Earliest Tertiary Evolution and Radiation of Rodents in North America
Author: William W. Korth
Publisher:
Published: 1983
Total Pages: 2131
ISBN-13:
DOWNLOAD EBOOKRead and Download eBook Full
Author: William W. Korth
Publisher:
Published: 1983
Total Pages: 2131
ISBN-13:
DOWNLOAD EBOOKAuthor: William W. Korth
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Published: 2013-11-21
Total Pages: 315
ISBN-13: 1489914447
DOWNLOAD EBOOKNearly half of the known species of mammals alive today (more than 1600) are rodents or "gnawing mammals" (Nowak and Paradiso, 1983). The diversity of rodents is greater than that of any other order of mammals. Thus, it is not surprising that the fossil record of this order is extensive and fossil material of rodents from the Tertiary is known from all continents except Antarctica and Australia. The purpose of this book is to compile the published knowledge on fossil rodents from North America and present it in a way that is accessible to paleontologists and mammalogists interested in evolutionary studies of ro dents. The literature on fossil rodents is widely scattered between journals on paleontology and mammalogy and in-house publications of museums and universities. Currently, there is no single source that offers ready access to the literature on a specific family of rodents and its fossil history. This work is presented as a reference text that can be useful to specialists in rodents (fossil or recent) as weIl as mammalian paleontologists working on whole faunas. Because the diversity of rodents in the world is essentially limitless, any monograph that included all fossil rodents would similarly be limitless. Hence, this book is limited to the re cord of Tertiary rodents of North America. The several species of South American (caviomorph) rodents that invaded North America near the end of the Tertiary are also not included in this text.
Author: W. Patrick Luckett
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Published: 2013-11-11
Total Pages: 720
ISBN-13: 1489905391
DOWNLOAD EBOOKThe order Rodentia is the most abundant and successful group of mammals, and it has been a focal point of attention for compar ative and evolutionary biologists for many years. In addition, rodents are the most commonly used experimental mammals for bio medical research, and they have played a central role in investi gations of the genetic and molecular mechanisms of speciation in mammals. During recent decades, a tremendous amount of new data from various aspects of the biology of living and fossil rodents has been accumulated by specialists from different disciplines, ranging from molecular biology to paleontology. Paradoxically, our understanding of the possible evolutionary relationships among different rodent families, as well as the possible affinities of rodents with other eutherian mammals, has not kept pace with this information "explosion. " This abundance of new biological data has not been incorporated into a broad synthesis of rodent phylo geny, in part because of the difficulty for any single student of rodent evolution to evaluate the phylogenetic significance of new findings from such diverse disciplines as paleontology, embryology, comparative anatomy, molecular biology, and cytogenetics. The origin and subsequent radiation of the order Rodentia were based primarily on the acquisition of a key character complex: specializations of the incisors, cheek teeth, and associated mus culoskeletal features of the jaws and skull for gnawing and chewing.
Author: Thomas Stainforth Kemp
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Published: 2017
Total Pages: 169
ISBN-13: 0198766947
DOWNLOAD EBOOKRelative newcomers within the story of evolution, mammals are hugely successful and have colonized land, water, and air. Tom Kemp discusses the great diversity of mammalian species, and looks at how their very disparate characteristics, physiologies, and behaviours are all largely driven by one uniting factor: endothermy, or warm-bloodedness.
Author: Robert Warren Wilson
Publisher:
Published: 1949
Total Pages: 98
ISBN-13:
DOWNLOAD EBOOKAuthor: J. David Archibald
Publisher: JHU Press
Published: 2011-03-15
Total Pages: 121
ISBN-13: 0801898056
DOWNLOAD EBOOKThis study identifies the fall of dinosaurs as the factor that allowed mammals to evolve into the dominant tetrapod form. It refutes the single-cause impact theory for dinosaur extinction and demonstrates that multiple factors--massive volcanic eruptions, loss of shallow seas, and extraterrestrial impact--likely led to their demise. While their avian relatives ultimately survived and thrived, terrestrial dinosaurs did not. Taking their place as the dominant land and sea tetrapods were mammals, whose radiation was explosive following nonavian dinosaur extinction. The author argues that because of dinosaurs, Mesozoic mammals changed relatively slowly for 145 million years compared to the prodigious Cenozoic radiation that followed. Finally out from under the shadow of the giant reptiles, Cenozoic mammals evolved into the forms we recognize today in a mere ten million years after dinosaur extinction.
Author: Albert E. Wood
Publisher:
Published: 1935
Total Pages: 190
ISBN-13:
DOWNLOAD EBOOKAuthor: Kenneth D. Rose
Publisher: JHU Press
Published: 2006-10-31
Total Pages: 468
ISBN-13: 080189221X
DOWNLOAD EBOOKIn the tradition of G. G. Simpson's classic work, Kenneth D. Rose's The Beginning of the Age of Mammals analyzes the events that occurred directly before and after the mysterious K-T boundary which so quickly thrust mammals from obscurity to planetary dominance. Rose surveys the evolution of mammals, beginning with their origin from cynodont therapsids in the Mesozoic, contemporary with dinosaurs, through the early Cenozoic, with emphasis on the Paleocene and Eocene adaptive radiations of therian mammals. Focusing on the fossil record, he presents the anatomical evidence used to interpret behavior and phylogenetic relationships. The life's work of one of the most knowledgeable researchers in the field, this richly illustrated, magisterial book combines sound scientific principles and meticulous research and belongs on the shelf of every paleontologist and mammalogist.
Author: Albert Elmer Wood
Publisher:
Published: 1935
Total Pages: 190
ISBN-13:
DOWNLOAD EBOOKAuthor: Marie-Pierre Aubry
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Published: 1998
Total Pages: 542
ISBN-13: 0231102380
DOWNLOAD EBOOKThis book is a comprehensive collection of the best scholarship available on the transition between the Paleocene and Eocene epochs--when the earth experienced the warmest climatic episode of the Cenozoic era. These 21 contributions detail the major turnover among marine and terrestrial organisms that resulted from sudden global warming.