Modeling Extinction (Santa Fe Institute Studies on the Sciences of Complexity) - Softcover

Newman, M.E.J.; Palmer, R.G.

 
9780195159462: Modeling Extinction (Santa Fe Institute Studies on the Sciences of Complexity)
Softcover
ISBN 10: 0195159462 ISBN 13: 9780195159462
Publisher: Oxford University Press USA, 2003

Synopsis

Developed after a meeting at the Santa Fe Institute on extinction modeling, this book comments critically on the various modeling approaches. In the last decade or so, scientists have started to examine a new approach to the patterns of evolution and extinction in the fossil record. This approach may be called "statistical paleontology," since it looks at large-scale patterns in the record and attempts to understand and model their average statistical features, rather than their detailed structure. Examples of the patterns these studies examine are the distribution of the sizes of mass extinction events over time, the distribution of species lifetimes, or the apparent increase in the number of species alive over the last half a billion years. In attempting to model these patterns, researchers have drawn on ideas not only from paleontology, but from evolutionary biology, ecology, physics, and applied mathematics, including fitness landscapes, competitive exclusion, interaction matrices, and self-organized criticality. A self-contained review of work in this field.

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Review

... presents a self-contained review of work in this field. (Ethology Ecology & Evolution)

Synopsis

Developed after a meeting at the Santa Fe Institute on extinction modeling, this book comments critically on the various modeling approaches. In the last decade or so, scientists have started to examine a new approach to the patterns of evolution and extinction in the fossil record. This approach may be called "statistical paleontology," since it looks at large-scale patterns in the record and attempts to understand and model their average statistical features, rather than their detailed structure. Examples of the patterns these studies examine are the distribution of the sizes of mass extinction events over time, the distribution of species lifetimes, or the apparent increase in the number of species alive over the last half a billion years. In attempting to model these patterns, researchers have drawn on ideas not only from paleontology, but from evolutionary biology, ecology, physics, and applied mathematics, including fitness landscapes, competitive exclusion, interaction matrices, and self-organized criticality. A self-contained review of work in this field.

"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.

Publisher
Oxford University Press USA
Publication date
2003
Language
English
ISBN 10 
0195159462
ISBN 13 
9780195159462
Binding
Paperback
Number of pages
120

Other Popular Editions of the Same Title

9780195159455: Modeling Extinction (Santa Fe Institute Studies on the Sciences of Complexity)

Featured Edition

ISBN 10:  0195159454 ISBN 13:  9780195159455
Publisher: OUP USA, 2003
Hardcover