"The chapters represent a surge of field and laboratory research activity, illustrating the impacts of new and refined methods and tools. This volume explores geologic and biologic history preserved in the strata bounding the Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary"--Provided by publisher.
Vertebrate palaeontology is a lively field, with new discoveries reported every week... and not only dinosaurs! This new edition reflects the international scope of vertebrate palaeontology, with a special focus on exciting new finds from China. A key aim is to explain the science. Gone are the days of guesswork. Young researchers use impressive new numerical and imaging methods to explore the tree of life, macroevolution, global change, and functional morphology. The fourth edition is completely revised. The cladistic framework is strengthened, and new functional and developmental spreads are added. Study aids include: key questions, research to be done, and recommendations of further reading and web sites. The book is designed for palaeontology courses in biology and geology departments. It is also aimed at enthusiasts who want to experience the flavour of how the research is done. The book is strongly phylogenetic, and this makes it a source of current data on vertebrate evolution.
In The Last Days of the Dinosaurs, Riley Black walks readers through what happened in the days, the years, the centuries, and the million years after the impact, tracking the sweeping disruptions that overtook this one spot, and imagining what might have been happening elsewhere on the globe. Life’s losses were sharp and deeply-felt, but the hope carried by the beings that survived sets the stage for the world as we know it now. Picture yourself in the Cretaceous period. It’s a sunny afternoon in the Hell Creek of ancient Montana 66 million years ago. A Triceratops horridus ambles along the edge of the forest. In a matter of hours, everything here will be wiped away. Lush verdure will be replaced with fire. Tyrannosaurus rex will be toppled from their throne, along with every other species of non-avian dinosaur no matter their size, diet, or disposition. They just don’t know it yet. The cause of this disaster was identified decades ago. An asteroid some seven miles across slammed into the Earth, leaving a geologic wound over 50 miles in diameter. In the terrible mass extinction that followed, more than half of known species vanished seemingly overnight. But this worst single day in the history of life on Earth was as critical for us as it was for the dinosaurs, as it allowed for evolutionary opportunities that were closed for the previous 100 million years.
The book reviews and summarizes the Indian Mesozoic geological evolution in an innovative alternative perspective of sequence stratigraphy. It mainly focuses on the Jurassic interval, but also concisely discusses the preceding Triassic and Cretaceous geological records. The key to the study is primarily held in the recently developed ammonoid based high resolution scales in the Triassic and Jurassic period. The Indian Jurassic record is thus elevated to a high resolution pedestal. The large intra-Jurassic stratigraphic gap in Kachchh, with increase in duration from margin to basin, has been précised in different sections, along with radical revision of its long held interpretation from sub-aerial to sub-marine all over from Arabia to Australia. Other significant gaps are also differentiated into sub-aerial and sub-marine. The Indian Late Precambrian – Neogene record is organized into five mega-sequences. Among these, the fourth – also the most important one – includes the intra-Permian to Early Eocene interval from the origin to the closure of the Neotethys. Based on multidisciplinary integration of the Indian Mesozoic geological record and comparison with hydrocarbon producing basins on east and west of India, a highly positive scenario of the hydrocarbon source/reservoir sediment perspective is outlined in the book in sequence stratigraphic backdrop as an edifice for future elaborate evaluation.
