I have revised Moy-Thomas's widely used book on Palaeozoic fishes in an attempt to incorporate some of the considerable advances that have been made in this field over the last 30 years, which have in some respects made the first edition seriously out-of-date. The book is now inevitably longer, but its scope remains the same and the original approach has been main tained as far as possible. I have, however, undertaken a certain amount ofre arrangement of the contents, consonant with our changing views of fish evolution, and have tried to reflect some of the current preoccupations of students of fish evolution in expanded sections on mode of life and relation ships. The illustrations have been completely replaced, and in selecting the figures I have been faced with an embarrassing richness of source material. In an attempt to keep the figures down to a reasonable number, I have decided that it is better to have a few species illustrated with clear drawings than give thumb-nail sketches of all the forms mentioned in the text, and as far as possible to restrict the illustrations to Palaeozoic species. All the illustrations have been redrawn to a common style, and in some cases they have been specially prepared or modified for this book. Authors' names are now included in the text and a list of references is given at the end of each chapter.
Based on two decades of research, The Late Devonian Mass Extinction reviews the many theories that have been presented to explain the global mass extinction that struck the earth over 367 million years ago, considering in particular the possibility that the extinction was triggered by multiple impacts of extraterrestrial objects.
Dr. Tilly Edinger's first published paper dealt with a brain cast-in more exact terms an endocast of the cranial cavity-of Noth08auru8, a Triassic relative of the plesiosaurs. With this she embarked on a working lifetime of devotion to paleoneurology, a field of study that she was to transform. A daughter of the famous neurologist Ludwig Edinger, it was appropriate as well as fortunate that her early interest in fossil vertebrates should have become focused upon the recovery of such information concerning the history of the central nervous system as could be obtained from fossil material. Her father evidently had no direct influence upon her choice of· this then obscure and difficult subject, although within the family circle she presumably absorbed from him some appreciation of neoneurology. Indirectly, however, through his accumulation in Frankfurt of an outstanding collection of recent brains, he provided the comparative material essential to her studies during the years she spent there. Early in her career she published Die FOBsilen Gehirne (1929). Here was gathered together for the first time nearly all the widely scattered information on the topic. It had an immediate effect. As one author justly remarked, this "invaluable review . . . serves not only as a basis for continuing and systematizing research on brain casts but also as an indication of the more serious gaps in present knowledge" (Simpson, 1933). The bibliography appended to it listed 250 titles. A bibliography she published in 1937 included 160 additional titles.
The vertebrate integument arose about 450 million years ago as an ‘armour’ of dermal bony plates in small, jawless fish-like creatures, informally known as the ostracoderms. This book reviews the major changes that have occurred in the vertebrate integument from its beginnings to the present day. Critical questions concerning the origin, structure and functional biology of the bony integument are discussed and intrinsically linked to major steps in vertebrate evolution and phylogeny—the origin of jaws and the origin of teeth. The discussions include the origins of mineralization of major vertebrate skeletal components such as the dermatocranium, branchial arches and vertebral column. The advances that led to the origin of modern fishes and their phylogenetic development are reviewed and include the evolution of fins and replacement of the bony plates with several types of dermal scales. The evolution of reptiles saw a major transformation of the integument, with the epidermis becoming the protective outermost layer, from which the scales arose, while the dermis lay below it. The biological significance of the newly-evolved β-keratin in reptilian scales, among the toughest natural materials known, is discussed in the context of its major contribution to the great success of reptiles and to the evolution of feathers and avian flight. The dermis in many vertebrates is strengthened by layers of oppositely oriented cross-fibres, now firmly entrenched as a design principle of biomechanics. Throughout the book conventional ideas are discussed and a number of new hypotheses are presented in light of the latest developments. The long evolutionary history of vertebrates indicates that the significance of the Darwinian concept of “survival of the fittest” may be overstated, including in our own mammalian origins and that chance often plays a major role in evolutionary patterns. Extensive illustrations are included to support the verbal descriptions. Professor Theagarten Lingham-Soliar is in the Department of Life Sciences at the University of KwaZulu-Natal.
Nearly thirty million species of organisms are believed to now live on Earth. In addition to accumulating evidence from classical biology, paleontology and earth science, the recent progress of molecular biology has provided new insights into understanding how present-day organisms have evolved with such tremendous diversity. Molecular biological studies show us that all living forms, including E. coli and human beings, derive from a single ancestor that emerged some 4 billion years ago on Earth. This volume aims to discuss the motifs of organismic evolution from the viewpoints of biogeo-interactions and diversification of the genetic systems. Based on these fundamental understandings, the last section of this volume is devoted to human evolution that includes phylogeny of man as well as evolution of human culture. Such comprehensive discussion will give us a synthesized view of the evolution of life, that is undoubtedly one of the most important problems not only for science but also for human culture in general.
The examination of excavated human bone finds is mainly the domain of anthropologists and forensic pathologists, the former working with ancient and historical specimens, the latter with modern finds. The methodological and diagnostic approaches to these skeletal finds are the same, regardless of the time of burial. For physical an thropology, bodily human relics are dealt with as historical resources which give clues to ancient population structure, population develop ment, life-style and subsistence. They are thus able to help scientists understand the present state of human populations. The identification of the finds, whether species diagnosis or the evaluation of individual parameters such as sex, age at death, body size and shape, kinship and pathology follows the same procedure used by forensic patholo gists, whose task is the identification of bodily relics in cases of crime, mass disaster and the like. However, there are other disciplines which benefit from excavated bone finds. Anatomy gains insights into the morphological variability of the skeleton in time and place. The implications for modern physi cians and pathologists are at least two-fold: pathological specimens are suitable to unravel the distribution of many diseases and the susceptibility of individuals to pathogens in pre-antibiotic populations. In addition to this epidemiological aspect, exhumed specimens often exhibit advanced states of bone disease which are no longer or only very rarely present in today's industrialized populations because of efficient surgical intervention and pharmacological treatment.
The Encyclopedia of Paleontology is designed to address the shortage of general reference works on both vertebrate and invertebrate paleontology and to serve the needs of students and lay persons interested in the field. As the encyclopedia aims to provide basic information, the majority of the 350 entries are devoted to explanations of paleontological concepts and techniques, examinations of the evolutionary development of particular organisms and biological features, profiles of major discoveries, and biographies of leading scientists. Each entry includes an essay and a further reading list. An international team of 200 leading experts in the field has prepared the illustrations and the essays, which range from concise descriptions to comprehensive discussions.
