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Taphonomy

Taphonomy

Taphonomy

A Process Approach
Ronald E. Martin, University of Delaware
October 1999
Hardback
9780521591713

    Taphonomy: A Process Approach is the first book to review the entire field of taphonomy, or the science of fossil preservation. It describes the formation of animal and plant fossils in marine and terrestrial settings and how this affects deciphering the ecology and extinction of past lifeforms and the environments in which they lived. The volume emphasises a process approach to taphonomy and reviews the taphonomic behaviour of all important taxa, plant and animal. It will be useful to anyone interested in the preservation of fossils and the formation of fossil assemblages, but it is aimed primarily at advanced students and professionals working in paleontology, stratigraphy, sedimentology, climate modeling and biogeochemistry.

    • Was the first single-authored comprehensive book to cover the whole field of taphonomy
    • Applications of taphonomy to solving academic amd environmental problems included
    • Mathematical models developed whenever available

    Reviews & endorsements

    'Martin covers an impressive breadth of subjects … Subjects are presented in useful quantative detail.' Trends in Ecology and Evolution

    'Taphonomy: A Process Approach is a good measure of how far taphonomy and paleontology have come in the past decades … This synthesis is enormously valuable … makes excellent use of the research literature. Karl W. Flessa, Science

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    Product details

    October 1999
    Hardback
    9780521591713
    524 pages
    255 × 180 × 29 mm
    1.225kg
    94 b/w illus. 33 tables
    Temporarily unavailable - available from TBC

    Table of Contents

    • Preface
    • 1. Introduction: the science of taphonomy
    • 2. Biostratinomy I: necrolysis, transport and abrasion
    • 3. Biostratinomy II: dissolution and diagenesis
    • 4. Bioturbation
    • 5. Time-averaging of fossil assemblages: taphonomy and temporal resolution
    • 6. Exceptional preservation
    • 7. Sedimentation and stratigraphy
    • 8. Megabiases I: cycles of preservation and biomineralization
    • 9. Megabiases II: secular trends in preservation
    • 10. Applied taphonomy
    • 11. Taphonomy as an historical science
    • References.
      Author
    • Ronald E. Martin , University of Delaware