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Full Description
This authoritative volume brings together decades of insights from one of the longest terrestrial fossil records on the planet.
The fabled Himalayas have isolated and sheltered the Indian subcontinent for millions of years. The Siwalik sequence of sediments at their feet has been a treasure trove of visions into the past for generations of paleontologists, preserving an immense 20 million years of terrestrial ecosystems' fossil record. The Siwalik sequence reveals a unique forest wonderland of diverse animal species: from huge elephant relatives, great rhinos, and sabertooth cats, to mongooses, swamp rats, crocodiles, and catfish. Regional climate change eventually caused this forest ecosystem to unravel, as grasslands replaced the forests and established the habitats and animals of the modern ecosystems of the Indus and Ganges rivers.
In At the Foot of the Himalayas, celebrated paleontologists Catherine Badgley, Michèle Morgan, and David Pilbeam bring together a collection of world-renowned scholars to present an interdisciplinary approach to documenting and interpreting this fossil record. By investigating changes in landscape, climate, and vertebrate species diversity, their analysis reveals insights into a central question about biodiversity: which evolutionary developments were influenced by changes in climate, and which were caused by interactions among the species themselves? This groundbreaking book illuminates for the first time a mysterious and vibrant paleontological past, bringing together more than 40 years of exciting international collaborative studies that forge invaluable knowledge pathways for the ecologists, evolutionary scientists, and paleontologists of the future, and pose important questions about our fragile ecosystems in the present day.
Contents
Preface
Acknowledgments
Abbreviations
Part I: Framing Chapters
1. A Long Story
2. Rocks, Rivers, and Time
3. Documenting the Siwalik Fossil Record
4. Siwalik Taphonomy: Fossil Assemblage Preservation
5. Stable Isotopes as a Record of Ecological Change in the Siwalik Group of Pakistan
Part II: Fauna Chapters
6. Freshwater Molluscan Fossils of the Siwalik Record of the Potwar Plateau
7. Fishes in the Siwalik Record
8. Siwalik Reptilia, Exclusive of Aves
9. Siwalik Birds
10. Siwalik Hedgehogs, Shrews, Bats, and Treeshrews
11. Siwalik Lagomorphs and Rodents
12. SiwalikPrimates
13. Siwalik Creodonta and Carnivora
14. Tubulidentata and Pholidota of the Siwalik Record
15. Siwalik Proboscidea
16. Equidae from the Potwar Plateau, Pakistan
17. Siwalik Chalicotheriidae
18. Rhinocerotids from the Siwalik Record
19. Siwalik Suidae and Palaeochoeridae
20. Siwalik Hippopotamoidea
21. Siwalik Tragulidae
22. Siwalik Giraffoidea
23. Siwalik Bovidae
Part III: Synthetic Chapters
24. Reconstructing Siwalik Miocene Paleoecology from Rocks and Faunas
25. Siwalik Mammalian Community Structure and Patterns of Faunal Change
26. Taxonomic and Ecological Dynamics of Siwalik Mammalian Faunas
27. Highlights of the Siwalik Record and Future Research Opportunities
Contributors
Index
