Evolution and Extinction. Proceedings of a Joint Symposium of the Royal Society and the Linnean Society held on 9 and 10 November 1989. 1989. (Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, Ser. B, vol.325). illustr. XVI,248 p. gr8vo. Paper bd.

There has been much debate as to whether the pace and nature ofevolutionary change is gradual and more or less constant, or whether itis of an erratic, pulsed nature. Linked to this is the related questionof whether so-called 'mass extinctions' seen in the fossil record aremerely the result of a wide range of extinction phenomena, or whetherthey represent extinctions resulting from catastrophic events ratherthan the result of random fluctuations in the fortunes of survival. Thisbook brings together palaeontologists and evolutionary biologists toexamine and deliberate on all aspects of evolution and extinctionranging from the earliest known extinctions in the fossil record tothreatened extinctions associated with human activity. Graduate studentsand researchers in evolution, palaeobiology and ecology will find muchof interest and value in this book.