Download or read book Depositional Environments Lithostratigraphy and Biostratigraphy of the White River and Arikaree Groups Late Eocene to Early Miocene North America written by Dennis O. Terry and published by Geological Society of America. This book was released on 1998-01-01 with total page 230 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Late Eocene Earth written by Christian Koeberl and published by Geological Society of America. This book was released on 2009 with total page 334 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Late Eocene and the Eocene-Oligocene (E-O) transition mark the most profound oceanographic and climatic changes of the past 50 million years of Earth history, with cooling beginning in the middle Eocene and culminating in the major earliest Oligocene Oi-1 isotopic event. The Late Eocene is characterized by an accelerated global cooling, with a sharp temperature drop near the E-O boundary, and significant stepwise floral and faunal turnovers. These global climate changes are commonly attributed to the expansion of the Antarctic ice cap following its gradual isolation from other continental masses. However, multiple extraterrestrial bolide impacts, possibly related to a comet shower that lasted more than 2 million years, may have played an important role in deteriorating the global climate at that time. This book provides an up-to-date review of what happened on Earth at the end of the Eocene Epoch.
Download or read book The White River Badlands written by Rachel C. Benton and published by Indiana University Press. This book was released on 2015-05-25 with total page 257 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This guide to the South Dakota region that houses the world’s richest fossil beds does “an excellent job of presenting the current state of knowledge” (Choice). The forbidding Big Badlands in Western South Dakota contain the richest fossil beds in the world. Even today these rocks continue to yield new specimens brought to light by snowmelt and rain washing away soft rock deposited on a floodplain long ago. The quality and quantity of the fossils are superb: most of the species to be found there are known from hundreds of specimens. The fossils in the White River Group (and similar deposits in the American west) preserve the entire late Eocene through the middle Oligocene, roughly 35-30 million years ago and more than thirty million years after non-avian dinosaurs became extinct. The fossils provide a detailed record of a period of abrupt global cooling and what happened to creatures who lived through it. This book is a comprehensive reference to the sediments and fossils of the Big Badlands, and also touches on National Park Service management policies that help protect such significant fossils. Includes photos and illustrations “A worthy successor to the work of O’Harra.” —Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology
Download or read book Greenhouse of the Dinosaurs written by Donald R. Prothero and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2009 with total page 289 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Donald R. Prothero's science books combine leading research with first-person narratives of discovery, injecting warmth and familiarity into a profession that has much to offer nonspecialists. Bringing his trademark style and wit to an increasingly relevant subject of concern, Prothero links the climate changes that have occurred over the past 200 million years to their effects on plants and animals. In particular, he contrasts the extinctions that ended the Cretaceous period, which wiped out the dinosaurs, with those of the later Eocene and Oligocene epochs. Prothero begins with the "greenhouse of the dinosaurs," the global-warming episode that dominated the Age of Dinosaurs and the early Age of Mammals. He describes the remarkable creatures that once populated the earth and draws on his experiences collecting fossils in the Big Badlands of South Dakota to sketch their world. Prothero then discusses the growth of the first Antarctic glaciers, which marked the Eocene-Oligocene transition, and shares his own anecdotes of excavations and controversies among colleagues that have shaped our understanding of the contemporary and prehistoric world. The volume concludes with observations about Nisqually Glacier and other locations that show how global warming is happening much quicker than previously predicted, irrevocably changing the balance of the earth's thermostat. Engaging scientists and general readers alike, Greenhouse of the Dinosaurs connects events across thousands of millennia to make clear the human threat to natural climate change.
Download or read book Paleogene Fossil Birds written by Gerald Mayr and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2009-04-21 with total page 261 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the present book the Paleogene fossil record of birds is detailed for the first time on a worldwide scale. I have developed the idea for such a project for several years, and think that it is an appropriate moment to present a summary of our c- rent knowledge of the early evolution of modern birds. Meanwhile not only is there a confusing diversity of fossil taxa, but also significant progress has been made concerning an understanding of the higher-level phylogeny of extant birds. Hypotheses which were not considered even a decade ago are now well supported by independent analyses of different data. In several cases these group together morphologically very different avian groups and allow a better understanding of the mosaic character distribution found in Paleogene fossil birds. The book aims at bringing some of this information together, and many of the following data are based on first-hand examination of fossil specimens.
