Global Events and Event Stratigraphy in the Phanerozoic, Softcover reprint of the original 1st ed. 1996 Results of the International Interdisciplinary Cooperation in the IGCP-Project 216 “Global Biological Events in Earth History”

The existence of rapid and even catastrophic turnovers within the Phanerozoic ecosystems has been discussed controversially for more than 170 years. Since 1980 this discussion has become even more intensive after the hypothesis of Alvarez, explaining the end-Cretaceous mass extinction as the result of a huge asteroid impact on the Earth. This theory stimulated several thousand papers and is still controversial. The international research programme on "Global Biological Events in Earth History" attempts to bring the discussion back to the facts by using multidisciplinary investigations of the major Phanerozoic events. The results of an international group of experts are presented giving a wealth of information and a thorough discussion of the causes of the various global events.

The Idea of Global Events: A Prologue.- I General Themes.- Patterns and Causes of Global Events.- Evaluating Paleontologic Data Relating to Bio-Events.- Patterns of Phanerozoic Extinction: A Perspective from Global Data Bases.- Phanerozoic Development of Selected Global Environmental Features.- Global Isotopic Events.- II Phanerozoic Global Bio-Events.- Geobiological Trends and Events in the Precambrian Biosphere.- The Basal Cambrian Transition and Cambrian Bio-Events (From Terminal Proterozoic Extinctions to Cambrian Biomeres).- The Pattern of Global Bio-Events during the Ordovician Period.- Silurian Bio-Events.- Global Events in the Devonian and Carboniferous.- Permian Global Bio-Events.- Major Bio-Events in the Triassic and Jurassic.- Cretaceous Bio-Events.- The Man-Made Global Disaster: An Epilogue to the Subject of Global Bio-Events.- III Phanerozoic Global Event-Stratigraphy.- Christopher R. Barnes et al. (compiled by all authors of this volume).