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Interpreting Paleoenvironments with Microfossils

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 July 2017

Stephen J. Culver
Stephen J. Culver*
Affiliation:
Department of Palaeontology The Natural History Museum Cromwell Road, London, SW7 5BD, U.K.
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Extract

One of the basic tenets of geology is the present is the key to the past. In the present context, this simply means that if we document the distribution of organisms today and have some degree of understanding of what combination of environmental variables controls those distributions, then we can use this information to reconstruct past environments by using the fossilized representatives of the modern organisms as paleoenvironmental indicators. This classic use of microfossils, along with biostratigraphy, is of great significance in the search for oil and gas.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Paleontological Society Papers , Volume 2: Learning from the Fossil Record , October 1996 , pp. 283 - 293
Copyright
Copyright © 1996 by The Paleontological Society 

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References

Useful References

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