The Beginning of Age of Dinosaurs: Faunal Change across the Triassic-Jurassic Boundary (Faunal Changes Across the Triassic-Jurassic Boundary)
Cambridge University Press
Edition: Revised ed., 8/21/2008
EAN 9780521367790, ISBN10: 0521367794
Paperback, 404 pages, 25.4 x 17.8 x 2.8 cm
Language: English
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.
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. Hemmerlé
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 José 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.