Ammonites
Neale
Monks and Philip Palmer
Ammonites
often have artistic, mythological and religious associations,
though the reality is much more down to earth. They are
cephalopods, represented in today's seas by such animals
as the nautilus, octopus, squid and cuttlefish. Since
they are extinct, it is only through study of their fossils
and by observing their living relatives that we can piece
together something of their anatomy, their habitat and
their ecology. One recent significant shift in understanding
the lifestyle of these animals has been the move to use
active cephalopods like the octopus rather than the nautilus
for comparison.
In
Ammonites Neale Monks and Phil Palmer pool their
expertise into recreating the life and times of the ammonite.
They describe the evolution and natural history of ammonites,
covering ammonite shell, the ammonite animal itself, ammonite
biology - design, lifestyle and extinction - and briefly
look at ammonite taxonomy. With a gallery of photographs
to support the text, this provides a key book to anyone
interested in fossils.
Ammonites was shortlisted in the Educational
and Academic category of the British Book Design and Production
Awards 2003.
Published
by the Natural History Museum.
Key
features
- First
reference book of its kind
- Complete yet accessible natural history
of ammonites
- Reconstructions of ammonites and their
habitats
- For the interested amateur and professional
Contents
Introduction; An introduction to Ammonites;
Ammonite fossils; Ammonite form and function; Aspects
of ammonite biology; Ammonite taxonomy and classification;
The extinction of ammonites; Collecting ammonites; Further
reading; Glossary; Index.
About
the authors
Neale
Monks was a palaeontologist at the Natural History
Museum until 2003 and is currently a research professor
at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln. He has written
a number of papers on the evolution of heteromorph ammonites.
Phil
Palmer was a scientist at the Natural History
Museum in London until his retirement, and has written
extensively on fossil molluscs and stratigraphy.
About
the Living Past Series
This series aims to bring fossils
to life by examining the origins of these once living
relatives. The series will also explore how fossils help
us to understand the development of life and the origins
and evolution of present day organisms.
Written
by experts from the Department of Palaeontology the series
is an authoritative introduction to fossils, aimed at
aspiring fossil hunters, amateurs and interested professionals.
Other titles in this series include Fossils:
The Key to the Past (2002) and Fossil
Plants (2004). Related
titles include Fossil
Invertebrates (2005).
Reviews
"One
should never judge a book by its cover but in this case
one can safely ignore that maxim. If the rest of the Living
Past series is as good, those interested in life
in the past will be well served." Geoscientist
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Specifications
ISBN:
0 565 09169 7
Price: £15.95
Format: Paperback
Size: 154 x 234 mm
Extent: 160 pp
Published: May 2002
Subject classification: Popular science; natural
history; palaeontology
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