Paleontology

The textbook (its first edition was published in 1997) presents a picture of the organic world of the past as it came into existence 3.8 billion years ago. It outlines general provisions and basic concepts of paleontology including the history of paleontology, types of fossil preservation, evolution patterns; habitat, organisms’ conditions and life in marine and terrestrial environments; bionomics of the World Ocean; biomineralization and fossilization; the role of organisms in sedimentation and rock formation; importance of paleontology for geological and biological sciences. The systematic part of the book contains a description of 30 types, 58 classes and 132 orders of the five kingdoms (bacteria, cyanobionts, plants, fungi and animals), and 6 major mammal families for vertebrates. The final part deals with the evolution of the organic world from the Archeozoic era to the present day and examines in detail the Paleozoic, Mesozoic and Cenozoic periods. All the sections are accompanied by a set of tasks, exercises and a variety of illustrative material including four fly-leave illustrations, 335 drawings (often composite), 33 tables and 26 diagrams.
For students and teachers of geology, geography and biology at universities and colleges as well as for museum workers and all lovers of paleontology.