Cetacean Paleobiology E-Book

Felix G. Marx

• Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
• Kategorie: Wissenschaft und neue Technologien
• Serie: TOPA Topics in Paleobiology
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 743

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2016

Beschreibung

Cetaceans (whales, dolphins, and porpoises) have fascinated and bewildered humans throughout history. Their mammalian affinities have been long recognized, but exactly which group of terrestrial mammals they descend from has, until recently, remained in the dark. Recent decades have produced a flurry of new fossil cetaceans, extending their fossil history to over 50 million years ago. Along with new insights from genetics and developmental studies, these discoveries have helped to clarify the place of cetaceans among mammals, and enriched our understanding of their unique adaptations for feeding, locomotion and sensory systems. Their continuously improving fossil record and successive transformation into highly specialized marine mammals have made cetaceans a textbook case of evolution - as iconic in its own way as the origin of birds from dinosaurs. This book aims to summarize our current understanding of cetacean evolution for the serious student and interested amateur using photographs, drawings, charts and illustrations.

Leseprobe

Books in the Topics in Paleobiology series will feature key fossil groups, key events, and analytical methods, with emphasis on paleobiology, large-scale macroevolutionary studies, and the latest phylogenetic debates.

The books will provide a summary of the current state of knowledge and a trusted route into the primary literature, and will act as pointers for future directions for research. As well as volumes on individual groups, the Series will also deal with topics that have a cross-cutting relevance, such as the evolution of significant ecosystems, particular key times and events in the history of life, climate change, and the application of new techniques such as molecular paleontology.

The books are written by leading international experts and will be pitched at a level suitable for advanced undergraduates, postgraduates, and researchers in both the paleontological and biological sciences.

The Series Editor is Mike Benton, Professor of Vertebrate Palaeontology in the School of Earth Sciences, University of Bristol.

The Series is a joint venture with the Palaeontological Association.

Previously published

Amphibian EvolutionRainer R. SchochISBN: 978-0-470-67178-8 Paperback; May 2014

Dinosaur PaleobiologyStephen L. BrusatteISBN: 978-0-470-65658-7 Paperback; April 2012

Cetacean Paleobiology

Felix G. Marx, Olivier Lambert, and Mark D. Uhen

This edition first published 2016 © 2016 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Marx, Felix G., author. | Lambert, Olivier, (Paleontologist), author. | Uhen, Mark D., author.Title: Cetacean paleobiology / Felix G. Marx, Olivier Lambert and Mark D. Uhen.Description: Chichester, UK; Hoboken, NJ : John Wiley & Sons, 2016. | Includes bibliographical references and index.Identifiers: LCCN 2015047431 (print) | LCCN 2016005795 (ebook) | ISBN 9781118561270 (cloth : alk. paper) | ISBN 9781118561539 (pbk. : alk. paper) | ISBN 9781118561362 (Adobe PDF) | ISBN 9781118561553 (ePub)Subjects: LCSH: Cetacea, Fossil. | Evolutionary paleobiology.Classification: LCC QE882.C5 M37 2016 (print) | LCC QE882.C5 (ebook) | DDC 569/.5–dc23LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2015047431

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

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Cover image: Courtesy by Carl Buell

Cover design by Design Deluxe

Series Editor’s Preface

Paleobiology is a vibrant discipline that addresses current concerns about biodiversity and about global change. Furthermore, paleobiology opens unimagined universes of past life, allowing us to explore times when the world was entirely different and when some organisms could do things that are not achieved by anything now living.

Much current work on biodiversity addresses questions of origins, distributions and future conservation. Phylogenetic trees based on extant organisms can give hints about the origins of clades and help answer questions about why one clade might be more species-rich (‘successful’) than another. The addition of fossils to such phylogenies can enrich them immeasurably, thereby giving a fuller impression of early clade histories, and so expanding our understanding of the deep origins of biodiversity.

In the field of global change, paleobiologists have access to the fossil record, and this gives accurate information on the coming and going of major groups of organisms through time. Such detailed paleobiological histories can be matched to evidence of changes in the physical environment, such as varying temperatures and sea levels, episodes of midocean ridge activity, mountain building, volcanism, continental positions and the impacts of extraterrestrial bodies. Studies of the influence of such events and processes on the evolution of life address core questions about the nature of evolutionary processes on the large scale.

As examples of unimagined universes, one need only think of the life of the Burgess Shale or the times of the dinosaurs. The extraordinary arthropods and other animals of the Cambrian sites of exceptional preservation sometimes seem more bizarre than the wildest imaginings of a science fiction author. During the Mesozoic, the sauropod dinosaurs solved basic physiological problems that allowed them to reach body masses 10 times larger than those of the largest elephants today. Furthermore, the giant pterosaur Quetzalcoatlus was larger than any flying bird, and so challenges fundamental assumptions in biomechanics.

Books in the Topics in Paleobiology series will feature key fossil groups, key events and analytical methods, with emphasis on paleobiology, large-scale macroevolutionary studies and the latest phylogenetic debates.

The books will provide a summary of the current state of knowledge and a trusted route into the primary literature, and will act as pointers for future directions for research. As well as volumes on individual groups, the Series will also deal with topics that have a cross-cutting relevance, such as the evolution of significant ecosystems, particular key times and events in the history of life, climate change and the application of new techniques such as molecular paleontology.

The books are written by leading international experts and have been pitched at a level suitable for advanced undergraduates, postgraduates and researchers in both the paleontological and biological sciences.

Michael BentonBristolNovember 2011

Preface

All the fossil whales hitherto discovered belong to the Tertiary period, which is the last preceding the superficial formations. And though none of them precisely answer to any known species of the present time, they are yet sufficiently akin to them in general respects, to justify their taking rank as Cetacean fossils.