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2 - A Short Detour: The Fossil Record and the Geological Time Scale

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 September 2021

Michael Hannah
Michael Hannah
Affiliation:
Victoria University of Wellington
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Summary

The book sets today's defaunation event into its historical setting. The best source of information available to do that is the fossil record. Unfortunately, the fossil record has some inbuilt limitations that affect any analysis that uses it. This chapter starts by outlining these limitations and what we can do limit them. I then look at how the extinction and origination (evolutionary appearance) of species are recorded in the fossil record. This is important as the pattern of extinction and origination of species over deep time forms the basis of the geological time scale that is used throughout the book. Finally, I examine the beginnings of modern extinction studies and the recognition of the Big Five mass extinctions.

Keywords

PalaeontologyFossil RecordBiodiversityExtinctionOriginationDeep TimeThe Geological Time ScaleExtinction StudiesBig Five Mass ExtinctionsBackground Extinction
Type
Chapter
Information
Extinctions
Living and Dying in the Margin of Error
 , pp. 29 - 48
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2021

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