The Proterozoic Biosphere
The Proterozoic Biosphere
Replaced by:
9780521367936
The Proterozoic Biosphere is the first major study of the paleobiology of the Proterozoic Earth. It is a multidisciplinary work dealing with the evolution of the Earth, the environment, and life during the forty percent of Earth's history that extends from the middle of the Precambrian Eon (2500 Ma) to the beginning of the Paleozoic Era (550 Ma.). The Proterozoic Biosphere includes a vast amount of new data on Proterozoic organisms and their modern analogs. Prepared by the Precambrian Paleobiology Research Group, a multidisciplinary consortium of forty-one scientists from eight countries, this monograph will serve as a benchmark in the development of the science of the biochemistry and the organic chemistry of Proterozoic sediments.
The three main goals of this study are: (1) to amass, evaluate, and synthesize the large body of paleobiologic data available from previous studies, eliminating mistakes so that future investigations will not be encumbered by them; (2) to generate new data and new analyses based on the reexamination of previous studies and on new investigations within an interdisciplinary framework; (3) to build toward the future by placing special emphasis on new or relatively neglected aspects of paleobiologic study and by highlighting major unsolved problems in the field.
- Includes new data
- A multidisciplinary study
- Deals with the evolution of the Earth, the environment and life
Reviews & endorsements
"...has many merits. Without exception, the contributing authors are distinguished scientists whose interpretations warrant serious consideration. Annotated lists of published fossil occurrences and biogeochemical data, as well as an extensive bibliography, provide ready access to an extensive and often scattered literature." William Sims Bainbridge, Science
"...will surely remain the standard reference of the period...." Leonard T. Boyer, Paleontological Notes
"...documents the vast time interval of about 40 percent of the history of our globe...a conformed level of text and a uniform, easy-to-read prose style." Lynn Margulis, The Quarterly Review of Biology
"...this monumental work will be an essential reference for any student of Proterozoic life, from advanced undergraduate to specialist." J. Hannibal, Choice
"...contains a painstaking testing and development of numerous hypotheses...encyclopedic scope...is undoubtedly a benchmark." Ian J. Fairchild, Nature
"...vast and wide-ranging...here are the experts, and here is the best general survey available of the evolution of life in nearly half the Earth's history...this book has been long needed, and will be a fundamental reference...a compulsory buy for any institution teaching Earth history." Euan Nisbet, New Scientist
"...an important resource that should find its way into libraries. Anyone with a serious interest in the half of recorded Earth history encompassed by the Proterozoic Eon will want to consult it for data compilations, references, and skeletal discussions of life's evolutionary maturation." Andrew H. Knoll, Science
"...an essential addition to the library of any geologist with an interest in the vanished Proterozoic world." Simon Conway Morris, Geology Magazine
"...will surely remain the standard reference of the period...[a] magnificent work..." Leonard Boyer, NY Paleontological Society Notes
"This is an impressive book of about 1348 pages, representing the work of 42 authors. It covers about 2000 million years of earth history from almost every aspect, including the structural and sedimentological evolution of the earth, biogeochemistry, microfossils, body fossils, trace fossils and palaeomagnetic models....[S]hould at least be on the shelf of every earth science library." T.P. Crimes, Geological Journal
Product details
June 1992Hardback
9780521366151
1374 pages
289 × 149 × 75 mm
3.455kg
Replaced by 9780521367936
Table of Contents
- List of contributors
- Preface
- Part I:
- 1. Geology and paleobiology of the Archean Earth
- 2. Geological evolution of the Proterozoic Earth
- 3. Proterozoic biochemistry
- 4. Proterozoic atmosphere and ocean
- 5. Proterozoic and selected early Cambrian microfossils: prokaryotes and protists
- 6. Modern mat-building microbial communities: a key to the interpretation of Proterozoic stromatolitic communities
- 7. Proterozoic and earliest Cambrian carbonaceous remains, trace and body fossils
- 8. The Proterozoic-early Cambrian evolution of metaphytes and metazoans
- 9. Molecular phylogenetics, molecular paleontologym and the Proterozoic fossil record
- 10. Biostratigraphy and paleobiology of the Proterozoic
- 11. Biotic diversity and rates of evolution during Proterozoic and earliest Phanerozoic time
- 12. A paleogeographic model for Vendian and Cambrian time
- 13. Evolution of the Proterozoic biosphere: benchmarks, tempo and mode
- Part II:
- 14. Geographic and geologic data for PPRG rock samples
- 15. Flow chart and processing procedures for rock samples
- 16. Procedures of whole rock and kerogen analysis
- 17. Abundances and isotopic compositions of carbon and sulphur species in whole rock and kerogen samples
- 18. Procedures for analysis of extractable organic matter
- 19. Composition of extractable organic matter
- 20. Modern mat-building microbial communities: methods of investigation and supporting data
- 21. Construction and use of geological, geochemical and paleobiological databases
- 22. Proterozoic and selected early Cambrian microfossils and microfossil-like objects
- 23. Described taxa of Proterozoic and selected earliest Cambrian Carbonaceous remains, trace and body fossils
- 24. Atlas of representative Proterozoic microfossils
- 25. Informal revised classifications of Proterozoic microfossils
- 26. Models for Vendian-Cambrian biotic diversity and for Proterozoic atmospheric and ocean chemistry
- 27. Glossary of technical terms
- References cited
- Subject index
- Index to geologic units
- Taxonomic index.
