Download or read book The Biogeochemistry and Paleoecology of Late Pleistocene Proboscideans from the Southern United States written by Kathryn Ann Hoppe and published by . This book was released on 2000 with total page 228 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Dissertation Abstracts International written by and published by . This book was released on 2000 with total page 852 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book American Doctoral Dissertations written by and published by . This book was released on 1999 with total page 848 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Megafauna written by Richard A. Fariña and published by Indiana University Press. This book was released on 2013-05-22 with total page 458 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “An enjoyable read that provides a substantial amount of detail on the biology, ecology, and distribution of these fantastic animals . . . Highly recommended.” —Choice More than 10,000 years ago spectacularly large mammals roamed the pampas and jungles of South America. This book tells the story of these great beasts during and just after the Pleistocene, the geological epoch marked by the great ice ages. Megafauna describes the history and way of life of these animals, their comings and goings, and what befell them at the beginning of the modern era and the arrival of humans. It places these giants within the context of the other mammals then alive, describing their paleobiology—how they walked; how much they weighed; their diets, behavior, biomechanics; and the interactions among them and with their environment. It also tells the stories of the scientists who contributed to our discovery and knowledge of these transcendent creatures and the environment they inhabited. The episode known as the Great American Biotic Interchange, perhaps the most important of all natural history “experiments,” is also an important theme of the book, tracing the biotic events of both North and South America that led to the fauna and the ecosystems discussed in this book. “Collectively, this book brings attention to the discovery and natural history of ancient beasts in South America while providing a broader temporal and geographic background that allows readers to understand their evolution and potential immigration to South America.” —Quarterly Review of Biology “An excellent volume . . . This book is likely to facilitate progress in the understanding of fossil mammals from the Americas.” —Priscum
Download or read book From Kostenki to Clovis written by Olga Soffer and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2013-06-29 with total page 510 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the American Side I went to the USSR for the first time in 1982 to attend the 11th meeting of the International Union for Quaternary research (INQUA) held at the Moscow State University. At that time relations between our two countries were anything but congenial and many restrictions were placed on our viewing the archaeological and paleontological collections and labora tory facilities. This was not the ideal climate for the free exchange of ideas needed for meaningful research. However, it was obvious to us that the strained relations did not extend to scientific discussions between scholars. We left that meeting well aware that if the problems of prehistoric Old World-New World relationships were to be resolved, it would eventually require cooperative research efforts within the world community of archaeologists. At that time, the pre-Clovis problem in New World archaeology was foremost in the minds of many North American researchers: tool technology and assemblages were being studied as a possible means of establishing cultural relationships across the Bering Strait, Clovis sites and mammoth kills were being looked at with new ideas for interpretation, and New World researchers realized that to resolve these questions they had to become familiar with the archaeological record of northeast Asia. A chance meeting of the writer with Olga Soffer in 1983 led to serious discussions of the sites on the Russian or East European Plain.
Download or read book Rancho La Brea written by Chester Stock and published by . This book was released on 1956 with total page 92 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Terrestrial Ecosystems Through Time written by Anna K. Behrensmeyer and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 1992-08-15 with total page 588 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Breathtaking in scope, this is the first survey of the entire ecological history of life on land—from the earliest traces of terrestrial organisms over 400 million years ago to the beginning of human agriculture. By providing myriad insights into the unique ecological information contained in the fossil record, it establishes a new and ambitious basis for the study of evolutionary paleoecology of land ecosystems. A joint undertaking of the Evolution of Terrestrial Ecosystems Consortium at the National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, and twenty-six additional researchers, this book begins with four chapters that lay out the theoretical background and methodology of the science of evolutionary paleoecology. Included are a comprehensive review of the taphonomy and paleoenvironmental settings of fossil deposits as well as guidelines for developing ecological characterizations of extinct organisms and the communities in which they lived. The remaining three chapters treat the history of terrestrial ecosystems through geological time, emphasizing how ecological interactions have changed, the rate and tempo of ecosystem change, the role of exogenous "forcing factors" in generating ecological change, and the effect of ecological factors on the evolution of biological diversity. The six principal authors of this volume are all associated with the Evolution of Terrestrial Ecosystems program at the National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution.