Download or read book Evolutionary History of Bats written by Gregg F. Gunnell and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2012-03-29 with total page 581 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Advances in morphological and molecular methods continue to uncover new information on the origin and evolution of bats. Presenting some of the most remarkable discoveries and research involving living and fossil bats, this book explores their evolutionary history from a range of perspectives. Phylogenetic studies based on both molecular and morphological data have established a framework of evolutionary relationships that provides a context for understanding many aspects of bat biology and diversification. In addition to detailed studies of the relationships and diversification of bats, the topics covered include the mechanisms and evolution of powered flight, evolution and enhancement of echolocation, feeding ecology, population genetic structure, ontogeny and growth of facial form, functional morphology and evolution of body size. The book also examines the fossil history of bats from their beginnings over 50 million years ago to their diversification into one of the most globally wide-spread orders of mammals living today.
Download or read book Late Cretaceous and Cenozoic Mammals of North America written by Michael O. Woodburne and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2004-04-21 with total page 413 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book places into modern context the information by which North American mammalian paleontologists recognize, divide, calibrate, and discuss intervals of mammalian evolution known as North American Land Mammal Ages. It incorporates new information on the systematic biology of the fossil record and utilizes the many recent advances in geochronologic methods and their results. The book describes the increasingly highly resolved stratigraphy into which all available temporally significant data and applications are integrated. Extensive temporal coverage includes the Lancian part of the Late Cretaceous, and geographical coverage includes information from Mexico, an integral part of the North American fauna, past and present.
Download or read book Paleoenvironmental Record and Applications of Calcretes and Palustrine Carbonates written by Ana María Alonso-Zarza and published by Geological Society of America. This book was released on 2006-01-01 with total page 252 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "This volume presents current understanding of the mechanisms and environments of the formation of calcretes and palustrine carbonates. Through a series of specific field examples, papers in this volume illustrate the wide variety of potential applications of these types of deposits. The papers presented here cover a wide array of ages and environmental settings of calcrete and palustrine deposition and include many interesting applications, such as the climatic and geomorphic controls on calcrete formation, possible modern analogues for palustrine carbonates, the interplay between palustrine, pedogenic, and diagenetic processes, the utility of radio-isotopic methods for dating pedogenic carbonates, applications to understanding landscape evolution, and reconstruction of diagenetic sequences. The result is a state-of-the-art book on these deposits so common in the geological record and in recent environments."--Publisher's website.
Download or read book Methods in Paleoecology written by Darin A. Croft and published by Springer. This book was released on 2018-10-27 with total page 410 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume focuses on the reconstruction of past ecosystems and provides a comprehensive review of current techniques and their application in exemplar studies. The 18 chapters address a wide variety of topics that span vertebrate paleobiology and paleoecology (body mass, postcranial functional morphology, evolutionary dental morphology, microwear and mesowear, ecomorphology, mammal community structure analysis), contextual paleoenvironmental studies (paleosols and sedimentology, ichnofossils, pollen, phytoliths, plant macrofossils), and special techniques (bone microstructure, biomineral isotopes, inorganic isotopes, 3-D morphometrics, and ecometric modeling). A final chapter discusses how to integrate results of these studies with taphonomic data in order to more accurately characterize an ancient ecosystem. Current investigators, advanced undergraduates, and graduate students interested in the field of paleoecology will find this book immensely useful. The length and structure of the volume also makes it suitable for teaching a college-level course on reconstructing Cenozoic ecosystems.
Download or read book Inland Dunes of North America written by Nicholas Lancaster and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2020-05-20 with total page 342 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Inland sand dunes are widespread in North America and are found from the North Slope of Alaska to the Sonoran Desert in northern Mexico and from the Delmarva Peninsula in the east to Southern California in the west. In this edited book, we highlight recent research on areas of inland dunes that span a range from those that are actively accumulating in current conditions of climate and sediment supply to those that were formed in past conditions and are now degraded relict systems. This book will be of interest to researchers and scholars of physical geography, geomorphology, environmental sciences, and earth sciences. Contributions include detailed analyses of individual active dune systems at White Sands, New Mexico; Great Sand Dunes, Colorado; and the Laurentian Great Lakes; as well as the vegetation-stabilized dunes of the Nebraska Sand Hills and the Colorado Plateau. Additional chapters discuss the widespread partially vegetated dune systems of the central and southern Great Plains; the relict dunes of the Atlantic Coastal Plain of the eastern USA; and active and stabilized dunes of the Colorado Plateau and the southwestern deserts of the USA and northern Mexico.
