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9781118406847
Vertebrate Palaeontology / Edition 4 available in Hardcover, Paperback
- ISBN-10:
- 1118406842
- ISBN-13:
- 9781118406847
- Pub. Date:
- 10/20/2014
- Publisher:
- Wiley
Vertebrate Palaeontology / Edition 4
by Michael J. Benton
Michael J. Benton
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Overview
Vertebrate palaeontology is a lively field, with new discoveries reported every week... and not only dinosaurs! This new edition reflects the international scope of vertebrate palaeontology, with a special focus on exciting new finds from China.
A key aim is to explain the science. Gone are the days of guesswork. Young researchers use impressive new numerical and imaging methods to explore the tree of life, macroevolution, global change, and functional morphology.
The fourth edition is completely revised. The cladistic framework is strengthened, and new functional and developmental spreads are added. Study aids include: key questions, research to be done, and recommendations of further reading and web sites.
The book is 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. The book is strongly phylogenetic, and this makes it a source of current data on vertebrate evolution.
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781118406847 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Wiley |
| Publication date: | 10/20/2014 |
| Edition description: | 4th ed. |
| Pages: | 480 |
| Product dimensions: | 8.50(w) x 10.90(h) x 1.00(d) |
About the Author
Michael J. Benton FRS is Professor of Vertebrate Palaeontology at the University of Bristol. He is particularly interested in early reptiles, Triassic dinosaurs, and macroevolution, and has published over 50 books and 300 scientific articles. He leads one of the most successful palaeontology research groups at the University of Bristol, and has supervised over 60 PhD students.
Read an Excerpt
Table of Contents
| Preface | xi | |
| 1 | Vertebrate origins | 1 |
| 1.1 | The oldest chordate and the oldest vertebrate | 3 |
| 1.2 | Sea squirts and the lancelet | 4 |
| 1.3 | Phylum Hemichordata: pterobranchs and acorn worms | 6 |
| 1.4 | Chordate origins: embryology and relationships | 6 |
| 1.5 | Craniates and the head | 12 |
| 1.6 | Further reading | 13 |
| 2 | How to study fossil vertebrates | 15 |
| 2.1 | Digging up bones | 16 |
| 2.2 | Geology and fossil vertebrates | 22 |
| 2.3 | Biology and fossil vertebrates | 27 |
| 2.4 | Further reading | 35 |
| 3 | Early fishes | 37 |
| 3.1 | The extinct jawless fishes | 38 |
| 3.2 | Living agnathans | 47 |
| 3.3 | Origin of jaws and gnathostome relationships | 50 |
| 3.4 | Class Chondrichthyes: the first sharks | 53 |
| 3.5 | Class Placodermi: armour-plated monsters | 54 |
| 3.6 | Class Acanthodii: the 'spiny skins' | 58 |
| 3.7 | Devonian environments | 59 |
| 3.8 | The bony fishes | 64 |
| 3.9 | Early fish evolution and mass extinction | 70 |
| 3.10 | Further reading | 73 |
| 4 | The early tetrapods and amphibians | 75 |
| 4.1 | Problems of life on land | 76 |
| 4.2 | Devonian tetrapods | 80 |
| 4.3 | The Carboniferous world | 84 |
| 4.4 | Diversity of Carboniferous tetrapods | 86 |
| 4.5 | Temnospondyls and reptiliomorphs after the Carboniferous | 92 |
| 4.6 | Evolution of the modern amphibians | 97 |
| 4.7 | Further reading | 102 |
| 5 | The evolution of early amniotes | 103 |
| 5.1 | Hylonomus and Paleothyris--biology of the first amniotes | 104 |
| 5.2 | The cleidoic egg--a private pond | 105 |
| 5.3 | The Carboniferous amniotes | 109 |
| 5.4 | The Permian world | 111 |
| 5.5 | Pelycosaurs--the sail-backed synapsids | 112 |
| 5.6 | The therapsids of the Late Permian | 114 |
| 5.7 | Radiation of anapsids and diapsids in the Permian | 121 |
| 5.8 | Mass extinction | 127 |
| 5.9 | Further reading | 132 |
| 6 | Reptiles of the Triassic | 133 |
| 6.1 | The Triassic scene | 134 |
| 6.2 | Evolution of the archosauromorphs | 135 |
| 6.3 | In Triassic seas | 148 |
| 6.4 | The origin of the dinosaurs | 151 |
| 6.5 | Further reading | 156 |
| 7 | The evolution of fishes after the Devonian | 157 |
