Biotic Response to Global Change
The Last 145 Million Years
Stephen J Culver and Peter F Rawson (Eds)
Concern about the effects of global change on our planet's future has driven much current research into the last few thousand years of earth history. In contrast, this volume takes a much longer viewpoint to provide a historical perspective to recent and future global change.
Over 40 international specialists investigate the reaction of life to global environmental changes, from Cretaceous times to the present day. During this time Earth's climate has changed from a very warm, 'greenhouse' phase with no significant ice sheets to today's 'ice-house' world. A wide spectrum of animal, plant and protistan life is discussed, encompassing terrestrial, shallow-marine and deep-marine realms. Each chapter considers a particular taxonomic group, looking first at the general picture and then focusing on more specialised aspects such as extinctions, diversity and biogeography.
This volume will form an invaluable reference for researchers and graduate students in palaeontology, geology, biology, oceanography and climatology.
Published by Cambridge University Press in association with the Natural History Museum, London.
Contributors
Stephen J Culver; Peter F Rawson; Andrew S Gale; Kevin T Pickering; Jackie A Burnett; Jeremy R Young; Paul R Bown; Norman MacLeod; Nievez Ortiz; Nina Fefferman; William Clyde; Christine Schulter; Jena Maclean; Mark R Chapman; Peter Forey; Martin A Buzas; J Alistair Crame; Noel Morris; John Taylor; Brian R Rosen; Andrew B Smith; Charlotte H Jeffrey; Paul D Taylor; Richard Lupia; Peter R Crane; Scott Lidgard; Margaret E Collinson; Robert A Spicer; Adrian G Parker; Andrew J Ross; Ed A Jarzembowski; Stephen J Brooks; G Russell Coope; Angela C Milner; Andrew R Milner; Susan E Evans; Jeremy J Hooker; Peter J Whybrow; Peter Andrews; Andrew Currant; Chris Stringer.
Contents
Preface; Introduction; The Cretaceous world; The Cenozoic world; Calcareous nannoplankton and global climate change; Phenotypic Response of Foraminifera to episodes of global environmental change; The response of planktonic foraminifera to the late Pliocene intensification of northern hemisphere glaciation; The response of Cretaceous cephalopods to global change; Global change and the fossil fish record: the relevance of systematics; Response of shallow water foraminiferal palaeocommunities to global and regional environmental change; Intrinsic and extrinsic controls on the diversification of the Bivalvia; Global events and biotic interaction as controls on the evolution of gastropods; Algal symbiosis and the collapse and recovery of reef communities: Lazarus corals across the K-T boundary; Changes in the diversity, taxic composition and life-history patterns of echinoids over the past 145 million years; Origin of the modern bryozoan fauna; Angiosperm diversification and Cretaceous environmental change; Cenozoic evolution of modern plant communities and vegetation; Leaf physiognomy and climate change; Biotic response to late Quaternary global change - the pollen record: a case study from the Upper Thames Valley, England; The Cretaceous and Cenozoic record of insects (Hexapods) with regard to global change; The palaeoclimatological significance of Late Cenozoic Coleoptera: familiar species in very unfamiliar circumstances; Amphibians, reptiles and birds: a biogeographical review; Paleogene mammals: crises and ecological change;
Response of Old World terrestrial vertebrate biotas to neogene climate change; Mammalian response to global change in the later quaternary of the British Isles; Human evolution: how an African primate became global; The biotic responses to global change: a summary; References; Index
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Ordering information Cambridge University Press
Specifications
ISBN: 0 521 66304 0
Price: £75.00
Format: Hardback
Size: 247 x 174 mm
Extent: 480 pp
112 line diagrams, 9 half-tones, 14 tables
Published: May 2000
Subject classification: Palaeontology; geology; biology; oceanography; climatology
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