Manual of Palaeontology: With A General Introduction on the Principles of the Palaeontology

by Henry Alleyne Nicholson

ISBN: 9789359192666
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Imprint : Daya Publishing House
Year : 2025
Price : Rs. 18495.00
Biblio : xvi+512p., 381 figs., 23 cm

About The Book

The book is an attempt, for the benefit of the students of Geology as also the common readers, to furnish an elaborate account of the leading principles and facts of the vast and ever increasing science of Palaeontology. The work includes all the essential facts coming under Palaeontology as a department of science, sufficiently distinct to stand alone and yet most closely connected with the sciences of Zoology and Botany on the one land and with Geology on the other. The first part of the book furnishers a general account of the principles of Palaeontology. In the second part, the past history of the animal life, technically known as Palaeozoology has been given in details. More space has been allotted to the Invertebrata group in this section than to the Vertebrata group, upon the ground that palaeontological students are, as a rule, much more largely concerned with the former than the latter. An attempt has also been made to give, as far as possible, brief and general definitions of the more important and widely distributed families of Invertebrata as well as, to a more limited extent, of the Vertebrata. The third part of the book gives a brief and very general view of Palaeobotany or the past history of the vegetable kingdom. This is a useful book for the students and common readers in search of knowledge on the subject.

Table of Contents

Contents Part 1- General Introduction; Chapter 1: Definition of Palaeontology; Definition of the term “fossil”, Processes of fossilisation, Definition of “rock”, Classification of rocks; Chapter 2: Characters of the Sedimentary rocks; Mode of formation of the sedimentary rocks, Definition of the term “formation”, Chief divisions of the aqueous rocks, Mechanically-formed rocks, Chemically-formed rocks, Organically-formed rocks, Chalk, Limestone, Silica and siliceous deposits, Carbon and carbonaceous deposits; Chapter 3: Different ages of the Aqueous rocks; Chronological succession of the aqueous rocks, Value and nature of palaeontological evidence in determining the position of strata, Zones of life, Use of the term “contemporaneous,” as applied to groups of beds, General sequence of phenomena at the close of each Geological period, Migrations, Differences between the fossils of known contemporaneous strata, Geological continuity, Relations between the Chalk and the Atlantic Ooze, Reappearance of similar forms of life under similar conditions, Doctrine of “colonies,”; Chapter 4: Causes of the imperfection of the palaeontological record, Causes of the absence of certain animals as fossils, Unrepresented time, Unconformity, sequence of phenomena indicated by, Leading examples of unconformity, Thinning out of beds, Sudden extinction of animals, Disappearance of fossils; Chapter 5: Conclusions to be drawn from fossils, Age of rocks, Mode of origin of any fossiliferous bed, Fluviatile, lacustrine and marine deposits, Conclusions as to climate; Chapter 6: Primary divisions of the Animal Kingdom, Impossibility of a linear classification, Tabular view of the chief divisions of the Animal Kingdom, General succession and progression of organic types; Part 2- Palaeozoology; Chapter 7: Zoological Characters and Chief Divisions of the Protozoa, Relations of the protozoa to time, Characters of the foraminifera, Variations of the test of the foraminifera, Distribution of the foraminifera in time, Classification of the foraminifera, Types of foraminifera, Eozoon canadense, Receptaculites; Chapter 8: Characters of the Radiolaria, Polycystina, General characters of the spongida, Divisions of sponges, The horny sponges, The calcispongiae, The stromatoporoids, Archaeocyathus, Siliceous sponges, Hexatinellidae, Lithistidae, Literature of protozoa; Chapter 9: General characters and chief divisions of the coelenterata, Distribution in time of coelenterate animals, Orders of hydrozoa not represented as fossils, Fossil medusae and sea-blubbers, General characters of the corynida, Hydractinia, Labechia, Palaeocoryne, Corynoides, General characters of the thecaphora, Dendrograptus, Dictyonema, Structure and probable affinities of oldhamia, General characters and distribution of the graptolitidae, Structure of a simple graptolite, Reproduction of graptolites, Monoprionidian and diprionidian forms, Characters of the genus graptolites, Didymograptus, Tetragraptus, Dichograptus