The Ammonoidea
Published on 1. March 1993
Book
Hardback
366 pages
978-0-19-857765-2 (ISBN)
Description
The ammonoids (ammonites and goniatites) are a fossil group of cephalopods that are of particular interest because of their rapid rates of evolution. They first appeared about 385 Ma ago in the Devonian period and became extinct at the end of the Cretaceous, some 65 Ma ago, together with dinosaurs and several other groups. The ammonoid representation in the fossil record, which spans such a long period of geological time, provides important evidence of a general nature bearing on problems of the evolutionary process. As a result, ammonoids have indeed been called the Drosophila of evolutionary studies because of the range of evolutionary problems to which they contribute. In this volume, international experts on ammonoids are brought together to discuss evolutionary issues relating to this group. Special emphasis is given to the organic and environmental factors that may have influenced rates of speciation and extinction. The effects of climate and changes in sea level, global factors constraining evolution, the nature, causes, and periodicity of extinctions are among the themes explored.
This book should thus be of interest to palaeobiologists and evolutionary biologists generally as well as to palaeontologists who are specifically concerned with the ammonoids.
This book should thus be of interest to palaeobiologists and evolutionary biologists generally as well as to palaeontologists who are specifically concerned with the ammonoids.
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Oxford
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Oxford University Press
Target group
College/higher education
Professional and scholarly
Illustrations
halftones, line drawings, tables, bibliography
ISBN-13
978-0-19-857765-2 (9780198577652)
Copyright in bibliographic data is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or its licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Content
Ammonites in 1991, D.T. Donovan; fluctuations in ammonoid evolution and possible environmental controls, M.R. House; relation of shell strength to evolution in the Ammonoidea, R.A. Hewitt; septal necks in Mesozoic Ammonoidea - structure, ontogenetic development, and evolution, K. Tanabe et al; comparison of the relative strength of siphuncles with prochoanitic and retrochoanitic septal necks by finite-element analysis, R.A. Hewitt et al; structural features in Cretaceous ammonoids indicative of semi-internal or internal shells, L. Doguzhaeva and H. Mutvei; anoxia, eustatic changes and Upper Devonian to lowermost Carboniferous global ammonoid diversity, R.T. Becker; intraspecific variability, sexual dimorphism, and non-sexual polymorphism in the ammonite genus "Larcheria" tintant (Perisphinctidae) from the Middle Oxfordian of western Europe, G. Melendez and B. Fontana; global bio-events in mid-Jurassic ammonites controlled by seaways, G.E.G. Westermann; the influence of sea-level changes on the migration and evolution of early Cretaceous (pre-Aptian) ammonites, P.F. Rawson; stratigraphical implications of the relationship between ammonites and facies - examples from the Lower Cretaceous (Valanginian - Hauterivian) of the western Tethys, L.G. Bulot; phyletic evolution of desmoceratine ammonoids through the Cenomanian-Turonian oceanic anoxic event, H. Hirano; ammonoid faunas of the European Maastrichtian - diversity and extinction, W.J. Kennedy.