This definitive textbook by a renowned field observer and analyst of trace fossils concentrates on the most distinctive examples, mostly made by infaunal invertebrates in originally soft sediments. It covers the whole geologic column and ranges from deep-sea to shallow-marine and continental environments. The book is designed to foster interpretative skills using the author's own drawings. They are thematically grouped in 75 plates that form the core for the descriptive text and annotated references. A glossary of ichnological terms is also provided. This book’s author is perhaps the world’s most acknowledged expert in the field of trace fossils.

This book serves as an up-to-date introduction, as well as overview to modern trace fossil research and covers nearly all of the essential aspects of modern ichnology. Divided into three section, Trace Fossils covers the historical background and concepts of ichnology, on-going research problems, and indications about the possible future growth of the discipline and potential connections to other fields. This work is intended for a broad audience of geological and biological scientists. Workers new to the field could get a sense of the main concepts of ichnology and a clear idea of how trace fossil research is conducted. Scientists in related disciplines could find potential uses for trace fossils in their fields. And, established workers could use the book to check on the progress of their particular brand of ichnology. By design, there is something here for novice and veteran, insider and outsider, and for the biologically-oriented workers and for the sedimentary geologists.* Presents a review of the state of ichnology at the beginning of the 21st Century* Summarizes the basic concepts and methods of modern trace fossil research* Discusses crucial background information about the history of trace fossil research, the main concepts of ichnology, examples of current problems and future directions, and the potential connections to other disciplines within both biology and geology

This volume in memory of Professor Martin Brasier, which has many of his unfinished works, summarizes recent progress in some of the hottest topics in palaeobiology including cellular preservation of early microbial life and early evolution of macroscopic animal life, encompassing the Ediacara biota. The papers focus on how to decipher evidence for early life, which requires exceptional preservation, employment of state-of-the-art techniques and also an understanding gleaned from Phanerozoic lagerstätte and modern analogues. The papers also apply Martin’s MOFAOTYOF principle (my oldest fossils are older than your oldest fossils), requiring an integrated approach to understanding fossils. The adoption of the null-hypothesis that all putative traces of life are abiotic until proven otherwise, and the consideration of putative fossils within their spatial context, characterized the work of Martin Brasier, as is well demonstrated by the papers in this volume.

Several years ago, we realized that the most prominent ideas that had been ex pressed about the origin and early evolution of the Metazoa seemed to have been developed chiefly by zoologists using evidence from modern species without reference to the fossil record. Paleontologists had, in fact, put forth their own ideas but the zoological and the paleontological evidence were about the problem, seldom considered together, especially by zoologists. We believed that the paleon tological documentation of the first Metazoa was too scattered, too obscure to Western readers, and much of it too recent to have been readily available to our colleagues in zoology. Whether or not that was entirely true, we thought that a single volume reviewing the fossil record of the earliest Metazoa would be useful to many in both paleontology and zoology, especially since so much new informa tion has been developed in the last few years. Some of this information has been summarized in general articles recently, but an overview of most of the field does not exist. We therefore organized this book in five parts so that the evidence could be placed in perspective and summarized and inferences made from it. Part I intro duces the previous hypotheses that have been proposed for the origin and early radiation of Metazoa. Part II consists of two summary chapters that set the sedi mentological, geochemical, and biological background to the known radiations of Metazoa.

The first introductory palaeontology text which demonstrates the importance of selected fossil groups in geological and biological studies, particularly in understanding evolutionary patterns, palaeoenvironmental analysis, and stratigraphy. Part one explores several key concepts, such as the processes of fossil preservation, the determination of evolutionary patterns, and use of fossils and statigraphical tools. Part two introduces the main fossil groups of value in these applied fields. Part three concentrates on the examination of important case histories which demonstrate the use of fossils in diverse practical examples. Evolutionary studies, palaeoenvironmental analysis, and stratigraphical applications are documented using up-to-date examples supported by overviews of the principles.

The Early Palaeozoic was a critical interval in the evolution of marine life on our planet. Through a window of some 120 million years, the Cambrian Explosion, Great Ordovician Biodiversification Event, End Ordovician Extinction and the subsequent Silurian Recovery established a steep trajectory of increasing marine biodiversity that started in the Late Proterozoic and continued into the Devonian. Biogeography is a key property of virtually all organisms; their distributional ranges, mapped out on a mosaic of changing palaeogeography, have played important roles in modulating the diversity and evolution of marine life. This Memoir first introduces the content, some of the concepts involved in describing and interpreting palaeobiogeography, and the changing Early Palaeozoic geography is illustrated through a series of time slices. The subsequent 26 chapters, compiled by some 130 authors from over 20 countries, describe and analyse distributional and in many cases diversity data for all the major biotic groups plotted on current palaeogeographic maps. Nearly a quarter of a century after the publication of the ‘Green Book’ (Geological Society, London, Memoir12, edited by McKerrow and Scotese), improved stratigraphic and taxonomic data together with more accurate, digitized palaeogeographic maps, have confirmed the central role of palaeobiogeography in understanding the evolution of Early Palaeozoic ecosystems and their biotas.

The existence of rapid and even catastrophic turnovers within the Phanerozoic ecosystems has been discussed controversially for more than 170 years. Since 1980 this discussion has become even more intensive after the hypothesis of Alvarez, explaining the end-Cretaceous mass extinction as the result of a huge asteroid impact on the Earth. This theory stimulated several thousand papers and is still controversial. The international research programme on "Global Biological Events in Earth History" attempts to bring the discussion back to the facts by using multidisciplinary investigations of the major Phanerozoic events. The results of an international group of experts are presented giving a wealth of information and a thorough discussion of the causes of the various global events.

The Neoproterozoic-Cambrian transition was a time of fundamental change in the biosphere. Between about 570 and 510 million years ago, marine organisms underwent considerable evolutionary innovation during a time of shifting ecological setting. This dramatic activity culminated in the first stratigraphic appearances of many recognizable groups of animals, an "event" often referred to as the "Cambrian explosion". In addition, there was a major change from a microbial mat-dominated sediment-water interface to a more extensively burrowed interface in shallow-marine settings. The early fossil record is a function not only of the rise or ecological diversification of marine organisms, but also the development of taphonomic and sedimentary conditions suitable for the preservation of mineralizing and nonmineralizing organisms. This book is devoted to an exploration of some of the emerging concepts and techniques used to develop greater insight into the early record of biologic diversification and the preservational record of that diversification during the Neoproterozoic-Cambrian transition. * Addresses key issues related to the Cambrian diversification of multicellular animals * Provocative new ideas about the factors involved in the exceptional preservation of fossils, with a balance between the development of ideas and hypothesis testing * Broad coverage of topics related to the Cambrian diversification of animals and the fossil record of that diversification; broad geographic coverage