Yearly Archives: 2011
| Volume 1 | Article 7 |
Fossil Focus: Arachnida
by Jason A. Dunlop*1 Introduction: Arachnida is one of the major arthropod groups. It includes spiders (Araneae), scorpions (Scorpiones), mites (Acari) and harvestmen (Opiliones), as well as a number of rarer and less familiar groups (Fig 1). The name Arachnida … Continue reading
| Volume 1 | Article 6 |
Fossil Focus: Chasmataspidida
by Jason A. Dunlop*1 Introduction: Chasmataspidida (Fig 1) are rare, extinct arthropods known only from the early to mid Palaeozoic Era. They are probably closely related to either xiphosurans (horseshoe crabs; Fig 2) or eurypterids (sea scorpions; Fig 1); some … Continue reading
| Volume 1 | Article 5 | Download (.pdf) |
Patterns in Palaeontology: The Paleocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum
by Phil Jardine*1 Introduction: The Paleocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM) is one of the most intense and abrupt intervals of global warming in the geological record. It occurred around 56 million years ago, at the boundary between the Paleocene and Eocene … Continue reading
| Volume 1 | Article 4 | Download (.pdf) |
Fossil Focus: Coal swamps
by Ben Slater*1 Introduction: Coal swamps are the classical terrestrial (land-based) ecosystems of the Carboniferous and Permian periods. They are forests that grew during the Palaeozoic Era (encompassing the Carboniferous and Permian) in which the volume of plant biomass dying … Continue reading
| Volume 1 | Article 3 | Download (.pdf) |
Fossil Focus: Pycnogonida
by Jason A. Dunlop*1 Introduction: Pycnogonida, or sea spiders, are not true spiders at all. They are in fact a group of — probably rather primitive — marine arthropods, characterized by a small, slender body and in many cases by … Continue reading
| Volume 1 | Article 2 | Download (.pdf) |
Patterns in Palaeontology: Biodiversity, more than just how many species
by Alistair J. McGowan*1 Introduction: Biological diversity, or biodiversity, shot to prominence among non-specialists in 1992, after the Rio Earth Summit (Fig. 1). Media coverage of the summit did a tremendous amount to raise awareness of the need to gather … Continue reading
| Volume 1 | Article 1 | Page 1-8 | Download (.pdf) |
Fossil Focus: Chelicerata
by Jason A. Dunlop*1 Introduction: Chelicerata is one of the main divisions of the arthropods, and essentially consists of arachnids and their closest relatives. The name was coined in 1901 by the Berlin-based zoologist Richard Heymons (Fig. 1). It means … Continue reading
