Paleontology: Books and Print Materials

Every four years micropaleontologists from across the globe gather in Houston, Texas for the quadrennial conference of the North American Micropaleontology Section-SEPM (NAMS) to learn, share, and network on applied micropaleontology. Geologic Problem Solving with Microfossils IV was held on April 5-8, 2017 with 130 participants. Fourteen of the 95 presentations were selected for publication, which includes papers on geologic applications utilizing foraminifera (benthic and planktic), calcareous nannofossils, palynology, and conodonts, in studies of rocks and sediments ranging from the Pennsylvanian to the modern.

This book provides practical morphological information, together with detailed illustrations and brief explanatory texts. Each chapter starts with a brief introduction, and goes on to describe the respective organism's morphology in detail through numerous illustrations. This is followed by a brief note on its classification, and concludes with illustrated examples of stratigraphically important organisms through time with their major distinguishing characteristics.

The interplay between the academic and economical challenges, on one hand, and developments in microfossil biostratigraphy, on the other, is explored thoroughly. The book also presents an introduction to the scientific concepts used in microfossil biostratigraphy practice, and the uses in microbiostratigraphy of 25 groups of microfossils, such as algae, protistans, reproductive plant debris, invertebrates, chordates and vertebrates, and microproblematica groups. It also provides a numerical method to calculate the biostratigraphical resolution of these microfossil groups.

Microfossils--the most abundant, ancient, and easily accessible of Earth's fossils--are also the most important. Their ubiquity is such that every person on the planet touches or uses them every single day, and yet few of us even realize they exist. Despite being the sole witnesses of 3 billion years of evolutionary history, these diminutive fungi, plants, and animals are themselves invisible to the eye. Marvelous Microfossils lays out the basics of what microfossils are before moving on to the history, tools, and methods of investigating them. The author describes the applications of their study, both practical and sublime. Microfossils, he explains, are indispensable in age-dating and paleoenvironmental reconstruction, which guide enormous investments in the oil, gas, and mining industries.

This book provides effective statistical analyses in benthic foraminiferal communities patterns and show solutions for sea-land processes and alterations caused by climate changes and other local (and global) environmental concerns.

High-resolution images of phytoplankton cells such as diatoms or desmids, which are useful for monitoring water quality, can now be provided by digital microscopes, facilitating the automated analysis and identification of specimens. Conventional approaches are based on optical microscopy; however, manual image analysis is impractical due to the huge diversity of this group of microalgae and its great morphological plasticity.  As such, there is a need for automated recognition techniques for diagnostic tools (e.g. environmental monitoring networks, early warning systems) to improve the management of water resources and decision-making processes. Describing the entire workflow of a bioindicator system, from capture, analysis and identification to the determination of quality indices, this book provides insights into the current state-of-the-art in automatic identification systems in microscopy. 

This book provides a detailed review of terminations of ice ages, including a very attractive theory based on dust deposits on ice sheets. While other books on ice ages are mostly short, popular, and non-technical, the only book that attempts to deal with the broad issues of what we know about past ice ages and why they occur is the book by Muller and MacDonald (M&M), published by Praxis. However, despite its many good features, this book suffers from an inordinate emphasis on spectral analysis, a lack of coverage of new data, and a very confusing sequence of chapters. As a result, the data and theory are so intimately entwined that it is difficult to separate one from the other. This volume provides an independent and comprehensive summary of the latest data, theories and analysis. This third edition of what has become the premier reference and sourcebook on ice ages addresses recent topics, and includes new references, new data, and a totally new, greatly expanded treatment of terminations of ice ages.

Researchers around the world have developed new methods and published their findings in scientific journals. Consequently, ideas about the course of the Ice Age have changed dramatically. The sequence of the individual ice advances, the direction of ice movement and the direction of meltwater drainage are only partially known, but they can be reconstructed. Ice ages are the periods of the earth's history in which at least one polar region is glaciated or covered by sea ice. Thus, we are currently living in an Ice Age. The present Ice Age is also the period in which humans started to intervene in the shaping of the earth. The results are obvious. Aerial and satellite images can be used to trace the melting of glaciers, but also the decay of the Arctic permafrost, and the clearing of the Brazilian rainforest.

