History of Life
on the Earth: an Introduction to Palaeobiology. 3rd Edition,
revised (in Polish), 523 pp. Wydawnictwo
Naukowe PWN, Warszawa (2003)
Dzieje życia na Ziemi. Wprowadzenie do paleobiologii. Wydanie 3., unowocześnione
Jerzy Dzik
Instytut Paleobiologii PAN, Twarda
51/55, 00-818 Warszawa, Poland. e-mail: dzik@twarda.pan.pl
Contents.
In the book a modified Simpsonian methodology of inference, referred to as chronophyletics,
is used to review the fossil record of the evolution with its time and space
coordinates. Data on fossils is graphically arranged according to their
geological age, morphology and (if relevant) geographic location. The most
parsimonious ancestor-descendant relationship hypotheses joins them up in a
phylogenetic tree. It is argued that such hypotheses are falsifiable if
retrodiction is used as the way of reasoning.
A few introductory chapters explain methods of inference in
historical geology, taphonomy, palaeoecology and phylogenetics. In the main
body of the book expansion of the ecospace and enrichment of ecosystems in the
geological history of biosphere is reviewed. The concluding chapter presents
philosophical aspects of such an approach. Contents and main theses of
successive chapters:
Introduction Parsimony (including
uniformitarianism as its special form) and testability demarcate science from
art and religion. Chapter 1. Reading the fossil record: Taphonomy
of skeletal, soft body and trace fossils, extraction and presentation of data
on fossil assemblages. Identification of paleophena (‘fossil populations’)
is the main goal of basic research on fossils and unit of further studies. Chapter
2. Geological and ecological time: Application of short (environmental)
and long term (evolutionary) processes to geochronology. Being unrepeatable,
evolution is the most reliable basis for low resolution dating in geology. Chapter
3. Ways to restore evolution: Methods of inference on the course of
evolution from morphologic diversity and stratigraphic succession. There is no
possibility to prove that evolution was discontinuous but this idea can, and
already has been, falsified. Chapter 4. Environment of evolution: Geological
background of environmental changes and fossils as indicators of ancient
environment. The theory of island biogeography offers an inspiring way of
thinking about past ecosystems. Chapter 5. The early life: The nature
of life and geological evidence on its evolution from RNA molecules to first
metazoans. No reliable evidence on early life is available; the Ediacaran
environment was extreme of its time. Chapter 6. Pedigree of reefs: Introduction
and evolution of calcareous and siliceous skeleton in sessile animals.
Investment in mineral skeleton was enforced by predation; ancestry of
filtrators remains unknown. Chapter 7. Evolution in the mud: History
of adaptation to infaunal and epifaunal ‘iceberg’ life on muddy
bottoms. The change from active epifaunal to infaunal life was enforced by
predation at the beginning of Cambrian. Chapter 8. Grazing over the sea
bottom: History of adaptation to active epifaunal life; development
of gait and ability to crawling. Predation forced freely living Cambrian
animals to develop protective external cuticular skeleton. Chapter 9. First
swimmers: History of adaptation to swimming by waving the body
vertically or laterally and by jet propulsion. Hydrostatic abilities preceded
efficient propulsion in cephalopods, opposite to the history of aquatic
vertebrates. Chapter 10. Sea monsters: Succession of large
predators in changing environments of the late Palaeozoic and Mesozoic. Most
cases of ecological replacement of one taxon of large predators by another
await explanation. Chapter 11. Colonies of clonal organisms: Evolution
of morphological differentiation within colonies of genetically uniform
animals (bryozoans and graptolites). Gene duplication and subsequent
introduction of regulatory homeotic mechanisms enable zooid polymorphism. Chapter
12. Invasion of plants on the land: Algal ancestry, origin and
Palaeozoic evolution of vascular plants; first Carboniferous and Permian
forests. Expansion of protective
walls from zygote through tetrads to spores resulted in origin of the
sporophyte generation. Chapter 13. Colonizing the land by animals:
Adaptation of fungi, arthropods, and vertebrates to terrestrial life up to the
origin of mammals. Unlike arthropods, vertebrates had to change ways of their
locomotion and sensing while leaving water. Chapter 14. Dynasties of the
land rulers: Succession and biogeography of plants, large
herbivores, and predators during the whole Mesozoic. Triassic archosaurs
expanded from equatorial regions to high latitudes while replacing synapsids. Chapter
15. Active flight: Origin and early evolution of flight of insects,
pterosaurs, birds and bats. Small
size is a derived character in all active fliers; both the earliest flying
insects and vertebrates were of decimetre size. Chapter 16. Genesis of the
paradise gardens: Origin and evolution of flowering plants,
pollinating insects, and coeval higher vertebrates. Prolonged stability of
Cretaceous and Tertiary environment was the basis of evolutionary recovery and
progress. Chapter 17. Change from biological to social evolution: Evolution
of primates, origin of humans and culture; unstable environment of their
ancient and historic life. Sexual behavioural dimorphism as an adaptation to
unstable environment triggered human evolution. Chapter 18. Historicism and
laws of evolution: Review of methods of inference on the course of
evolution and their basic assumptions. Ancestor-descendant hypotheses of
relationships are falsifiable with application of evidence on fossils.
Appendix. Linnaean classification of organisms: with
brief diagnoses of taxa.
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