Download or read book New Perspectives on Horned Dinosaurs written by Michael J. Ryan and published by Indiana University Press. This book was released on 2010-06-22 with total page 1180 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Easily distinguished by the horns and frills on their skulls, ceratopsians were one of the most successful of all dinosaurs. This volume presents a broad range of cutting-edge research on the functional biology, behavior, systematics, paleoecology, and paleogeography of the horned dinosaurs, and includes descriptions of newly identified species.
Download or read book Hadrosaurs written by David A. Eberth and published by Indiana University Press. This book was released on 2014-11-05 with total page 640 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A comprehensive study of the Late Cretaceous, duck-billed dinosaur, featuring insights on its origins, anatomy, and more. Hadrosaurs—also known as duck-billed dinosaurs—are abundant in the fossil record. With their unique complex jaws and teeth perfectly suited to shred and chew plants, they flourished on Earth in remarkable diversity during the Late Cretaceous. So ubiquitous are their remains that we have learned more about dinosaurian paleobiology and paleoecology from hadrosaurs than we have from any other group. In recent years, hadrosaurs have been in the spotlight. Researchers around the world have been studying new specimens and new taxa seeking to expand and clarify our knowledge of these marvelous beasts. This volume presents the results of an international symposium on hadrosaurs, sponsored by the Royal Tyrrell Museum and the Royal Ontario Museum, where scientists and students gathered to share their research and their passion for duck-billed dinosaurs. A uniquely comprehensive treatment of hadrosaurs, the book encompasses not only the well-known hadrosaurids proper, but also Hadrosaouroidea, allowing the former group to be evaluated in a broader perspective. The 36 chapters are divided into six sections—an overview, new insights into hadrosaur origins, hadrosaurid anatomy and variation, biogeography and biostratigraphy, function and growth, and preservation, tracks, and traces—followed by an afterword by Jack Horner. “Well designed, handsome and fantastically well edited (credit there to Patricia Ralrick), congratulations are deserved to the editors for pulling together a vast amount of content, and doing it well. The book contains a huge quantity of information on these dinosaurs.” —Darren Naish, co-author of Tetrapod Zoology, Scientific American “Hadrosaurs have not had the wide publicity of their flesh-eating cousins, the theropods, but this remarkable dinosaur group offers unique opportunities to explore aspects of palaeobiology such as growth and sexual dimorphism. In a comprehensive collection of papers, all the hadrosaur experts of the world present their latest work, exploring topics as diverse as taxonomy and stratigraphy, locomotion and skin colour.” —Michael Benton, University of Bristol
Download or read book Timetrees Incorporating Fossils and Molecules 2nd edition written by Michel Laurin and published by Frontiers Media SA. This book was released on 2022-09-15 with total page 194 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Calibrating phylogenies to time is central to addressing many questions in evolutionary biology and macroevolution. The fossil record once provided our only source for establishing a timeline for evolution. However, the incompleteness of the fossil record and the non-uniformity of fossil recovery rate make it challenging to obtain precise estimates of divergence times from fossil evidence alone. Molecular dating, which combines evidence from the geological and molecular records, enables us to generate a much more complete and precise timeline of events. The molecular clock can be time-calibrated using temporal evidence from fossils and used to estimate divergence times based on the assumption that the rate of sequence evolution will be approximately constant over time and among lineages. Methodological challenges to applying this concept in practice have been to relax the assumption of constant evolutionary rates and to model the uncertainty associated with paleontological and geological calibrations. To this end, available statistical methods have become increasingly complex in order to capture key features of empirical data. These are typically applied using Bayesian inference, which provides a powerful framework for incorporating multiple sources of uncertainty. Although overall more effort has been expended in developing models of molecular sequence evolution, critical advances have also included approaches to modeling taxonomic diversification and fossilization. In particular, recent advances in birth-death process models have allowed for continuous sampling along lineages, enabling more information from the fossil record to be incorporated into dating analyses in a statistically coherent way. In addition, available dating methods can now be applied to scenarios in which no molecular data may be available, allowing for novel insights into the evolution of entirely extinct clades. Other recent innovations enable us to date divergence times among taxa that have no fossil record, including the use of gene duplication events or biogeographic evidence. Furthermore, time-calibrated trees are necessary for obtaining phylogenetic estimates of taxonomic diversification and extinction rates, which can now be jointly inferred along with lineage divergence times. These approaches offer an exciting opportunity to understand the evolution of life in deep time, although key challenges remain, especially with regards to modeling the processes of genome evolution, taxonomic diversification and fossil recovery. In this Research Topic, we focus on recent advances in methodology, outstanding challenges, and the application of molecular and paleontological dating methods to empirical case studies across the Tree of Life.
