Numerical Palaeobiology--Computer-based Modelling and Analysis of Fossils and their Distributions

Abstract

Numerical Palaeobiology—Computer-based Modelling and Analysis of Fossils and their Distributions, David A.T. Harper (Editor), 1999, John Wiley & Sons, Chichester, 468 p. (Hardcover $99.00) ISBN: 0-471-97405-6. The 1990's saw the proliferation of inexpensive, fast computers and software packages for manipulating large data bases and conducting statistical, phylogenetic, and morphometric analyses. Projects that formerly required formidable programming skills and long (and expensive) amounts of computer time could be finished overnight or even nearly instantaneously by rank technopeasants. This has encouraged quantitative analyses by paleobiologists (indeed, by biologists in general) and, perhaps, also has encouraged more sophisticated statistical testing and inferring of hypotheses. However, the most recent volume dedicated to quantitative paleontology was Gilinsky and Signor, 1991's “ Analytical Paleobiology. ” Given the subsequent advances in hardware, software, and methodology, Harper's volume represents a timely release. Like Gilinsky and Signor's edited volume, this is a multi-authored tome touching on numerous subjects pertinent to morphologic evolution, paleoecology, and biostratigraphy. Unlike Gilinsky and Signor's volume, not only are methods explained and detailed with numerous examples, but software packages (including both commercial and privately published ones) are detailed also. The first five chapters concern analyses of morphology. Harper and Owen's “Quantitative and morphometric methods in taxonomy” covers a wide range of topics. This is perhaps to the chapter's detriment, as it reads almost like an abbreviated modern version of Sneath and Sokal (1973) tailored for paleontologists. The chapter's focus is twofold: techniques for distinguishing among species given multiple fossil “populations,” and methods for summarizing broad patterns among species (e.g., morphologic disparity). In doing so, the chapter provides overviews of “traditional” morphometrics (e.g., linear measures of a priori characters), geometric morphometrics (i.e., analyses of landmark distributions) and outline analyses (e.g., eigenshape and Fourier analyses), brief summaries of several multivariate methods, as well as synopses on …