| Synopsis: |
Since their origin in the Early Cambrian, the bivalve molluscs have evolved a remarkable variety of forms that reflect their diverse habits through the Phanerozoic Eon. The thirty papers in this volume represent the proceedings of an international symposium on the paleobiology and evolution of the bivalves held at the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Paleontology in Drumheller, Canada, from September 29 through October 2, 1995. An international group of authors, representing a dozen countries, draw on diverse aspects of both fossil and living bivalves, including their forms, functional morphology, morphogenesis, taphonomy, shell microstructure, cladistic relationships, biostratigraphic distributions, and molecular sequences. The result is an authoritative and comprehensive collection of studies dedicated to Dr. Norman D. Newell, an eminent paleontologist whose ongoing contributions to the study of bivalve evolution spans six decades. With more than 200 illustrations and a foreword by renowned paleobiologist and author Stephen Jay Gould, Bivalves: An Eon of Evolution presents a broad spectrum of current research on fossil and living bivalves. |