Taphonomy: A Process Approach is the first book to review the entire field of taphonomy, or the science of fossil preservation. It describes the formation of animal and plant fossils in marine and terrestrial settings and how this affects deciphering the ecology and extinction of past lifeforms and the environments in which they lived. The volume emphasises a process approach to taphonomy and reviews the taphonomic behaviour of all important taxa, plant and animal. It will be useful to anyone interested in the preservation of fossils and the formation of fossil assemblages, but it is aimed primarily at advanced students and professionals working in paleontology, stratigraphy, sedimentology, climate modeling and biogeochemistry.

‘Martin covers an impressive breadth of subjects … Subjects are presented in useful quantative detail.’

Source: Trends in Ecology and Evolution

‘Taphonomy: A Process Approach is a good measure of how far taphonomy and paleontology have come in the past decades … This synthesis is enormously valuable … makes excellent use of the research literature.

Karl W. Flessa Source: Science