The Dawn of Animal Life: A Biohistorical Study

by Martin F. Glaessner

Overview

This 1985 book examines the origin of the present diversity of marine invertebrate animals. A brief review of the early stages in the history of life discusses the time-scale of the relevant geological periods alongside corresponding events in the evolutionary sequence. These views of the early history of life are then matched against the fossil record and conjectures drawn from the living fauna, enabling the author to attempt an overview of the early diversification of marine animal life. Transitions to the succeeding assemblages of shellbearing fossils in Palaeozoic rocks are discussed and a number of stratigraphic adjustments are suggested for the period in which evolutionary events had their greatest impact on oceans and marine rock strata. The need for an interdisciplinary approach to early evolution is emphasized.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521312165
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	06/20/1985
Series:	Cambridge Earth Science Series
Edition description:	Revised ed.
Pages:	258
Product dimensions:	5.98(w) x 9.02(h) x 0.55(d)

Table of Contents

List of figures and tables; Preface; 1. Precambrian life and its environment: a review: i. Theories about the origin of life and its environment; ii. The Precambrian, its subdivisions, and the dating of biohistoric events; iii. The preservation and recognition of organic remains in rocks: chemofossils, fossil organisms, pseudofossils; iv. The cell: organization and life processes. The 'kingdoms' of organisms; v. Proterozoic fossils and environments; vi. Origins and early differentiation of the Metazoa; 2. The Ediacarian faunal assemblages: discovery, composition, significance; i. Discoveries at Ediacara; ii. Palaeoenvironment and fossilization; iii. Composition of the fauna; iv. Paleobiology; v. Other occurrences of Late Precambrian Metazoa in Australia; vi. The Nama fauna of southwestern Africa (Namibia) and possible equivalents in South America; vii. Late Precambrian Metazoa from the Northern Hemisphere; viii. The concept of Ediacarian fauna; 3. The Precambrian diversification of the Metazoa in the light of paleozoology: i. The significance of the Ediacarian fauna for metazoan phylogeny; ii. Re-assessment of the incompleteness of the palaeontological record; iii. The record of the Late Precambrian fauna applied to problems of phylogeny; iv. Occupation of the marine environment: habitats and habits; v. Conclusions on the physical environments of the Late Precambrian Metazoa; vi. The taxonomy of emerging diversity: the meaning of phyla; vii. Rates of evolution; 4. The Precambrian-Cambrian transition: i. Stratigraphic scales: boundaries and historical transitions; ii. The fate of the Ediacarian faunas: extinction, survival, replacement; iii. The Cambrian Period as the time of the first shelly fossils; iv. the oldest Cambrian faunas and their evolutionary antecedents; v. Agglutinated, chitinous and mineralized body components in Ediacarian fossils and in some successors; vi. Extrinsic and internal factors of biomineralisation and its functional significance; vii. Environmental changes at the Precambrian-Cambrian transition; viii. Increase in diversity of trace fossils; ix. Consequences and causes of evolutionary diversification; 5. Emerging animal life: thoughts on interactions of lithosphere, hydrosphere, atmosphere and biosphere: i. Interactions of intrinsic and environmental factors in the emergent biosphere; ii. Metazoan expansion in the marine biosphere: a three-stage process; iii. Interactions in the light of plate tectonics; iv. Animal life: past, present and future; Appendix; References; Dictionaries of scientific terms; Author index; Subject index.