The Beginning of the age of dinosaurs : faunal change across the Triassic-Jurassic boundary

Author(s)

Bibliographic Information

The Beginning of the age of dinosaurs : faunal change across the Triassic-Jurassic boundary

edited by Kevin Padian

Cambridge University Press, 1986

Available at  / 11 libraries

Search this Book/Journal

Note

Papers from the Symposium on Faunal Change Across the Triassic-Jurassic Boundary, held Oct. 31, 1984, in conjunction with the 44th Annual Meeting of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology at Berkeley, Calif.

Includes bibliographies and indexes

Description and Table of Contents

Description

Around 210 million years ago, life on Earth experienced sweeping changes. Many archaic reptiles and mammalian predecessors became extinct and were replaced by dinosaurs, pterosaurs, crocodiles, turtles, mammals, and essentially all of the major modern vertebrate groups except the birds. This period of change, which took place over a period of approximately five to ten million years, ushered in the beginning of the 'Age of Dinosaurs,' a period that lasted 160 million years to the end of the Cretaceous 65 million years ago. In the past decade, paleontologists have come to know a great deal more about this crucial interval of time. New discoveries, ideas, and insights from scientists in many related- disciplines have created new paradigms about the beginning of the 'Age of Dinosaurs.' What were the animals that preceded the dinosaurs like? How did the dinosaurs originate, and what do we know of their early history? Was their ascent tied to evolutionary innovations, global climatic and ecological changes, or just chance factors? How do paleontologists decide about the evidence preserved in the fossil record, and what areas now require major thought and reevaluation? In this book, 31 specialists in the paleontology of this era consider these and other questions related to Late Triassic and Early Jurassic times - the beginning of the 'Age of Dinosaurs,' its fauna, flora, climate, stratigraphic relationships, and major evolutionary changes. The book is divided into sections on background, Late Triassic taxa and faunas, changes across the boundary, Early Jurassic taxa and faunas, and major macroevolutionary patterns. This comprehensive volume is richly illustrated and is intended for students and professionals in the areas of paleontology, evolutionary biology, geology, and vertebrate zoology. Introductory and summary chapters are provided to acquaint the non-specialist with the issues and the setting of this interval of time in which the ancestral components of the modem fauna, as well as the Dinosauria, first appeared to rule the Earth.

Table of Contents

  • Preface
  • Introduction
  • Part I. The Beginning of the Age of Dinosaurs: The Time and the Setting: 1. Historical aspects of the Triassic-Jurassic boundary problem Edwin H. Colbert
  • 2. Fossil plants and the Triassic-Jurassic boundary Sidney Ash
  • Part II. Late Triassic Vertebrate Taxa and Faunas: 3. Thoughts on the origin of the Theropoda Samuel P. Welles
  • 4. Structure and function of the tarsus in the phytosaurs (Reptilia: Archosauria) J. Michael Parrish
  • 5. On the type material of Coelophysis Cope (Saurischis: Theropoda), and a new specimen from the Petrified Forest of Arizona (Late Triassic: Chinle Formation) Kevin Padian
  • 6. The ichnogenus Atreipus and its significance for Triassic biostratigraphy Paul E. Olsen and Donald Baird
  • 7. The limb posture of kannemeyeriid dicynodonts: functional and ecological considerations Laurie R. Walter
  • 8. A new family of mammals from the lower part of the French Rhaetic Denise Sigogneau-Russell, R. M. Frank and J. Hemmerle
  • 9. Vertebrate paleontology of the Dockum Group, western Texas and eastern New Mexico Phillip A. Murry
  • 10. The Late Triassic Dockum vertebrates: their stratigraphic and paleobiogeographic significance Sankar Chatterjee
  • 11. A new vertenrate fauna from the Dockum Formation (Late Triasssic) of eastern New Mexico J. Michael Parrish and Kenneth Carpenter
  • 12. Vertebrate biostratigraphy of the Late Triassic Chinle Formation, Petrified Forest National Park, Arizona: preliminary results R. A. Long and Kevin Padian
  • Part III. Taxa and Trends Across the Triassic-Jurassic Boundary: 13. Triassic and Jurassic fishes: patterns of diversity Amy R. McCune and Bobb Schaeffer
  • 14. Triassic and Early Jurassic turtles Eugene S. Gaffney
  • 15. Archosaur footprints at the terrestrial Triassic-Jurassic transition Hartmut Haubold
  • 16. Herbivorous adaptations of Late Triassic and Early Jurassic dinosaurs Pater M. Galton
  • 17. Masticatory apparatus of the larger herbivores during Late Triassic and early Jurassic times A. W. Crompton and J. Attridge
  • 18. On Triassic and Jurassic mammals William A. Clemens
  • Part IV. Early Jurassic Vertebrate Taxa and Faunas: 19. The early radiation and phylogenetic relationships of the Jurassic sauropod dinosaurs, based on vertebral anatomy Jose F. Bonaparte
  • 20. Earliest records of Batrachopus from the southwestern United States, and a revision of some early Mesozoic crocodylomorph ichnogenera Paul E. Olsen and Kevin Padian
  • 21. A brief introduction to the Lower Lufeng saurischian fauna (Lower Jurassic: Lufeng, Yunnan, People's Republic of China) A. L. Sun and K. H. Cui
  • 22. Relationships and biostratigraphic significance of the Tritylodontidae (Synapsida) from the Kayenta Formation of northeastern Arizona Hans Dieter Sues
  • 23. Vertebrate biostrarigraphy of the Glen canyon Group in northern Arizona James M. Clark and David E. Fastovsky
  • Part V. Macroevolutionary Patterns of the Triassic-Jurassic Transition: 24. The Late Triassic tetrapod extinction events Michael J. Benton
  • 25. Correlation of continental Late Triassic and Early Jurassic sediments, and patterns of the Triassic-Jurassic tetrapod transition Paul E. Olsen and Hans-Dieter Sues
  • 26. Terrestrial vertebrate faunal succession during the Triassic J. M. Zawiskie
  • Summary and prospectus
  • Taxonomic index
  • Ichnotaxonomic index.

by "Nielsen BookData"

Details

Page Top