Species and Speciation in the Fossil Record
eBook - ePub

Species and Speciation in the Fossil Record

  1. English
  2. ePUB (mobile friendly)
  3. Available on iOS & Android
eBook - ePub

Species and Speciation in the Fossil Record

About this book

Although the species is one of the fundamental units of biological classification, there is remarkably little consensus among biologists about what defines a species, even within distinct sub-disciplines. The literature of paleobiology, in particular, is littered with qualifiers and cautions about applying the term to the fossil record or equating such species with those recognized among living organisms. In Species and Speciation in the Fossil Record, experts in the field examine how they conceive of species of fossil animals and consider the implications these different approaches have for thinking about species in the context of macroevolution.

After outlining views of the Modern Synthesis of evolutionary disciplines and detailing the development within paleobiology of quantitative methods for documenting and analyzing variation within fossil assemblages, contributors explore the challenges of recognizing and defining species from fossil specimens—and offer potential solutions. Addressing both the tempo and mode of speciation over time, they show how with careful interpretation and a clear species concept, fossil species may be sufficiently robust for meaningful paleobiological analyses. Indeed, they demonstrate that the species concept, if more refined, could unearth a wealth of information about the interplay between species origins and extinctions, between local and global climate change, and greatly deepen our understanding of the evolution of life.

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Yes, you can access Species and Speciation in the Fossil Record by Warren D. Allmon, Margaret M. Yacobucci, Warren D. Allmon,Margaret M. Yacobucci in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in Biological Sciences & Biology. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.

Table of contents

  1. Cover
  2. Title Page
  3. Copyright Page
  4. Contents
  5. Introduction: Taking Fossil Species Seriously
  6. Chapter 1.  The “Species Concept” and the Beginnings of Paleobiology
  7. Chapter 2.  The Species Problem: Concepts, Conflicts, and Patterns Preserved in the Fossil Record
  8. Chapter 3.  Studying Species in the Fossil Record: A Review and Recommendations for a More Unified Approach
  9. Chapter 4.  The Stages of Speciation: A Stepwise Framework for Analysis of Speciation in the Fossil Record
  10. Chapter 5.  Morphology and Molecules: An Integrated Comparison of Phenotypic and Genetic Rates of Evolution
  11. Chapter 6.  Fitting Ancestral Age-Dependent Speciation Models to Fossil Data
  12. Chapter 7.  Contrasting Patterns of Speciation in Reef Corals and Their Relationship to Population Connectivity
  13. Chapter 8.  Towards a Model for Speciation in Ammonoids
  14. Chapter 9.  Species of Decapoda (Crustacea) in the Fossil Record: Patterns, Problems, and Progress
  15. Chapter 10.  Fossil Species as Data: A Perspective from Echinoderms
  16. Chapter 11.  Species and the Fossil Record of Fishes
  17. Chapter 12.  The Impact of Invasive Species on Speciation: Lessons from the Fossil Record
  18. Chapter 13.  Fossil Species Lineages and Their Defining Traits: Taxonomic “Usefulness” and Evolutionary Modes
  19. Chapter 14.  Geographic Clines, Chronoclines, and the Fossil Record: Implications for Speciation Theory
  20. List of Contributors
  21. Index