Causes of Evolution: A Paleontological Perspective [Paperback]

Robert M. Ross (Editor), Warren D. Allmon (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 18, 1990 | ISBN-10: 0226728242 | ISBN-13: 978-0226728247 | Edition: 1

By studying evolution across geological time, paleontologists gain a perspective that sometimes complements and sometimes conflicts with views based solely on studies of extant species. The contributors to Causes of Evolution consider whether factors exerting major influences on evolution are biotic or abiotic, intrinsic or extrinsic.

Causes of Evolution presents a broad sampling of paleontological research programs encompassing vertebrates, invertebrates, and vascular plants; empirical work and theoretical models; organisms ranging in age from Cambrian to Recent; and temporal scales from ecological time to hundreds of millions of years. The diverse array of research styles and opinions presented will acquaint scientists in related fields with the strengths and weaknesses of paleontology as an approach to evolutionary studies and will give evolutionary biologists of every stripe new bases for evaluating the scope and bias of their own work.

Product Details

• Paperback: 494 pages
• Publisher: University Of Chicago Press; 1 edition (December 18, 1990)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0226728242
• ISBN-13: 978-0226728247
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.9 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,269,533 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Warren Allmon is the Director of the Paleontological Research Institution (PRI) in Ithaca, NY and the Hunter R. Rawlings III Professor of Paleontology in the Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at Cornell University. He earned his A.B. in Earth Sciences from Dartmouth College in 1982, and his Ph.D. in Earth and Planetary Sciences from Harvard University in 1988. For four years he was Assistant Professor of Geology at the University of South Florida in Tampa, and became PRI's fourth Director in 1992. Since 1992, he has been instrumental in rejuvenating PRI's internationally-known fossil collections; starting its local, regional, and national programs in Earth science education; and in planning and fundraising for the Museum of the Earth, PRI's $11 million education and exhibit facility which opened in September 2003. In November 2004, Allmon helped secure a formal agreement of affiliation between PRI and Cornell, ending more than 70 years of official separation.

Allmon's major research interest is macroevolution and paleoecology, especially the ecology of the origin and maintenance of biological diversity and the application of the geological record to the study of these problems, particularly using Cenozoic marine gastropods (snails of the last 65 million years).

Allmon is the author of more than 200 technical and popular publications. He is a Fellow of the Geological Society of America and the recipient of the 2004 Award for Outstanding Contribution to Public Understanding of Geoscience from the American Geological Institute.