Atlas of Taphonomic Identifications

The aim of the atlas is to provide pictures of taphonomic modifications, making it as comprehensive as possible with evidence presently available. This volume is intended both as a field guide for identifying taphonomic modifications in the field, and for use in the laboratory when collections of fossils are being analysed. Images in the book will be a combination of scanning electron micrographs, regular photographs, cross-sections of bones and line drawings and graphs. By providing good quality illustrations of the full range of taphonomic modifications, with links between similar types of modification, the atlas provides a reference source for identifying the agents responsible for the modifications, the processes by which they were formed, and the likely bias introduced by the processes. § The authors also aim to emphasize one of the directions they consider taphonomic studies should be headed, namely towards quantification of the effects of taphonomic processes in order to obtain a quantitative estimate of the degree of bias introduced by the processes and to suggest corrections by which clearly biased faunas could be altered before being used for palaeoecological reconstructions.§