Rather than survey of the extensive data, this book focuses on the ideas, methodology and scope of contemporary palaeobiology. It examines the complex interdependence of evolutionary theory and the interpretation of the fossil record. The author demonstrates that this is not the circular argument between pattern and process sometimes alleged, but a matter of understanding carefully the interrelationship between palaeontological and neontological evidence. The first part of the book consists of four chapters outlining the central principles: the nature of the pattern/process relationship,...

From a modest beginning in the form of a little shrew-like, nocturnal, insect eating ancestor that lived 200 million years ago, mammals evolved into the huge variety of different kinds of animals we see today. Many species are still small, and follow the lifestyle of the ancestor, but others have adapted to become large grazers and browsers, like the antelopes, cattle, rhinos, and elephants, or the lions, hyaenas, and wolves that prey upon them. Yet others evolved to be specialist termite eaters able to dig into the hardest mounds, or tunnel creating burrowers, and a few took to the skies as...