Description

This volume critically reviews the use of fossils for the analysis of palaeoenvironments. The papers are multi-disciplinary, drawing on a host of geochemical, palaeoecological and palaeontological methods from traditional taxonomic uniformitarianism to more recently developed geochemical isotopic analyses. The approach of the book is analytical rather than taxonomic, concentrating on a range of techniques. The commong thread, however, is that it is palaeontological material that is being considered, whether it be identifiable body fossils, trace fossils, distinctive fossil associates, diagentically unaltered material or organic compunds. Using a number of methods, and comparing their results, allows different environmental controls to be isolated and provides more information on the record of past environmental parameters. The volume focuses on the data obtained from organisms and their remains and will be of importance to sedimentologists, stratigraphers and palaeontologists who need to maximise their palaeoenvironmental interpretations of depostional environments, facies models, sequence stratigraphy and palaeoclimates.