to know about them to understand the true scope of the tree of life; and extinct organisms did amazing things that no living plant or animal can do, and we need to explore their capabilities to assess the limits of form and function.

Every week, astonishing new fossil finds are announced the world's largest dinosaur from Argentina, new human remains from the caves of South Africa, an elephant from the United States, the oldest fishes from the Cambrian of South China. You read about these in the newspapers, but where do these stray findings fit into the greater scheme of things? Studying fossils can reveal the most astonishing organisms, many of them more remarkable than the wildest dreams (or nightmares) of a science fiction writer. Indeed, paleontology reveals a seemingly endless catalog of alternative universes, landscapes, and seascapes that look superficially familiar, but which contain plants that do not look quite right, animals that are very different from anything now living.

The last 50years have seen an explosion of paleontological research, where fossil evidence is used to study larger questions, such as climate change, mass extinctions, origins of modern biodiversity, highprecision dating of sedimentary sequences, the paleobiology of dinosaurs and Cambrian arthropods, the structure of Carboniferous coalswamp plant communities, ancient molecules, the search for oil and gas, the origin of humans, and many more. Paleontologists have benefited enormously from the growing interdisciplinary nature of their science, with major contributions from geologists, chemists, evolutionary biologists, physiologists, and even geophysicists and astronomers. Many areas of study have also been helped by an increasingly quantitative approach.

There are many paleontology texts that describe the major fossil groups or give a guided tour of the history of life. Here we hope to give students a flavor of the excitement of modern paleontology. We present all aspects of paleontology, not just invertebrate fossils or dinosaurs, but fossil plants, trace fossils, macroevolution, paleobiogeography, biostratigraphy, mass extinctions, biodiversity through time, and microfossils. Where possible, we show how paleontologists tackle controversial questions, and highlight what is known, and what is not known. This shows the activity and dynamism of modern paleobiological research. Many of these items are included in boxed features, some of them added at the last minute, to show new work in a number of categories, indicated by icons (see below for explanation).