Palaeobiology involves the use of fossils in establishing the ordering of containing rocks in space and in relation to evolving earth environments. Readers interested in further details of the principles and practice of palaeobiology are referred to McKerrow (1978), Briggs and Crowther (1990), Behrensmeyer et al. (1992), Bosence and Allison (1995), Brenchley and Harper (1998), Briggs and Crowther (2001), Cohen (2003), Krassilov (2003), Jackson and Erwin (2006), Jones (2006), Cockell (2007), Foote and Miller (2007), Benton and Harper (2009) and Lieberman and Kaesler (2010).

SUMMARY OF PALAEOBIOLOGICAL SIGNIFICANCE AND USEFULNESS OF PRINCIPAL FOSSIL GROUPS

The palaeobiological significance and usefulness of the principal fossil groups is discussed below, and in Sections 3.2–3.5 below, and summarised in Fig. 3.1 (modified after Jones, 2006; see also ‘Paleobiology Database’ or PBDB website, www.paleodb.org).