Why and How

Why and How: Some Problems and Methods in Historical Biology discusses an overall approach to the study of fossils combined with paleontology.
This book is divided into six chapters. Chapter 1 consists of a few examples of studies of the fossil record, focusing on its adequacy, and ways of looking at and representing some of its aspects. The most basic aspects of study of the fossil record such as the examination, description, and illustration of the morphology of fossils are described in Chapter 2. Chapter 3 focuses on paleoecology and faunal analysis, while Chapter 4 emphasizes some of the aspects of phylogenetic principles and eclectic taxonomic theory. The essential apparatus for zoological studies that include biometrical statistics both in concepts and in measures are deliberated in Chapter 5. The last chapter deliberates the geographic distribution of organisms.
This publication is a good source for paleontologists and biologists interested in historical biology.

Contenu

Introduction

1. The Fossil Record
   Bias, Adequacy, and Sampling of the Fossil Record
   Continuity and Discontinuity in the Fossil Record
   History of a Fauna
   Periodicity in Vertebrate Evolution
2. Morphology, Homology, and Function
   A Problem of Black on Black
   "Braincasts"
   A Way to Look Inside Fossils
   A Way to Tell Crocodiles Apart
   Ratio Diagrams
   The Concept and Definition of Homology
   An Exercise in Homology
   An Exercise in Functional Inference and Model-making
   How a Strange and Ancient Animal Got About
3. Paleoecology and Faunal Analysis
   Ecological Analysis of an Ancient Local Fauna
   Faunal Analysis, Facies, and an Evolutionary Principle
   The Long View
4. Systematics and Taxonomy
   Patterns of Cladistic Evolution
   Remarks on Vertebrate Phylogeny
   Higher Categories in Phylogeny and Taxonomy
   Supraspecific Variation and Higher Categories
   The Reality of Higher Categories
   The Concept of Species
   Types, Name-bearers, and Hypodigms in Taxonomy
   Taxonomic Linguistics
5. Some Bits of Biometry
   An Application of Statistical Thinking and Methods
   Range as a Zoological Character
   Standardization of Normal Frequency Distributions
6. Biogeography
   Approach to a Sampling Problem
   A History of an Intercontinental Faunal Resemblance
   Measurement of Faunal Resemblance
   Migration Routes
   An Example of Sweepstakes Dispersal
   Probability and Time
   Species Density of Recent North American Mammals
   Historical Analysis of a Continental Mammalian Fauna
   Index