В сборнике опубликованы работы, посвященные эволюции биоразнообразия различных групп ископаемых организмов, от цианобионтов до млекопитающих. Во временном отношении материалы, обсуждаемые в статьях, вошедших в сборник, охватывают интервал от протерозоя до плейстоцена. Большое внимание уделено палеонтологическим экспозициям и фондовым коллекциям профильных академических и региональных музеев.
Книга рассчитана на исследователей, занимающихся различными аспектами палеонтологии, стратиграфии, палеобиогеографии, а также сотрудников профильных и краеведческих музеев, краеведов, палеонтологов-любителей, студентов и учащихся старших классов.

A correlation exists between the quality of the rock record and the diversity of fossils recorded from that rock record but what drives that correlation, and how consistent that correlation is across different environments, remain to be determined. Palaeontologists wishing to investigate past diversity patterns need to first address issues of geological bias in their data.

Since fossil vertebrates were first discovered at Porcupine Cave on the rim of South Park, Colorado, in 1981, the site has become the world’s most important source of information about animals that lived in the high elevations of North America in the middle part of the ice ages, between approximately one million and 600,000 years ago. Beginning in 1985, teams of scientists and volunteers from three major research institutions —the Carnegie Museum of Natural History, the Denver Museum of Nature and Science, and the University of California Museum of Paleontology—spent some 15 field seasons excavating and studying tens of thousands of fossil specimens that have opened a window onto past evolutionary and ecological adjustments. This window into the past allows us to visualize how ongoing global change could affect our living communities. This book reports the results of nearly two decades of research and has been written to appeal to three overlapping audiences