Earth System Evolution and Early Life: A Celebration of the Work of Martin Brasier
Product code: SP448
Print publication date: 09/06/2017
Geological Society of London, GSL Special Publications, Earth and Solar System History, Palaeontology and geobiology
Type: Book (Hardback)
Binding: Hardback
ISBN: 9781786202796
Author/Edited by: Edited by A.T. Brasier, D. McIlroy and N. McLoughlin
Weight: 1.1kg
Number of pages: 440
Online publication date: 23/05/2017
Lyell Collection URL: https://www.lyellcollection.org/toc/sp/448/1
£120.00
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Special Publication 448
This volume in memory of Professor Martin Brasier, which has many of his unfinished works, summarizes recent progress in some of the hottest topics in palaeobiology including cellular preservation of early microbial life and early evolution of macroscopic animal life, encompassing the Ediacara biota. The papers focus on how to decipher evidence for early life, which requires exceptional preservation, employment of state-of-the-art techniques and also an understanding gleaned from Phanerozoic lagerstätte and modern analogues. The papers also apply Martin’s MOFAOTYOF principle (my oldest fossils are older than your oldest fossils), requiring an integrated approach to understanding fossils. The adoption of the null-hypothesis that all putative traces of life are abiotic until proven otherwise, and the consideration of putative fossils within their spatial context, characterized the work of Martin Brasier, as is well demonstrated by the papers in this volume.
Related to this title:
Fossilised dinosaur brain tissue identified for the first time
Dedication
Brasier, A. T., McIlroy, D. & McLoughlin, N. Contributions of Professor Martin Brasier to the study of early life, stratigraphy and biogeochemistry
Deciphering the earliest evidence for life
Antcliffe, J. B., Liu, A. G., Menon, L. R., McIlroy, D., McLoughlin, N. & Wacey, D. Understanding ancient life: how Martin Brasier changed the way we think about the fossil record
Hickman-Lewis, K., Garwood, R. J., Withers, P. J. & Wacey, D. X-ray microtomography as a tool for investigating the petrological context of Precambrian cellular remains
Grosch, E. G., Muñoz, M., Mathon, O. & McLoughlin, N. Earliest microbial trace fossils in Archaean pillow lavas under scrutiny: new micro-X-ray absorption near-edge spectroscopy, metamorphic and morphological constraints
The preservation, origins and interactions of early multicellular organisms – the Torridonian Supergroup, NW Scotland
Muirhead, D. K., Parnell, J., Spinks, S. & Bowden, S. A. Characterization of organic matter in the Torridonian using Raman spectroscopy
Wacey, D., Battison, L., Garwood, R. J., Hickman-Lewis, K. & Brasier, M. D. Advanced analytical techniques for studying the morphology and chemistry of Proterozoic microfossils
Wacey, D., Brasier, M., Parnell, J., Culwick, T., Bowden, S., Spinks, S., Boyce, A. J., Davidheiser-Kroll, B., Jeon, H., Saunders, M. & Kilburn, M. R. Contrasting microfossil preservation and lake chemistries within the 1200–1000 Ma Torridonian Supergroup of NW Scotland
Brasier, A. T., Culwick, T., Battison, L., Callow, R. H. T. & Brasier, M. D. Evaluating evidence from the Torridonian Supergroup (Scotland, UK) for eukaryotic life on land in the Proterozoic
Progress on understanding the evolution of animal life and the biosphere during the Precambrian–Cambrian transition
He, T., Zhou, Y., Vermeesch, P., Rittner, M., Miao, L., Zhu, M., Carter, A., Pogge von Strandmann, P. A. E. & Shields, G. A. Measuring the ‘Great Unconformity’ on the North China Craton using new detrital zircon age data
Shields, G. A. Earth system transition during the Tonian–Cambrian interval of biological innovation: nutrients, climate, oxygen and the marine organic carbon capacitor
Liu, A. G., Menon, L. R., Shields, G. A., Callow, R. H. T. & McIlroy, D. Martin Brasier’s contribution to the palaeobiology of the Ediacaran–Cambrian transition
Wood, R. Palaeoecology of Ediacaran metazoan reefs
Dufour, S. C. & McIlroy, D. Ediacaran pre-placozoan diploblasts in the Avalonian biota: the role of chemosynthesis in the evolution of early animal life
Kenchington, C. G. & Wilby, P. R. Rangeomorph classification schemes and intra-specific variation: are all characters created equal?
Matthews, J. J., Liu, A. G. & McIlroy, D. Post-fossilization processes and their implications for understanding Ediacaran macrofossil assemblages
Menon, L. R., McIlroy, D. & Brasier, M. D. ‘Intrites’ from the Ediacaran Longmyndian Supergroup, UK: a new form of microbially-induced sedimentary structure (MISS)
McMahon, S., van Smeerdijk Hood, A. & McIlroy, D. The origin and occurrence of subaqueous sedimentary cracks
Geyer, G. & Landing, E. The Precambrian–Phanerozoic and Ediacaran–Cambrian boundaries: a historical approach to a dilemma
McIlroy, D. & Brasier, M. D. Ichnological evidence for the Cambrian explosion in the Ediacaran to Cambrian succession of Tanafjord, Finnmark, northern Norway
Herringshaw, L. G., Callow, R. H. T. & McIlroy, D. Engineering the Cambrian explosion: the earliest bioturbators as ecosystem engineers
Studies of exceptional preservation
Brasier, M. D., Norman, D. B., Liu, A. G., Cotton, L. J., Hiscocks, J. E. H., Garwood, R. J., Antcliffe, J. B. & Wacey, D. Remarkable preservation of brain tissues in an Early Cretaceous iguanodontian dinosaur
Brasier, A. T., Cotton, L. J., Garwood, R. J., Baker-Brian, J., Howlett, E. & Brasier, M. D. Earliest Cretaceous cocoons or plant seed structures from the Wealden Group, Hastings, UK
Cotton, L. J., Vollrath, F., Brasier, M. D. & Dicko, C. Chemical relationships of ambers using attenuated total reflectance Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy
Index
29.04.2021
The papers are without exception detailed and erudite, each ending with extensive source reference lists, but all readable. Anyone interested in the earliest development of life on Earth will gain from them, but they are not bed-time reading!