Download or read book written by and published by . This book was released on 2015 with total page 96 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Phylonyms written by Kevin de Queiroz and published by CRC Press. This book was released on 2020-04-30 with total page 1030 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Phylonyms is an implementation of PhyloCode, which is a set of principles, rules, and recommendations governing phylogenetic nomenclature. Nearly 300 clades - lineages of organisms - are defined by reference to hypotheses of phylogenetic history rather than by taxonomic ranks and types. This volume will document the Real World uses of PhyloCode and will govern and apply to the names of clades, while species names will still be governed by traditional codes. Key Features Provides clear regulations for implementing new guidelines for naming lineages of organisms incorporates expressly evolutionary and phylogenetic principles Works with existing codes of nomenclature Eliminates the reliance on rank-based classification in favor of phylogenetic relationships Related Titles: Rieppel, O. Phylogenetic Systematics: Haeckel to Hennig (ISBN 978-1-4987-5488-0) Cantino, P. D. and de Queiroz, K. International Code of Phylogenetic Nomenclature (PhyloCode) (ISBN 978-1-138-33282-9).
Download or read book Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology written by and published by . This book was released on 2009 with total page 656 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Mesozoic Birds written by Luis M. Chiappe and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 2002-12-05 with total page 534 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Mesozoic Birds is the first book to bring together world-renowned specialists on fossil birds and their importance to avian origins and, more importantly, it stresses a unified approach (cladistics) and presents the most anatomically detailed analyses available to date. No other study or collection of studies has ever done so much. How could the project not be welcomed by its audience of paleontologists, ornithologists, and evolutionary biologists!"—David Weishampel, editor of The Dinosauria "This is the first comprehensive volume dedicated to the relationships and evolution of the birds that lived during the Age of Dinosaurs. Its wealth of information and its diversity of viewpoints will ensure that this indispensable volume is used and discussed for many years to come."—Kevin Padian, University of California, Berkeley
Download or read book Avian Ancestors written by Federico Agnolin and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2013-02-26 with total page 100 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Although consensus exists among researchers that birds evolved from coelurosaurian theropods, paleontologists still debate the identification of the group of coelurosaurians that most closely approaches the common ancestor of birds. The last 20 years witnessed the discovery of a wide array of avian-like theropods that has considerably amplified the anatomical disparity among deinonychosaurians, some of which resemble Archaeopteryx more than Deinonychus. Among these newly discovered theropods that show remarkable bird-like characteristics are the four-winged theropods Microraptor and Anchiornis, and the unenlagiids Unenlagia, Buitreraptor, and Rahonavis. A bizarre group of minute-sized coelurosaurs, the Scansoriopterygidae, also exhibits some avian similarities that lead some authors to interpret them as more closely related to birds than other dinosaurs. With the aim to explore the phylogenetic relationships of these coelurosaurians and birds, we merged recently published integrative databases, resulting in significant changes in the topological distribution of taxa within Paraves. We present evidence that Dromaeosauridae, Microraptoria, Unenlagiidae, and Anchiornis + Xiaotingia form successive sister taxa of Aves, and that the Scansoriopterygidae are basal coelurosaurians not closely related to birds. The implications in the evolutionary sequence of anatomical characters leading to birds, including the origin of flight, are also considered in light of this new phylogenetic hypothesis.
Download or read book International Code of Phylogenetic Nomenclature PhyloCode written by Kevin de Queiroz and published by CRC Press. This book was released on 2020-04-29 with total page 101 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The PhyloCode is a set of principles, rules, and recommendations governing phylogenetic nomenclature, a system for naming taxa by explicit reference to phylogeny. In contrast, the current botanical, zoological, and bacteriological codes define taxa by reference to taxonomic ranks (e.g., family, genus) and types. This code will govern the names of clades; species names will still be governed by traditional codes. The PhyloCode is designed so that it can be used concurrently with the rank-based codes. It is not meant to replace existing names but to provide an alternative system for governing the application of both existing and newly proposed names. Key Features Provides clear regulations for naming clades Based on expressly phylogenetic principles Complements existing codes of nomenclature Eliminates the reliance on taxonomic ranks in favor of phylogenetic relationships Related Titles: Rieppel, O. Phylogenetic Systematics: Haeckel to Hennig (ISBN 978-1-4987-5488-0) de Queiroz, K., Cantino, P. D. and Gauthier, J. A. Phylonyms: A Companion to the PhyloCode (ISBN 978-1-138-33293-5).
Download or read book Nature through Time written by Edoardo Martinetto and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2020-07-27 with total page 468 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book simulates a historical walk through nature, teaching readers about the biodiversity on Earth in various eras with a focus on past terrestrial environments. Geared towards a student audience, using simple terms and avoiding long complex explanations, the book discusses the plants and animals that lived on land, the evolution of natural systems, and how these biological systems changed over time in geological and paleontological contexts. With easy-to-understand and scientifically accurate and up-to-date information, readers will be guided through major biological events from the Earth's past. The topics in the book represent a broad paleoenvironmental spectrum of interests and educational modules, allowing for virtual visits to rich geological times. Eras and events that are discussed include, but are not limited to, the much varied Quaternary environments, the evolution of plants and animals during the Cenozoic, the rise of angiosperms, vertebrate evolution and ecosystems in the Mesozoic, the Permian mass extinction, the late Paleozoic glaciation, and the origin of the first trees and land plants in the Devonian-Ordovician. With state-of-the art expert scientific instruction on these topics and up-to-date and scientifically accurate illustrations, this book can serve as an international course for students, teachers, and other interested individuals.
