This book, based on papers from a symposium at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, shows the necessity of developing a new philosophy in place of the classical uniformitarianism based only on processes familiar in human experience. Originally published in 1984. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These paperback editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

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Product Description: The existence of rapid and even catastrophic turnovers within the Phanerozoic ecosystems has been discussed controversially for more than 170 years. Since 1980 this discussion has become even more intensive after the hypothesis of Alvarez, explaining the end-Cretaceous mass extinction as the result of a huge asteroid impact on the Earth...read more

Product Description: Contains papers by leading authorities on several of the major extinction events of the geological record. The book brings together new data on a wide range of floral and faunal groups. The papers are grouped as general, Palaeozoic events, Mesozoic events and Cenozoic events...read more

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Product Description: An interdisciplinary conference on impacts, volcanism, and mass morality.

Product Description: There has been much debate as to whether the pace and nature of evolutionary change is gradual and more or less constant, or whether it is of an erratic, pulsed nature. Linked to this is the related question of whether so called 'mass extinctions' seen in the fossil record are merely the result of a wide range of extinction phenomena, or whether they represent extinctions resulting from catastrophic events rather than the result of random fluctuations in the fortunes of survival...read more

Product Description: Mass extinctions of animals and plants in the geological past are a topic of continuing interest and debate. This volume reviews some of the major changes that are seen in important groups of organisms in the fossil record. Our present understanding of the nature and causes of these changes is examined, together with the problems of defining such changes...read more