Paleontologist Anthony J. Stuart explores the lives and environments of these animals, moving between six continents and several key islands. Stuart examines the animals themselves via what we've learned from fossil remains, and he describes the landscapes, climates, vegetation, ecological interactions, and other aspects of the animals' existence. Illustrated throughout, Vanished Giants also offers a picture of the world as it was tens of thousands of years ago when these giants still existed. Unlike the case of the dinosaurs, there was no asteroid strike to blame for the end of their world. Instead, it appears that the giants of the Ice Age were driven to extinction by climate change, human activities--especially hunting--or both. Drawing on the latest evidence provided by radiocarbon dating, Stuart discusses these possibilities. The extinction of Ice Age megafauna can be seen as the beginning of the so-called Sixth Extinction, which is happening right now.

Everyday Life in the Ice Age is the first attempt to present a truly complete, balanced and realistic picture of life during the last Ice Age, with its many problems and challenges, while dispelling many of the myths and inaccuracies about our early ancestors. The book examines all aspects of the lives of biologically modern humans in Europe from about 40,000 to 12,000 years ago, the period known as the Last Ice Age, a time of radical change in climate and environment. It explores how people were able to cope with and adapt to the often rapid alterations in their circumstances.

An illustrated record book of sauropod facts and figures--the hugest, the oldest, the most intelligent, and more The sauropod dinosaurs roamed the planet for millions of years, with creatures ranging from the smallest of the sauropods, Magyarosaurus, to the huge Argentinosaurus. This illustrated book of records is an essential compendium of sauropod facts and figures--from the biggest and the oldest to the smallest and the rarest. It covers every known species and features more than 2,000 diagrams and technical drawings along with hundreds of full-color reconstructions of specimens.

Today, researchers are applying the latest forensic technologies to the fossil record, revealing startling new insights into the lives of dinosaurs. This illustrated guide explores the behavior, evolution, physiology, and extinction of dinosaurs, taking readers inside the mysterious world of these marvelous animals.

This book presents the first visualizations of dinosaurs and other prehistoric reptiles as they really looked. Up to now, colours were imaginary, but here we draw on the newest research to present stunning images where every detail of colour, pattern, feather, scale and scute are explained from first-hand evidence. Dinosaurs are not what you thought they were - or at least, they didn't look like you thought they did.

Pterosaurs were vigorous winged reptiles capable of thriving in an array of habitats and climates, including polar winters. This guide covers 115 pterosaur species and features illustrations of pterosaurs ranging in size from swallows to small sailplanes, some with enormous, bizarre head crests and elongated beaks. It discusses the history of pterosaurs through 160 million years of the Mesozoic--including their anatomy, physiology, locomotion, reproduction, growth, and extinction--and even gives a taste of what it might be like to travel back to the Mesozoic. This guide also challenges the common image of big pterosaurs as ultralights that only soared, showing how these spectacular creatures could be powerful flappers as heavy as bears. Features detailed species accounts of 115 different kinds of pterosaurs, with the latest size and mass estimates. Covers everything from pterosaur biology to the colorful history of pterosaur paleontology Includes dozens of original skeletal drawings and full-color life studies.

Reimagining Dinosaurs in Late Victorian and Edwardian Literature approaches the hitherto unexplored fiction and popular journalism that made this scientific term a meaningful one to huge transatlantic readerships. Unlike previous scholars, who have focused on displays in American museums, Richard Fallon argues that literature was critical in turning these extinct creatures into cultural icons. Popular authors skilfully related dinosaurs to wider concerns about empire, progress, and faith; some of the most prominent, like Arthur Conan Doyle and Henry Neville Hutchinson, also disparaged elite scientists, undermining distinctions between scientific and imaginative writing. The rise of the dinosaurs thus accompanied fascinating transatlantic controversies about scientific authority.