Download or read book Zooarchaeology and Modern Human Origins written by Jamie L. Clark and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2013-07-11 with total page 279 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Recent genetic data showing that Neanderthals interbred with modern humans have made it clear that deeper insight into the behavioral differences between these populations will be critical to understanding the rapid spread of modern humans and the demise of the Neanderthals. This volume, which brings together scholars who have worked with faunal assemblages from Europe, the Near East, and Africa, makes an important contribution to our broader understanding of Neanderthal extinction and modern human origins through its focus on variability in human hunting behavior between 70-25,000 years ago—a critical period in the later evolution of our species.
Download or read book The Everglades Florida Bay and Coral Reefs of the Florida Keys written by James Porter and published by CRC Press. This book was released on 2001-10-18 with total page 1025 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Providing a synthesis of basic and applied research, The Everglades, Florida Bay, and Coral Reefs of the Florida Keys: An Ecosystem Sourcebook takes an encyclopedic look at how to study and manage ecosystems connected by surface and subsurface water movements. The book examines the South Florida hydroscape, a series of ecosystems linked by hydrolog
Download or read book Fossil Horses of South America written by José Luis Prado and published by Springer. This book was released on 2017-04-25 with total page 157 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book provides an update on the phylogeny, systematics and ecology of horses in South America based on data provided over the past three decades. The contemporary South American mammalian communities were shaped by the emergence of the Isthmus of Panama and by the profound climatic oscillations during the Pleistocene. Horses were a conspicuous group of immigrant mammals from North America that arrived in South America during the Pleistocene. This group is represented by 2 genera, Hippidion and Equus, which include small species (Hippidion devillei, H. saldiasi, E. andium and E. insulatus) and large forms (Equus neogeus and H. principale). Both groups arrived in South America via 2 different routes. One model designed to explain this migration indicates that the small forms used the Andes corridor, while larger horses used the eastern route and arrived through some coastal areas. Molecular dating (ancient DNA) suggests that the South American horses separated from the North American taxa (caballines and the New World stilt-legged horse) after 3.6 - 3.2 Ma, consistent with the final formation of the Panamanian Isthmus. Recent studies of stable isotopes in these horses indicate an extensive range of 13C values cover closed woodlands to C4 grasslands. This plasticity agrees with the hypothesis that generalist species and open biome specialist species from North America indicate a positive migration through South America.
Download or read book Ecology Conservation and Management of Wild Pigs and Peccaries written by Mario Melletti and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2017-11-23 with total page 1417 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Wild pigs inhabit vast areas in Europe, Southern Asia and Africa, and have been introduced in North and South America, while feral pigs are widespread in Australia and New Zealand. Many wild pig species are threatened with extinction, but Eurasian wild boar populations, however, are increasing in many regions. Covering all wild pig and peccary species, the Suidae and Tayassuidae families, this comprehensive review presents new information about the evolution, taxonomy and domestication of wild pigs and peccaries alongside novel case studies on conservation activities and management. One hundred leading experts from twenty five countries synthesise understanding of this group of species; discussing current research, and gaps in the knowledge of researchers, conservation biologists, zoologists, wildlife managers and students. This beautifully illustrated reference includes the long history of interactions between wild pigs and humans, the benefits some species have brought us and their role and impact on natural ecosystems.
Download or read book Out of Africa I written by John G Fleagle and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2010-08-20 with total page 293 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For the first two thirds of our evolutionary history, we hominins were restricted to Africa. Dating from about two million years ago, hominin fossils first appear in Eurasia. This volume addresses many of the issues surrounding this initial hominin intercontinental dispersal. Why did hominins first leave Africa in the early Pleistocene and not earlier? What do we know about the adaptations of the hominins that dispersed - their diet, locomotor abilities, cultural abilities? Was there a single dispersal event or several? Was the hominin dispersal part of a broader faunal expansion of African mammals northward? What route or routes did dispersing populations take?
