Vertebrate fossils

The approach proposed to check the preservation of isotopic signals in fossil vertebrate bones and teeth is appropriate not only for Pleistocene cold and temperate areas, but also during geological periods before the... 

Bocherens, H., Fizet, M., Mariotti, A., Lange-Badre, B., Vandermeersch, B., Borel, J.P and Bellon, G. 1991a Isotopic biogeochemistry ( C, N) of fossil vertebrate collagen implications for the study of fossil food web including Neandertal Man. Journal of Human Evolution 20 481 92. 

Rich, P. V., and Thompson, E. M., 1982, The fossil vertebrate record of Australasia, Monash University, Clayton, Australia. 

The middle part of the Fremouw Formation is composed predominantly of mudstone that is overlain by the volcanic sandstone of the upper part of the formation. The middle and upper parts of the Fremouw Formation contain plant fossils but no fossil vertebrates have been found. The mudstone and volcanic sandstone are recessive and are overlain by the more resistant cliff-forming quartz sandstone of the Falla Formation. 

Watson, D.M.S., The evidence afforded by fossil vertebrates on the nature of evolution, in Genetics, Paleontology and Evolution, Jepsen, G.L., Mayr, E., and Simpson, G.G., Eds., Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ, 1949, pp. 45-63. 

Rixon, A. E. (1949). The use of acetic and formic adds in the preparation of fossil vertebrates. Museums Journal, 49,116-117. 

Heinz, A. (1962) Les organes olfactifs des Heteterostraces , in Westoll, T.S. (ed.) Studies on fossil vertebrates, London Athlone Press, pp. 71-85. 

Clack, J.A. (1998a) The neurocranium of Acanthostega gunnari and the evolution of the otic region in tetrapods , in Norman, D.B., Milner, A.R. and Milner, A.C. (eds) A study of fossil vertebrates. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, 122, 61-97, London Academic Press. 

Hussakof, L. (1908) Catalogue of types and figured specimens of fossil vertebrates in the American Museum of Natural History. Part I - Fishes. Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History, 25 1-164. 

Duvall D., King M. and Graves B. (1983). Fossil and comparative evidence for possible chemical signaling in the mammal-like reptiles. In Chemical Signals in Vertebrates 3 (Muller-Schwarze D. and Silverstein R., eds.). Plenum, New York, pp. 25-44. 

Hare, P. E., Organic Geochemistry of Bone and Its Relation to the Survival of Bone in the Natural Environment, In Fossils in the Making Vertebrate Taphonomy and Paleoecology, Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 1979. 

Szabo, B., Results and assessment of uranium-series dating of vertebrate fossils from Quaternary alluviums in Colorado, Arctic and Alpine Res., J2, 95-100 (1980). 

We can start with vertebrates. Vertebrates are speciabzed to oxic environments, because their mitochondria are specialized to oxic environments. Vertebrates go back maybe 500 Myr in the fossil record (Benton and Donoghue 2007), so this makes sense. Vertebrates arose after the oceans were oxic and moved onto land at a time when they had evolved lungs and were able to crawl. 

The Siwalik Group has long been famous for its abundant vertebrate fossils, among which are some early hominid ancestors. Its primates include Ramapithecus and Sivapithecus from the older beds, and younger specimens, cf. Homo erectus, from the Upper Siwalik Group, including the Pinjore Formation (72). Dates would therefore help establish the arrival time of hominins in the Indian subcontinent. 

Fig. 1.5. Phylogeny of the deuterostomes indicating position of oldest fossil taxa against the geological record. All neodermatans parasitize vertebrates and, if present, host associations represent historical associations the Neodermata must have parasitized the stem group Gnathostomata between the Cambrian and Ordovician. Tree redrawn from Rowe (2004).

In invertebrates, collagen is uncalcified, whereas in vertebrates it occurs in the form of soft and hard tissue. Remains of the earliest vertebrates — bony armour — are found in sediments of the Ordovician (ca. 500 million years). At about that time, conodonts appeared in the stratigraphic column mineralogically they are carbonate apatite. Conodonts are small tooth-shaped fossils 0.2 to 3 mm in size whose origin is in doubt they are most likely remains of some unknown chordata that became extinct in Triassic time516. ... 

Secondary ova, those that were produced by a finished prehistoric animal, have been found frequently, and when dinosaur eggs revealed the fully formed embryo there was no doubt about the saurian way of reproduction.15 Precambrian eggs have been found16 but never one of the primary eggs, which must have been there en mass for each species a few thousand years before the entry of a species into the fossil record. Until now, there was no good reason to look for them and, of course, there is no handbook for identification purposes. Certainly the avalanche of exquisite fossils from China, which is pushing the age of vertebrates deeper into the Cambrian, will provide an excellent chance to find some of the pro-forms postulated by the Genomic Potential Hypothesis.17... 

The Nephilim nod. Their wing feathers move forward in what Bob now recognizes as a Nephilim sign of affirmation. We took specimens very long ago. The ants nod. Ishmael s abdomen throbs as he starts to speak. Humans discovered fossil Pikaia creatures in the Burgess Shale of Canada. They lived around 530 million years before humans. These kinds of creatures were ancestors of the chordates and precursors to vertebrates like yourself. ... 

Geology, Stratigraphic-Pleistocene. 2. Vertebrates, Fossil. 3. Glacial epoch-Hungary. 

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