Taphonomy A Process Approach

About this book

Taphonomy: A Process Approach is the first book to review the entire field of taphonomy, or the science of fossil preservation. It describes the formation of animal and plant fossils in marine and terrestrial settings and how this affects deciphering the ecology and extinction of past lifeforms and the environments in which they lived. The volume emphasises a process approach to taphonomy and reviews the taphonomic behaviour of all important taxa, plant and animal. It will be useful to anyone interested in the preservation of fossils and the formation of fossil assemblages, but it is aimed primarily at advanced students and professionals working in palaeontology, stratigraphy, sedimentology, climate modelling and biogeochemistry.

Contents

Preface

1. Introduction: the science of taphonomy
2. Biostratinomy I: necrolysis, transport and abrasion
3. Biostratinomy II: dissolution and diagenesis
4. Bioturbation
5. Time-averaging of fossil assemblages: taphonomy and temporal resolution
6. Exceptional preservation
7. Sedimentation and stratigraphy
8. Megabiases I: cycles of preservation and biomineralization
9. Megabiases II: secular trends in preservation
10. Applied taphonomy
11. Taphonomy as an historical science

References

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