This photographic atlas presents light and (or) scanning electron micrographs of 580 pairs of sagittal otoliths representing 288 species, 97 families, and 27 orders of fish from the northwest Atlantic. For most species, multiple individuals across a range of sizes are presented in order to highlight changes in otolith shape with increased size. For 72 of the families, photographs of the lapillar and asteriscal otoliths are also presented.

Techniques and theory for processing otoliths from tropical marine fish have developed only recently due to an historic misconception that these organisms could not be aged. Otoliths are the most commonly used structures from which daily, seasonal or annual records of a fish’s environmental history are inferred, and are also used as indicators of migration patterns, home range, spatial distribution, stock structure and life history events. A large proportion of projects undertaken on tropical marine organisms involve removal and processing of calcified structures such as otoliths, statoliths or vertebrae to retrieve biological, biochemical or genetic information. Current techniques and principles have evolved rapidly and are under constant modification and these differ among laboratories, and more particularly among species and within life history stages. Tropical fish otoliths: Information for assessment, management and ecology is a comprehensive description of the current status of knowledge about otoliths in the tropics. This book has contributions from leading experts in the field, encompassing a tropical perspective on daily and annual ageing in fish and invertebrates, microchemistry, interpreting otolith microstructure and using it to back-calculate life history events, and includes a treatise on the significance of validating periodicity in otoliths.

This 2-volume set provides a state-of-the-art study of the fossil record and taxonomy of the main vertebrate groups from Greece. Greece stands between 3 continents and its vertebrate fossil record is of great importance for paleontological and evolutionary studies in Europe, Asia and Africa. Fossils from classic, world-famous localities (e.g., Pikermi, Samos) form an essential part of the collections of the most important museums in the world and have been studied by numerous scientists. Recent paleontological research led to the discovery and study of numerous new sites. The volumes contain a taxonomic review of all named and identified taxa, their taxonomic history and current status, as well as historical, phylogenetic and biogeographic information. Volume 1 contains a synopsis of the fossil record and taxonomy of important groups of vertebrates represented in the fossil record of Greece. The volume deals with some of the early splitting clades, including the basal and enigmatic conodonts and basal tetrapods like fishes, amphibians, and reptiles like lizards, snakes, crocodiles, turtles and tortoises. The second part of the volume deals with basal mammalian clades, some of which are quite characteristic for the fossil record of the country: aardwarks, hyraxes, proboscideans, elephants and mammoths, sea cows, rodents, and lagomorphs. The volume ends with special chapters on the primate fossil record of the country, including some of our most recent and distant relatives.

The literature of paleobiology is brimming with qualifiers and cautions about using species in the fossil record, or equating such species with those recognized among living organisms. Species and Speciation in the Fossil Record digs through this literature and surveys the recent research on species in paleobiology. In these pages, experts in the field examine what they think species are - in their particular taxon of specialty or more generally in the fossil record. They also reflect on what the answers mean for thinking about species in macroevolution. The first step in this approach is an overview of the Modern Synthesis, and paleobiology’s development of quantitative ways of documenting and analyzing variation with fossil assemblages. Following that, this volume’s central chapters explore the challenges of recognizing and defining species from fossil specimens, and show how with careful interpretation and a clear species concept, fossil species may be sufficiently robust for meaningful paleobiological analyses. Tempo and mode of speciation over time are also explored, exhibiting how the concept of species, if more refined, can reveal enormous amounts about the interplay between species origins and extinction and local and global climate change.