Download or read book Osteology of Deinonychus antirrhopus an Unusual Theropod from the Lower Cretaceous of Montana written by John H. Ostrom and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2019-01-01 with total page 196 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: John H. Ostrom's expeditions to the Bighorn Basin of Wyoming and Montana in the 1960s resulted in discoveries and research that would change long-held concepts in paleontology. This fiftieth-anniversary edition of his now well-known description of the type specimen of Deinonychus antirrhopus revisits the work that redefined theropod dinosaurs as the intelligent, agile, and gregarious ancestors of modern birds and led in the late twentieth century to a renaissance in the study of dinosaurs and the evolution of flight.
Download or read book Regional Geology and Tectonics Phanerozoic Rift Systems and Sedimentary Basins written by David G. Roberts and published by Elsevier. This book was released on 2012-04-23 with total page 566 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Expert petroleum geologists David Roberts and Albert Bally bring you Regional Geology and Tectonics: Phanerozoic Rift Systems and Sedimentary Basins, volume two in a three-volume series covering Phanerozoic regional geology and tectonics. Experience in analyzing and assessing rifts—locations where the Earth's outer shell and crust have been stretched over time by seismic activity—is critical for you as an exploration geologist in identifying Earth's most lucrative hydrocarbon locations in which extraction is both efficient and safe. Vast compilations of related industry data present regional seismic lines and cross sections, and summaries of analogue and theoretical models are provided as an essential backdrop to the structure and stratigraphy of various geological settings. - Named a 2013 Outstanding Academic Title by the American Library Association's Choice publication - A practical reference for petroleum geologists that discusses the importance of rift systems and the structural evolution of the Earth - Analyses of active rifts in East Africa, China, Siberia, the Gulf of Suez, and the Russian Arctic provide immediately implementable petroleum exploration applications in regions heavily targeted by oil & gas companies - Presents overviews of sequence stratigraphy in rifts and structural controls on clastic and carbonate sedimentation—critical to the exact mapping of the most lucrative hydrocarbon locations by exploration geologists
Download or read book The Age of Dinosaurs in Russia and Mongolia written by Michael J. Benton and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2003-12-04 with total page 744 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Unique reference volume covering major vertebrate fossil finds in former Soviet Union never before described in English.
Download or read book Dinosaur Provincial Park written by Philip J. Currie and published by Indiana University Press. This book was released on 2005 with total page 712 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "This comprehensive history of a remarkable window into the history of the earth will be required reading for everyone interested in the life of the past."--BOOK JACKET.
Download or read book Anatomical Imaging written by Hideki Endo and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2009-02-05 with total page 150 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book presents selected works of contemporary evolutionary morphologists and includes such topics as broad scale reconstructions of the brain and ear of dinosaurs, inference of locomotor habits from cancellous bone architecture in fossil primates, and a comparison of the independently evolved manipulating apparatuses in the lesser and giant pandas. Insight is provided into the application of modern noninvasive technologies, including digital imaging techniques and virtual 3D reconstruction, to the investigation of complex anatomical features and coherences. In combination with traditional methods, this allows for the formulation of improved hypotheses on coordinated function and evolution. The creation of virtual translucent specimens makes it possible to realize the age-old dream of the classical anatomists: looking through the skin into the inner organization of an organism. On full display here is the dramatic and promising impact that modern imaging techniques have on scientific progress in evolutionary morphology.
Download or read book Stratigraphy and Paleontology of the Cloverly Formation Lower Cretaceous of the Bighorn Basin Area Wyoming and Montana written by John H. Ostrom and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2020-03-17 with total page 354 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The fiftieth anniversary edition of a landmark publication showcasing prehistoric North American landscapes and ecosystems, from a celebrated paleontologist at Yale University's Peabody Museum The fiftieth anniversary edition of John H. Ostrom's Stratigraphy and Paleontology of the Cloverly Formation revisits his groundbreaking work pinpointing the age of the continental sequence of the Bighorn Basin area in Wyoming and Montana. The Cloverly Formation is important for understanding the development of North American terrestrial landscapes and prehistoric ecosystems, and current investigations are reinterpreting the age of the Formation with new evidence and data. The reissue of Ostrom's original benchmark research offers contemporary relevance for researchers and students today.
Download or read book The Evolution and Extinction of the Dinosaurs written by David E. Fastovsky and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2005-02-07 with total page 504 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This 2005 edition of The Evolution and Extinction of the Dinosaurs is a unique, comprehensive treatment of this fascinating group of organisms. It is a detailed survey of dinosaur origins, their diversity, and their eventual extinction. The book can easily be used as a teaching textbook for a class, but it is also written as a series of readable, entertaining essays covering important and timely topics appealing to non-specialists and all dinosaur enthusiasts: birds as 'living dinosaurs', the new feathered dinosaurs from China, 'warm-bloodedness'. Along the way, the reader learns about dinosaur functional morphology, physiology, and systematics using cladistic methodology - in short, how professional paleontologists and dinosaur experts go about their work, and why they find it so rewarding. The book is spectacularly illustrated by John Sibbick, a world-famous illustrator of dinosaurs, commissioned exclusively for this book.