| 7.1 | The early sharks and chimaeras | 158 |
| 7.2 | Post-Palaeozoic chondrichthyan evolution | 164 |
| 7.3 | The early bony fishes | 168 |
| 7.4 | Radiation of the teleosts | 175 |
| 7.5 | Post-Devonian evolution of fishes | 182 |
| 7.6 | Further reading | 185 |
| 8 | The age of dinosaurs | 187 |
| 8.1 | Biology of Plateosaurus | 188 |
| 8.2 | The Jurassic and Cretaceous world | 190 |
| 8.3 | The diversity of saurischian dinosaurs | 191 |
| 8.4 | The diversity of ornithischian dinosaurs | 201 |
| 8.5 | Dinosaurian biology--warm-blooded or not? | 214 |
| 8.6 | Order Pterosauria | 221 |
| 8.7 | Order Crocodylia | 230 |
| 8.8 | Order Testudines: the turtles | 233 |
| 8.9 | Superorder Lepidosauria | 236 |
| 8.10 | The great sea dragons | 241 |
| 8.11 | Diversification of Jurassic--Cretaceous reptiles | 246 |
| 8.12 | The great extinction | 249 |
| 8.13 | Further reading | 257 |
| 9 | The birds | 259 |
| 9.1 | Archaeopteryx | 260 |
| 9.2 | The origins of bird flight | 265 |
| 9.3 | Toothed birds of the Cretaceous | 268 |
| 9.4 | Flightless birds: Division Palaeognathae | 274 |
| 9.5 | Division Neognathae | 276 |
| 9.6 | Diversification of the birds | 285 |
| 9.7 | Further reading | 286 |
| 10 | The mammals | 287 |
| 10.1 | The cynodonts and the acquisition of mammalian characters | 288 |
| 10.2 | Morganucodon--the first mammal | 297 |
| 10.3 | The Mesozoic mammals | 301 |
| 10.4 | The marsupials | 310 |
| 10.5 | South American mammals--another world apart | 312 |
| 10.6 | The beginning of the age of placental mammals | 321 |
| 10.7 | Order Lipotyphla: hedgehogs, moles and shrews | 328 |
| 10.8 | Order Carnivora | 328 |
| 10.9 | Superorder Archonta: bats, tree shrews, flying lemurs and primates | 331 |
| 10.10 | Radiation of the rodents | 336 |
| 10.11 | Order Perissodactyla: browsers and grazers | 341 |
| 10.12 | Order Artiodactyla: cattle, deer and pigs | 344 |
| 10.13 | Order Cetacea: evolution of the whales | 348 |
| 10.14 | Grandorder Paenungulata: elephants and their relatives | 351 |
| 10.15 | Orders Tubulidentata and Pholidota: odd ant-eaters | 356 |
| 10.16 | Extinctions in the Ice Ages | 356 |
| 10.17 | Phylogeny of the placentals | 357 |
| 10.18 | The pattern of mammalian evolution | 360 |
| 10.19 | Further reading | 361 |
| 11 | Human evolution | 363 |
| 11.1 | What are the primates? | 364 |
| 11.2 | The early fossil record of primates | 365 |
| 11.3 | Superfamily Hominoidea: the apes | 370 |
| 11.4 | Evolution of human characteristics | 374 |
| 11.5 | The early stages of human evolution | 378 |
| 11.6 | The last two million years of human evolution | 382 |
| 11.7 | Further reading | 389 |
| Appendix | Classification of the vertebrates | 391 |
| Glossary | 405 | |
| References | 409 | |
| Index | 437 |
What People are Saying About This
From the Publisher
"Mike Benton's textbook on vertebrate palaeontology has been an aclaimed success since its first edition in 1990...it has now undergone very substantial further revision for its newly published third edition...This new edition reflects the enormous upsurge in research and results for vertebrate palaeontology over just the past ten years, in which Mike himself has played a leading role...a one-stop buy for all those who would like a good background perspective and summary of vertebrate palaeontology...a book which I can strongly recommend."
–Robin Cocks, GA Magazine of the Geologists' Association, March 2005
"This volume... is on the way to becoming a classic. This third edition...is also all one could hope for in a field that is changing so fast... The interest of the book is very much in the diversity of approaches used...This book is certainly the best introduction to the palaeontology of the vertebrates which is currently available, and its potential readership clearly passes beyond the student world alone. It has been translated into many languages, and one can only hope that a French edition will also see the light of day."
–Professor Eric Buffetaut (Paris), Géochronique, June 2005
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