PALEOECOLOGYPALEOECOLOGYPast, Present and FuturePaleoecology is a discipline that uses evidence from fossils to provide an understanding of ancient environments and the ecological history of life through geological time. This text covers the fundamental approaches that have provided the foundation for present paleoecological understanding, and outlines new research areas in paleoecology for managing future environmental and ecologica...

This book provides a detailed examination of ichnology during the Permian-Triassic mass extinction in China, focusing on the recovery patterns of marine trace-making organisms. It features a wealth of high-quality ichnofossil photographs and figures, offering readers a comprehensive guide to ichnotaxa identifications and descriptions from both South and North China, spanning the Late Permian to the Middle Triassic.The chapters cover critical topics such as the delayed biotic recove...

One of the most important questions we can ask about life is "Does ecology matter?" Most biologists and paleontologists are trained to answer "yes," but the exact mechanisms by which ecology matters in the context of patterns that play out over millions of years have never been entirely clear. This book examines these mechanisms and looks at how ancient environments affected evolution, focusing on long-term macroevolutionary changes as seen in the fossil record.Evolutionary paleoec...

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...