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The essays deal with a variety of issues; most are very technical. Several involve the statistical means used to estimate things like the completeness of the overall fossil record (or a specific fossil record) and the accuracy of dating species formation and extinction. The underlying statistical methodologies are examined for usefulness and correctness.
Taphonomy is the main subject of a few essays and an interwoven thread throughout most of book. Phosphatization (the second best method of fossilization to amber preservation), for example, is the focus of one essay.
The Adequacy of the Fossil Record will be of much use to professionals and researchers in the field of paleontology. The quantitative methods exemplified and discussed are essential to thorough analysis in this area that is too frequently considered a 'soft science' or a field where personal opinions get in the way of the actual statistical evidence.
from the publisher:
This book assesses the strengths and weaknesses of fossil evidence and offers a critical look at
the research methodologies of paleontologists and their scientific results. It is an up-to-date
review of the adequacy of the fossil record and its utility and examines the rate and use of
evidence in paleontology.
The 'incompleteness of the fossil record' is an excuse used by some scientists to reject any fossil evidence that runs counter to current preconceptions. Adequacy and completeness are difficult concepts that should not be confused. The fossil record may be incomplete, but it is entirely adequate for many and most requirements of paleontology, as well as answering wider questions in geology and biology. The Adequacy of the Fossil Record is intended to debunk these and other objections.
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