| Description |
x, 312 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm |
| Contents |
Introduction: Adequacy versus Incompleteness -- 1. Adequacy, Completeness and the Fossil Record / Christopher R. C. Paul -- 2. Determining Stratigraphic Ranges / Charles R. Marshall -- 3. Resolution of the Fossil Record: The Fidelity of Preservation / David M. Martill -- 4. The Completeness of the Pleistocene Fossil Record: Implications for Stratigraphic Adequacy / Benjamin J. Greenstein, John M. Pandolfi and H. Allen Curran -- 5. An Overview of the Completeness of the Fossil Record / Christopher R. C. Paul and Stephen K. Donovan -- 6. Fossil Soils and Completeness of the Rock and Fossil Records / Gregory J. Retallack -- 7. Phylogenetic Analyses and the Quality of the Fossil Record / Peter J. Wagner -- 8. 'Taxonomic Barriers' and Other Distortions within the Fossil Record / Carl F. Koch -- 9. Patterns of Occurrence of Benthic Foraminifera in Time and Space / Stephen J. Culver and Martin A. Buzas |
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10. The Fossil Record of Cheilostome Bryozoa in the Neogene and Quaternary of Tropical America: Adequacy for Phylogenetic and Evolutionary Studies / Alan H. Cheetham and Jeremy B. C. Jackson -- 11. The Fossil Record of Bivalve Molluscs / Elizabeth M. Harper -- 12. The Quality of the Fossil Record of the Vertebrates / Michael J. Benton |
| Summary |
The 'incompleteness of the fossil record' is an excuse used by some scientists to reject any fossil evidence that runs counter to current preconceptions. Adequacy and completeness are difficult concepts that should not be confused. The fossil record may be incomplete, but it is entirely adequate for many and most requirements of palaeontology, as well as answering wider questions in geology and biology. The Adequacy of the Fossil Record is intended to be an up-to-date review that seeks to debunk these and other objections |
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references and indexes |
| Subject |
Fossils.
|
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Paleontology, Stratigraphic.
|
| Author |
Donovan, S. K.
|
|
Paul, C. R. C. (Christopher R. C.)
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| LC no. |
98010110 |
| ISBN |
0471969885 (cloth) |
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