Basic questions in paleontology : geologic time, organic evolution, and biological systematics
Author(s)
Bibliographic Information
Basic questions in paleontology : geologic time, organic evolution, and biological systematics
University of Chicago Press, c1993
- : pbk
- Other Title
-
Grundfragen der Paläontologie
- Uniform Title
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Grundfragen der Paläontologie
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Note
Includes bibliographical references and index
Description and Table of Contents
- Volume
-
ISBN 9780226738345
Description
Originally published in Germany in 1950, and now translated into English for the first time, "Basic Questions in Paleontology" has both historical importance and contemporary relevance because Otto Schindewolf's ideas, considered revolutionary in his day, directly address many current debates within evolutionary biology. When originally published, Schindewolf s argument was highly controversial because it emphasized the importance of catastrophic events and mass extinctions in evolution at a time when American scientists were celebrating the neo-Darwinian evolutionary view that stressed gradual change over time. However, within the last 20 years, many challenges to the neo-Darwinian view have come to support Schindewolf's argument. What appeared radical a few decades ago now seems strikingly modern.
Table of Contents
I. The Nature, Task, and Place of PaleontologyA. Definition of Terms, Goals, and Methods B. Relationship to Biology, Implications for Phylogeny C. Relationship to Geology and the Humanities II. Basic Problems of Geologic Time A. The Basis for Measuring Time and Determining Age B. A Survey of the Temporal Distribution of Plant and Animal Phyla C. Some Individual Problems Concerning the Paleontological Classification of Time 1. The Concept of Zones 2. The Same or Merely Equal? 3. Micropaleontology--Its Place and Importance in Stratigraphy 4. Delimiting the Larger Units of Time III. Basic Problems of Organic Phylogeny A. The Authority of Fossil Evidence 1. The Preservational State of Fossils 2. Gaps in the Fossil Record B. Patterns in Phylogeny 1. Two Introductory Examples a) The Unfolding of the Cephalopods 1) Nautiloids 2) Ammonoids b) The Unfolding of the Stony Corals 1) Pterocorals--Cyclocorals 2) Pterocorals--Heterocorals 2. General Results a) Evolution or Creation? b) The Irreversibility of Evolution c) The Periodicity of Evolution d) The Origin of the Types e) Proterogenetic Evolution f) The Pros and Cons of Typostrophism g) Other Principles of Evolution h) Orthogenesis i) Factors in Evolution IV. Basic Problems of Biological Systematics A. The Nature and Task of Systematics B. The Nature of Taxonomic Categories C. Natural and Artificial Systematics D. Morphological and Phylogenetic Systematics E. Idealistic Morphology F. The Systematics of Parallel Evolutionary Lineages
- Volume
-
: pbk ISBN 9780226738352
Description
Originally published in Germany in 1950, and now translated into English for the first time, "Basic Questions in Paleontology" has both historical importance and contemporary relevance because Otto Schindewolf's ideas, considered revolutionary in his day, directly address many current debates within evolutionary biology. When originally published, Schindewolf s argument was highly controversial because it emphasized the importance of catastrophic events and mass extinctions in evolution at a time when American scientists were celebrating the neo-Darwinian evolutionary view that stressed gradual change over time. However, within the last 20 years, many challenges to the neo-Darwinian view have come to support Schindewolf's argument. What appeared radical a few decades ago now seems strikingly modern.
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