Download or read book The Geologic Time Scale 2012 written by Felix Gradstein and published by Elsevier. This book was released on 2012-09-01 with total page 1175 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Geologic Time Scale 2012, winner of a 2012 PROSE Award Honorable Mention for Best Multi-volume Reference in Science from the Association of American Publishers, is the framework for deciphering the history of our planet Earth. The authors have been at the forefront of chronostratigraphic research and initiatives to create an international geologic time scale for many years, and the charts in this book present the most up-to-date, international standard, as ratified by the International Commission on Stratigraphy and the International Union of Geological Sciences. This 2012 geologic time scale is an enhanced, improved and expanded version of the GTS2004, including chapters on planetary scales, the Cryogenian-Ediacaran periods/systems, a prehistory scale of human development, a survey of sequence stratigraphy, and an extensive compilation of stable-isotope chemostratigraphy. This book is an essential reference for all geoscientists, including researchers, students, and petroleum and mining professionals. The presentation is non-technical and illustrated with numerous colour charts, maps and photographs. The book also includes a detachable wall chart of the complete time scale for use as a handy reference in the office, laboratory or field. The most detailed international geologic time scale available that contextualizes information in one single reference for quick desktop access Gives insights in the construction, strengths, and limitations of the geological time scale that greatly enhances its function and its utility Aids understanding by combining with the mathematical and statistical methods to scaled composites of global succession of events Meets the needs of a range of users at various points in the workflow (researchers extracting linear time from rock records, students recognizing the geologic stage by their content)
Download or read book Sabertooth written by Mauricio Antón and published by Indiana University Press. This book was released on 2013-11-22 with total page 270 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “A unique review of the many unusual and nearly worldwide occurrences of sabertooths and their relatives over more than 50 million years.” —Choice With their spectacularly enlarged canines, sabertooth cats are among the most popular of prehistoric animals, yet it is surprising how little information about them is available for the curious layperson. What’s more, there were other sabertooths that were not cats, animals with exotic names like nimravids, barbourofelids, and thylacosmilids. Some were no taller than a domestic cat, others were larger than a lion, and some were as weird as their names suggest. Sabertooths continue to pose questions even for specialists. What did they look like? How did they use their spectacular canine teeth? And why did they finally go extinct? In this visual and intellectual treat of a book, Mauricio Antón tells their story in words and pictures, all scrupulously based on the latest scientific research. The book is a glorious wedding of science and art that celebrates the remarkable diversity of the life of the not-so-distant past. “The best paleomammal artist working today [and] his knowledge of sabertooths and their evolution is second to none.” —Lars Werdelin, Swedish Museum of Natural History “Mauricio Antón is one of the best paleoartists. What sets him apart is the fact that he is a great paleontologist in his own right. Probably no one else has thought more about sabertooth than he has. As a result, his illustrations often demonstrate a particular behavior of the extinct mammal that he has personally researched or display a unique point of view.” —Xiaoming Wang, Natural History Museum of Los Angeles
Download or read book Bulletin of the Florida Museum of Natural History written by and published by . This book was released on 2007 with total page 164 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Evolution of Snake like Body Form in Squamate Reptiles and the Phylogeny and Biogeography of the Scincid Genus Plestiodon written by Matthew Christopher Brandley and published by . This book was released on 2008 with total page 520 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Mammalian Evolutionary Morphology written by Eric J. Sargis and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2008-05-21 with total page 439 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book celebrates the contributions of Dr. Frederick S. Szalay to the field of Mammalian Evolutionary Morphology. Professor Szalay is a strong advocate for biologically and evolutionarily meaningful character analysis. He has published about 200 articles, six monographs, and six books on this subject. This book features subjects such as the evolution and adaptation of mammals and provides up-to-date articles on the evolutionary morphology of a wide range of mammalian groups.
Download or read book Pony Express written by and published by . This book was released on 1992 with total page 226 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book North Dakota History written by and published by . This book was released on 2007 with total page 248 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Journal of the Northern Plains.
