Taphonomy

by Allison, Peter A.; Bottjer, David J.

• ISBN13: 9789048186426
• ISBN10: 9048186420
• Edition: 2nd
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2010-11-03
• Publisher: Springer Verlag

Summary

Taphonomic bias is a pervasive feature of the fossil record. A pressing concern, however, is the extent to which taphonomic processes have varied through the ages. It is one thing to work with a biased data set and quite another to work with a bias that has changed with time. This book includes work from both new and established researchers who are using laboratory, field and data-base techniques to characterise and quantify the temporal and spatial variation in taphonomic bias. It may not provide all the answers but it will at least shed light on the right questions.

Table of Contents

Taphonomy: Bias and Process Through Time	p. 1
Taphonomic Overprints on Phanerozoic Trends in Biodiversity: Lithification and Other Secular Megabiases	p. 19
Taphonomic Bias in Shelly Faunas Through Time: Early Aragonitic Dissolution and Its Implications for the Fossil Record	p. 79
Comparative Taphonomy and Sedimentology of Small-Scale Mixed Carbonate/Siliciclastic Cycles: Synopsis of Phanerozoic Examples	p. 107
Taphonomy of Animal Organic Skeletons Through Time	p. 199
Molecular Taphonomy of Plant Organic Skeletons	p. 223
The Relationship Between Continental Landscape Evolution and the Plant-Fossil Record: Long Term Hydrologic Controls on Preservation	p. 249
Hierarchical Control of Terrestrial Vertebrate Taphonomy over Space and Time: Discussion of Mechanisms and Implications for Vertebrate Paleobiology	p. 287
Microtaphofacies: Exploring the Potential for Taphonomic Analysis in Carbonates	p. 337
Taphonomy of Reefs Through Time	p. 375
Silicification Through Time	p. 411
Phosphatization Through the Phanerozoic	p. 435
Three-Dimensional Morphological (CLSM) and Chemical (Raman) Imagery of Cellularly Mineralized Fossils	p. 457
Taphonomy in Temporally Unique Settings: An Environmental Traverse in Search of the Earliest Life on Earth	p. 487
Evolutionary Trends in Remarkable Fossil Preservation Across the Ediacaran-Cambrian Transition and the Impact of Metazoan Mixing	p. 519
Mass Extinctions and Changing Taphonomic Processes: Fidelity of the Guadalupian, Lopingian, and Early Triassic Fossil Records	p. 569
Index	p. 591
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