“As leading authorities in this new area, Patzkowksy and Holland have written the first book of its kind melding the disciplines of stratigraphy and paleontology in a useful way. . . . The book provides a coherent set of innovative theoretical concepts that will undoubtedly set the stage for future research for many years. The well-written and well-indexed text is adequately illustrated and contains a helpful glossary of common terms. Valuable for undergraduates and essential for graduates and above. Highly recommended.”

C. A. McRoberts, SUNY Cortland | Choice

“Patzkowsky and Holland pull together the literature and theory from ecology and stratigraphy and cast them in a deep-time paleobiological light, making connections that are not always apparent to paleontologists. This is the kind of book that graduate students should read early on in their educations, as it is ripe with ideas and full of testable hypotheses about what we can learn from the distribution of fossils in space and time. Reading this made me look at my own data in new ways. I can’t wait to use this book for a graduate seminar.”

Linda C. Ivany, Syracuse University

“Paleobiology arose with an influx of studies that introduced biological concepts into a paleontology largely devoted to stratigraphy; in Stratigraphic Paleobiology, Patzkowsky and Holland return the favor by introducing modern stratigraphic concepts, chiefly from sequence stratigraphy, into paleobiology. The authors show that stringent interpretations of depositional sequences at the outcrop can be combined to illuminate biological patterns that create critical tests of hypotheses of the underlying biology at regional and even global scales through geologic time. An important step in paleobiology, clearly described by major contributors to this important and burgeoning field.”

James Valentine, Museum of Paleontology, University of California, Berkeley

“The fossils that form the empirical fossil record come in a geological and stratigraphic context, and Patzkowsky and Holland argue that understanding the nature of that context is vital for answering just about any paleontological question of interest. The novelty of this work is that it weaves important strands of the paleontological literature—with many of the most essential parts by the authors themselves—into a coherent worldview that emphasizes the importance of understanding the geological record. This book is a significant accomplishment, and it promises to nudge and shape the future development of the field.”

Gene Hunt, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution