Page 12 - Introduction to Paleobiology and The Fossil Record

Preface

The history of life is documented by fossils through the past 3.5 billion years. We need this
long-term perspective for three reasons: ancient life and environments can inform us about how
the world might change in the future; extinct plants and animals make up 99% of all species
that ever lived, and so we need to know about them to understand the true scope of the tree of
life; and extinct organisms did amazing things that no living plant or animal can do, and we
need to explore their capabilities to assess the limits of form and function.
Every week, astonishing new fossil finds are announced – a 1 ton rat, a miniature species of

human, the world’s largest sea scorpion, a dinosaur with feathers. You read about these in the
newspapers, but where do these stray fi ndings fit into the greater scheme of things? Studying

fossils can reveal the most astonishing organisms, many of them more remarkable than the
wildest dreams (or nightmares) of a science fiction writer. Indeed, paleontology reveals a seem-

ingly endless catalog of alternative universes, landscapes and seascapes that look superfi cially
familiar, but which contain plants that do not look quite right, animals that are very different
from anything now living.
The last 40 years have seen an explosion of paleontological research, where fossil evidence is
used to study larger questions, such as rates of evolution, mass extinctions, high-precision dating
of sedimentary sequences, the paleobiology of dinosaurs and Cambrian arthropods, the structure
of Carboniferous coal-swamp plant communities, ancient molecules, the search for oil and gas,
the origin of humans, and many more. Paleontologists have benefited enormously from the

growing interdisciplinary nature of their science, with major contributions from geologists, chem-
ists, evolutionary biologists, physiologists and even geophysicists and astronomers. Many areas
of study have also been helped by an increasingly quantitative approach.
There are many paleontology texts that describe the major fossil groups or give a guided tour

of the history of life. Here we hope to give students a flavor of the excitement of modern pale-
ontology. We try to present all aspects of paleontology, not just invertebrate fossils or dinosaurs,
but fossil plants, trace fossils, macroevolution, paleobiogeography, biostratigraphy, mass extinc-
tions, biodiversity through time and microfossils. Where possible, we show how paleontologists
tackle controversial questions, and highlight what is known, and what is not known. This shows
the activity and dynamism of modern paleobiological research. Many of these items are included
in boxed features, some of them added at the last minute, to show new work in a number of
categories, indicated by icons (see below for explanation).

The book is intended for first- and second-year geologists and biologists who are taking
courses in paleontology or paleobiology. It should also be a clear introduction to the science for

keen amateurs and others interested in current scientific evidence about the origin of life, the
history of life, mass extinctions, human evolution and related topics.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

We thank the following for reading chapters of the book, and providing feedback and comments
that gave us much pause for thought, and led to many valuable revisions: Jan Audun Rasmussen