Download or read book The Physical Geography of South America written by Thomas T. Veblen and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2015-04-01 with total page 750 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Physical Geography of South America, the eighth volume in the Oxford Regional Environments series, presents an enduring statement on the physical and biogeographic conditions of this remarkable continent and their relationships to human activity. It fills a void in recent environmental literature by assembling a team of specialists from within and beyond South America in order to provide an integrated, cross-disciplinary body of knowledge about this mostly tropical continent, together with its high mountains and temperate southern cone. The authors systematically cover the main components of the South American environment - tectonism, climate, glaciation, natural landscape changes, rivers, vegetation, animals, and soils. The book then presents more specific treatments of regions with special attributes from the tropical forests of the Amazon basin to the Atacama Desert and Patagonian steppe, and from the Atlantic, Caribbean, and Pacific coasts to the high Andes. Additionally, the continents environments are given a human face by evaluating the roles played by people over time, from pre-European and European colonial impacts to the effects of modern agriculture and urbanization, and from interactions with El Niño events to prognoses for the future environments of the continent.
Download or read book Bulletin Division of Geology and Earth Resources written by Washington (State). Division of Geology and Earth Resources and published by . This book was released on 1974 with total page 420 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Extinctions in Near Time written by Ross D.E. MacPhee and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2013-11-09 with total page 402 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Near time" -an interval that spans the last 100,000 years or so of earth history-qualifies as a remarkable period for many reasons. From an anthropocentric point of view, the out standing feature of near time is the fact that the evolution, cultural diversification, and glob al spread of Homo sapiens have all occurred within it. From a wider biological perspective, however, the hallmark of near time is better conceived of as being one of enduring, repeat ed loss. The point is important. Despite the sense of uniqueness implicit in phrases like "the biodiversity crisis," meant to convey the notion that the present bout of extinctions is by far the worst endured in recent times, substantial losses have occurred throughout near time. In the majority of cases, these losses occurred when, and only when, people began to ex pand across areas that had never before experienced their presence. Although the explana tion for these correlations in time and space may seem obvious, it is one thing to rhetori cally observe that there is a connection between humans and recent extinctions, and quite another to demonstrate it scientifically. How should this be done? Traditionally, the study of past extinctions has fallen largely to researchers steeped in such disciplines as paleontology, systematics, and paleoecology. The evaluation of future losses, by contrast, has lain almost exclusively within the domain of conservation biolo gists. Now, more than ever, there is opportunity for overlap and sharing of information.
Download or read book Examining Evolutionary Trends in Equus and its Close Relatives from Five Continents written by Raymond Louis Bernor and published by Frontiers Media SA. This book was released on 2020-03-12 with total page 243 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Evolution of the horse has been an often-cited primary example of evolution, as well as one of the classic and important stories in paleontology for over a century and a half, due to their rich fossil record across 5 continents: North America, South America, Europe, Asia and Africa. The recent horse has served a profound role in human ancestry, including agriculture, commerce, sport, transport, warfare, and in prehistory, for the subsistence of humans. Many studies have examined the evolution of the Equidae and chronicled the striking changes in skulls, dentition, limbs, and body size which have long been perceived to be a response to environmental shifts through time. Most comprehensive studies heretofore have: (1) focused on the “Great Transformation”- changes that occurred in the early Miocene, (2) involved tracking long-term diversity or paleoecological trends on a single continent or within a geographical locality, or (3) concentrated on the 3-toed hipparions. The Plio–Pleistocene evolutionary stage of horse evolution is punctuated by the great climatic fluctuations of the Quaternary beginning 2.6 Ma which influenced Equus evolution, biogeographic dispersion and adaptation on a nearly global scale. The evolutionary biology of Equus evolution across its entire range remains relatively poorly understood and often highly controversial. Some of this lack of understanding is due to assumptions that have arisen because of the relatively derived craniodental and postcranial anatomy of Equus and its close relatives which has seemed to imply that that these forms occupied relatively homogenous and narrow dietary and locomotor niches - notions that have not been adequately addressed and rigorously tested. Other challenges have revolved around teasing apart environmentally-driven adaptation versus phylogenetically defined morphological change. Geochronologic age control of localities, geographic provinces and continents has improved, but in no way is absolute and can be reexamined in our proposed volume. Temporal resolution for paleodietary, paleohabitat and paleoecological interpretations are also challenging for understanding the evolution of Equus. Our proposed volume attempts to assemble a group of experts who will address multiple dimensions of Equus’ evolution in time and space.
