Ancient Sedimentary Environments and the Habitats of Living Organisms : Introduction to Palaeoecology

I am pleased to be able to introduce this book by Monsieur lean-Claude Gall, firstly because it is a book, secondly because its author has been a colleague for 15 years, and finally because it is a book which demonstrates the growing importance of Palaeobiology. "Because it is a book". I have already commented else­ where on the value which the Earth Science community places on a book. And here I am speaking, not of a thesis or a specialised memoir, which are always precious, but of a manual or text, which draws on the experts in the service of all. In the years preceding and following the Second World War, the number of "books" written by French geologists could be counted on the fingers of one hand. Today I am happy to see that the number of geological "books" is increas­ ing in France, taking the word "geology" in its broadest sense. This I see as a sign of the growth of the Earth Sciences. Content: Front Matter....Pages I-XXII Front Matter....Pages 1-1 Modes of Life....Pages 2-19 Constraints on Living Conditions....Pages 20-34 Evidence of Biological Activity....Pages 35-47 The Sediment....Pages 48-77 Sedimentary Environments....Pages 78-94 Fossiliferous Horizons....Pages 95-108 Front Matter....Pages 109-109 The Ediacara Fauna....Pages 110-114 The Old Red Sandstone Continent....Pages 115-125 The Decazeville Coal Basin....Pages 126-133 The Grès � Voltzia Delta....Pages 134-148 The Reefs of Hoher Göll....Pages 149-157 The Holzmaden Bituminous Shale Sea....Pages 158-166 The Solnhofen Lagoon....Pages 167-177 The Shores of the Auversian Sea....Pages 178-185 The Acheulian Hunters’ Cave at Le Lazaret....Pages 186-194 Back Matter....Pages 195-222