Body Size in Mammalian Paleobiology: Estimation and Biological Implications

Description

There is a growing interest in the biological implications of body size in animals. This parameter is now being used to make inferences and predictions about not only the habits and habitat of a particular species, but also as a way to understand patterns and biases in the fossil record. This valuable collection of essays presents and evaluates techniques of body-mass estimation and reviews current and potential applications of body-size estimates in paleobiology. Coverage is particularly detailed for carnivores, primates and ungulates, but information is also presented on marsupials, rodents and proboscideans. Body Size in Mammalian Paleobiology will prove useful to researchers and graduate students in paleontology, mammalogy, ecology and evolution programmes. It is designed to be both a practical handbook for researchers making and using body-size estimates, and a sourcebook of ideas for applying body size to paleontological problems and directions for future research.

"...reveals how much wider is the scope of palaeobiology than just humans and human origins, or even primates. It is a book with an honest approach, always vigilant that it is treading along a slippery path. Practioners of palaeobiology will find it useful for having assembled a recondite set of facts and for its deliberate cautiousness." Nature "...valuable because it identifies some of the promise and the problems of a new research program in paleobiology..." Quarterly Review of Biology "...provides a very useful and significant reference about a variety of mammalian groups and a variety of methodological approaches to the estimation of body size in these taxa." Matthew J. Ravosa, International Journal of Primatology