Experimental approaches to understanding fossil organisms / [edited by] Daniel I. Hembree, Brian F. Platt and Jon J. Smith.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

1. Crinoids aweigh : experimental biomechanics of Ancyrocrinus Holdfasts / Roy E. Plotnick and Jennifer Bauer --
2. Ultra-elongate freshwater pearly mussels (Unionida) : roles for function and constraint in multiple morphologic convergences with marine taxa / Laurie C. Anderson --
3. Relationships of internal shell features to chemosymbiosis, life position, and geometric constraints within the Lucinidae (Bivalvia) / Laurie C. Anderson --
4. Modern analogs for the study of eurypterid paleobiology / Danita S. Brandt and Victoria E. McCoy --
5. New applications for constrained ordination : reconstructing feeding behaviors in fossil Remingtonocetinae (Cetacea: Mammalia) / Lisa Noelle Cooper, Tobin L. Hieronymus, Christopher J. Vinyard, Sunil Bajpai and J.G.M. Thewissen --
6. Patterns in microbialites throughout geologic time : is the present really the key to the past? / Kristen L. Myshrall, Christophe Dupraz and Pieter T. Visscher --
7. The relationship between modern mollusk assemblages and their expression in subsurface sediment in a carbonate lagoon, St. Croix, US Virgin Islands / Karla Parsons-Hubbard, Dennis Hubbard, Caitlin Tems and Ashley Burkett --
8. Biotic segregation in an upper mesotidal dissipative ridge and runnel succession, West Salish Sea, Vancouver Island, British Columbia / John-Paul Zonneveld, Murray K. Gingras, Cheryl A. Hodgson, Luke P. McHugh, Reed A. Myers, Jesse A. Schoengut and Bryce Wetthuhn --
9. Using X-ray radiography to observe Fe distributions in bioturbated sediment / Murray K. Gingras, John-Paul Zonneveld and Kurt O. Konhauser --
10. Phytoliths as tracers of recent environmental change / Ethan G. Hyland --
11. Large complex burrows of terrestrial invertebrates : neoichnology of Pandinus imperator (Scorpiones: Scorpionidae) / Daniel I. Hembree --
12. Biomechanical analysis of fish swimming trace fossils (Undichna) : preservation and mode of locomotion / María Cristina Cardonatto and Ricardo Néstor Melchor --
13. The neoichnology of two terrestrial ambystomatid salamanders : quantifying amphibian burrows using modern analogs / Nicole D. Dzenowski and Daniel I. Hembree --
14. Biogenic structures of burrowing skinks : neoichnology of Mabuya multifaciata (Squamata: Scincidae) / Angeline M. Catena and Daniel I. Hembree --
15. Novel neoichnology of elephants : nonlocomotive interactions with sediment, locomotion traces in partially snow-covered sediment, and implications for proboscidean paleoichnology / Brian F. Platt and Stephen T. Hasiotis --
16. Burrows and related traces in snow and vegetation produced by the Norwegian lemming (Lemmus lemmus) / Dirk Knaust --
17. Near-surface imaging (GPR) of biogenic structures in siliciclastic, carbonate, and gypsum dunes / Ilya V. Buynevich, H. Allen Curran, Logan A. Wiest, Andrew P.K. Bentley, Sergey V. Kadurin, Christopher T. Seminack, Michael Savarese, David Bustos, Bosiljka Glumac and Igor A. Losev--

References--
Index.

Paleontologists and geologists struggle with research questions often complicated by the loss or even absence of key paleobiological and paleoenvironmental information. Insight into this missing data can be gained through direct exploration of analogous living organisms and modern environments. Creative, experimental and interdisciplinary treatments of such ancient-Earth analogs form the basis of Lessons from the Living. This volume unites a diverse range of expert paleontologists, neontologists and geologists presenting case studies that cover a spectrum of topics, including functional morphology, taphonomy, environments and organism-substrate interactions.