Vertebrate palaeontology /

" ... Designed for palaeontology courses in biology and geology departments. It is also aimed at enthusiasts who want to experience the flavour of how the research is done ..."--Back cover.

Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Benton, M. J. (Michael J.) (Author)
Format: Book
Language:English
Published: Chichester, West Sussex ; Hoboken, NJ : Wiley Blackwell, 2015.
Edition:Fourth edition.
Subjects:
Online Access:Companion website
http://bcs.wiley.com/he-bcs/Books?action=index&itemId=1118406842&bcsId=9108
Table of Contents:
  • Vertebrates originate : Sea squirts and the lancelet ; Ambulacraria: echinoderms and hemichordates ; Deuterostome relationships ; Chordate origins ; Vertebrates and the head
  • How to study fossil vertebrates : Digging up bones ; Publication and professionalism ; Geology and fossil vertebrates ; Biology and fossil vertebrates ; Discovering phylogeny ; The quality of the fossil record ; Macroevolution
  • Early Palaeozoic fishes : Cambrian vertebrates ; Vertebrate hard tissues ; The jawless fishes ; Origin of jaws and gnathostome relationships ; Placoderms: armour-plated monsters ; Chondrichthyes: the first sharks ; Acanthodians: the 'spiny skins' ; Devonian environments ; Osteichthyes: the bony fishes ; Early fish evolution and mass extinction
  • Early tetrapods and amphibians : Problems of life on land ; Devonian tetrapods ; The carboniferous world ; Diversity of carboniferous tetrapods ; Temnospondyls and reptiliomorphs after the carboniferous ; Evolution of the modern amphibians
  • Evolution of early amniotes : Hylonomus and Paleothyris - biology of the first amniotes ; Amniote evolution ; The Permian world ; The parareptiles ; The eureptiles ; Basal synapsid evolution ; The Permo-Triassic mass extinction
  • Bounceback: tetrapods of the Triassic : The Triassic world and its effect on the recovery of life ; Triassic marine reptiles ; Evolution of the archosauromorphs ; Origin of the dinosaurs ; Reptile evolution in the Triassic
  • Evolution of fishes after the Devonian : The early sharks and chimaeras ; Post-Palaeozoic chondrichthyan radiation ; The early bony fishes ; Radiation of the teleosts ; Post-Devonian evolution of fishes
  • The age of dinosaurs : Biology of Plateosaurus ; The Jurassic and Cretaceous world ; The diversity of saurischian dinosaurs ; Were the dinosaurs warm-blooded or not? ; Pterosauria ; Testudinata: the turtles ; Crocodylomorpha ; Lepidosauria: lizards and snakes ; The great sea dragons ; The Cretaceous-Paleogene mass extinction
  • The birds : The origin of birds ; The origin of bird flight ; Cretaceous birds, with and without teeth ; The radiation of modern birds: explosion or long fuse? ; Flightless birds: palaeognathae ; Neognathae ; The three-phase diversification of birds
  • Mammals : Cynodonts and the acquisition of mammalian characters ; The first mammals ; The Mesozoic mammals ; Evolution of modern mammals ; Marsupials down under ; South American mammals: a world apart ; Afrotheria and the break-up of Gondwana ; Boreoeutherian beginnings: the Palaeocene in the northern hemisphere ; Basal laurasiatherians: Lipotyphla ; Cetartiodactyla: cattle, pigs and whales ; Pegasoferae: bats, horses, carnivores and pangolins ; Glires: rodents, rabbits, and relatives ; Archonta: primates, tree shrews and flying lemurs ; Ice age extinction of large mammals
  • Human evolution : What are the primates? ; The fossil record of early primates ; Anthropoidea: monkeys and apes ; Hominoidea: the apes ; Evolution of human characteristics ; The early stages of human evolution ; The past two million years of human evolution.