Ebook: Bringing fossils to life: an introduction to paleobiology

To the Student: Why Study Fossils? -- Part I. The Fossil Record : A Window on the Past -- The Fossil Record -- Variation in Fossils -- Species and Speciation -- Systematics -- Evolution -- Extinction -- Functional Morphology -- Paleoecology -- Biogeography -- Biostratigraphy -- Part II. Life of the Past and Present -- Life's Origins and Early Evolution -- Micropaleontology : Fossil Protistans -- Colonial Life : Sponges, Archaeocyathans, and Cnidarians -- The Lophophorates Brachiopods and Bryozoans -- Jointed Limbs : The Arthropods -- Kingdom of the Seashell : The Molluscs -- Spiny Skins : The Echinoderms -- Dry Bones : Vertebrates and their Relatives -- Fossilized Behavior : Trace Fossils -- Traces of Earth's Green Mantle : Paleobotany -- Glossary.;One of the leading textbooks in its field, Bringing Fossils to Life applies paleobiological principles to the fossil record while detailing the evolutionary history of major plant and animal phyla. It incorporates current research from biology, ecology, and population genetics, bridging the gap between purely theoretical paleobiological textbooks and those that describe only invertebrate paleobiology and that emphasize cataloguing live organisms instead of dead objects. For this third edition Donald R. Prothero has revised the art and research throughout, expanding the coverage of invertebrates and adding a discussion of new methodologies and a chapter on the origin and early evolution of life.