Vertebrate palaeontology / Michael J. Benton.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Benton, M. J. (Michael J.)

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Vertebrates, Fossil.

Physical Description:

xii, 452 pages : illustrations ; 25 cm

Edition:

Second edition.

Place of Publication:

London : Blackwell Science, 2000.

Summary:

The story of the evolution of the vertebrates is fascinating. Currently, there is an explosion of new research ideas in the field: the closest fossil relatives of the vertebrates; dramatic new fish specimens unlike anything now living; the adaptations required for the move on to land; the relationships of the early amphibians and reptiles; the origins and biology of the dinosaurs; the role of mass extinction in vertebrate evolution; new Mesozoic birds; the earliest mammals; ecology and mammalian diversification; and the origins and evolution of humans. Vertebrate Palaeontology presents a complete outline of the history of the vertebrates, based on the latest studies by palaeontologists around the world. The work is international in scope, and new material included here for the first time comes from North and South America, Australia, Europe, China, Africa and Russia.

A key aim of the book is to show how vertebrate palaeontologists obtain their information. There is an illustrated account of how to dig up a dinosaur and how to interpret the bones. In addition, detailed case studies are presented which show how palaeontologists study taphonomy, exceptional preservation, form and function of bizarre animals and reconstruct phylogeny from cladistic analyses of morphological and molecular data. This new edition is extensively revised to include a great deal of material derived from work done in the 1990s. There is a new chapter on how to study fossil vertebrates and more emphasis is given to cladograms including full lists of diagnostic characters.

Vertebrate Palaeontology is designed for palaeontology courses given by biology and geology departments. It is also aimed at the enthusiast who wants to experience the real flavour of how leading palaeontologists design their research programmes and carry out multidisciplinary studies of ancient vertebrates. The book has a strongly phylogenetic focus making it an up-to-date source of the latest broad-scale systematic data on vertebrate evolution.

Contents:

1 Vertebrate origins 1

1.1 The oldest chordate and the oldest vertebrate 3

1.2 Sea squirts and the lancelet 4

1.3 Phylum Hemichordata: pterobranchs and acorn worms 6

1.4 Chordate origins: embryology and relationships 6

1.5 Craniates and the head 12

2 How to study fossil vertebrates 15

2.1 Digging up bones 16

2.2 Geology and fossil vertebrates 22

2.3 Biology and fossil vertebrates 27

3 Early fishes 37

3.1 The extinct jawless fishes 38

3.2 Living agnathans 47

3.3 Origin of jaws and gnathostome relationships 50

3.4 Class Chondrichthyes: the first sharks 53

3.5 Class Placodermi: armour-plated monsters 54

3.6 Class Acanthodii: the 'spiny skins' 58

3.7 Devonian environments 59

3.8 The bony fishes 64

3.9 Early fish evolution and mass extinction 70

4 The early tetrapods and amphibians 75

4.1 Problems of life on land 76

4.2 Devonian tetrapods 80

4.3 The Carboniferous world 84

4.4 Diversity of Carboniferous tetrapods 86

4.5 Temnospondyls and reptiliomorphs after the Carboniferous 92

4.6 Evolution of the modern amphibians 97

5 The evolution of early amniotes 103

5.1 Hylonomus and Paleothyris

biology of the first amniotes 104

5.2 The cleidoic egg

a private pond 105

5.3 The Carboniferous amniotes 109

5.4 The Permian world 111

5.5 Pelycosaurs

the sail-backed synapsids 112

5.6 The therapsids of the Late Permian 114

5.7 Radiation of anapsids and diapsids in the Permian 121

5.8 Mass extinction 127

6 Reptiles of the Triassic 133

6.1 The Triassic scene 134

6.2 Evolution of the archosauromorphs 135

6.3 In Triassic seas 148

6.4 The origin of the dinosaurs 151

7 The evolution of fishes after the Devonian 157

7.1 The early sharks and chimaeras 158

7.2 Post-Palaeozoic chondrichthyan evolution 164

7.3 The early bony fishes 168

7.4 Radiation of the teleosts 175

7.5 Post-Devonian evolution of fishes 182

8 The age of dinosaurs 187

8.1 Biology of Plateosaurus 188

8.2 The Jurassic and Cretaceous world 190

8.3 The diversity of saurischian dinosaurs 191

8.4 The diversity of ornithischian dinosaurs 201

8.5 Dinosaurian biology

warm-blooded or not? 214

8.6 Order Pterosauria 221

8.7 Order Crocodylia 230

8.8 Order Testudines: the turtles 233

8.9 Superorder Lepidosauria 236

8.10 The great sea dragons 241

8.11 Diversification of Jurassic

Cretaceous reptiles 246

8.12 The great extinction 249

9 The birds 259

9.1 Archaeopteryx 260

9.2 The origins of bird flight 265

9.3 Toothed birds of the Cretaceous 268

9.4 Flightless birds: Division Palaeognathae 274

9.5 Division Neognathae 276

9.6 Diversification of the birds 285

10 The mammals 287

10.1 The cynodonts and the acquisition of mammalian characters 288

10.2 Morganucodon

the first mammal 297

10.3 The Mesozoic mammals 301

10.4 The marsupials 310

10.5 South American mammals

another world apart 312

10.6 The beginning of the age of placental mammals 321

10.7 Order Lipotyphla: hedgehogs, moles and shrews 328

10.8 Order Carnivora 328

10.9 Superorder Archonta: bats, tree shrews, flying lemurs and primates 331

10.10 Radiation of the rodents 336

10.11 Order Perissodactyla: browsers and grazers 341

10.12 Order Artiodactyla: cattle, deer and pigs 344

10.13 Order Cetacea: evolution of the whales 348

10.14 Grandorder Paenungulata: elephants and their relatives 351

10.15 Orders Tubulidentata and Pholidota: odd ant-eaters 356

10.16 Extinctions in the Ice Ages 356

10.17 Phylogeny of the placentals 357

10.18 The pattern of mammalian evolution 360

11 Human evolution 363

11.1 What are the primates? 364

11.2 The early fossil record of primates 365

11.3 Superfamily Hominoidea: the apes 370

11.4 Evolution of human characteristics 374

11.5 The early stages of human evolution 378

11.6 The last two million years of human evolution 382

Appendix Classification of the vertebrates 391.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [407]-435) and index.

ISBN:

0632056142

OCLC:

44597155