Terrestrial Conservation Lagerstatten: Windows into the Evolution of Life on Land - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1780460147 ISBN 13: 9781780460147

Publisher: Liverpool University Press, 2017

Synopsis

Evolutionary biologists have long been concerned by the incompleteness of the fossil record. Although our knowledge of the diversity of life in ‘deep time’ has improved, many lineages of extant animals and plants still have only sparse fossil documentation. Even groups with ‘hard parts’ that render them suitable for fossilization often only have a limited record. Thus, although the fossil record is viewed as critical to the reconstruction of the evolutionary history of life, many biologists question its utility. Fortunately discoveries of occurrences of exceptionally preserved fossils, known as conservation Lagerstätten (Konservat-Lagerstätten), shed much light on the past diversity of life. This volume reviews selected conservation Lagerstätten for terrestrial animals and plants throughout the Phanerozoic worldwide and includes sites in Asia, Europe and North and South America. Together the papers demonstrate the enormous progress made in recent years both in documenting the biodiversity of such extraordinary fossil deposits and also in elucidating the geological conditions for and biogeochemical processes behind the formation of conservation Lagerstätten. Each contribution has been written by eminent palaeontologists who have enlisted additional expertise to make each chapter as comprehensive as possible.

N.B. Some corrections are available to this book and may be obtained from the publisher

About this title

About the Author

Edited by Nicholas C. Fraser of the National Museum of Scotland and Hans-Dieter Sues of the National Museum of Natural History of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC.

Edition details

• Publisher: Liverpool University Press
• Publication date: 2017
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1780460147
• ISBN 13: 9781780460147
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 450
• Editor: Fraser Nicholas, Sues Hans-Dieter