| 释义 |
taphonomy Palæont.|tæˈfɒnəmɪ|
[f. Gr. τάϕο-ς grave + -nomy.]
The study of the processes by which animal and plant remains become preserved as fossils. Hence taphoˈnomic, -ical adjs.; taˈphonomist, a specialist in taphonomy.
1940J. A. Efremov in Pan-Amer. Geol. LXXIV. 93, I propose for this part of palaeontology the name of ‘Taphonomy’, the science of the laws of embedding. Ibid., Taphonomical research allows us to glance into the depth of ages from another point of view. 1971Nature 8 Oct. 391/2 There seem to be neither palaeoecological nor taphonomical features of the formation that would preclude Hipparion being represented in the assemblage. 1974Times 2 Mar. 14/2 Russian scientists have brought together a team of geologists..and a group of taphonomists: the last belong to a speciality created in Russia for studying the way animals and plants are preserved in their burial sites. 1974Nature 8 Mar. 100/3 Sessions were devoted to..patterns of diversity and implications of taphonomic evidence for behaviour patterns. 1977Leakey & Lewin Origins i. 12/2 Any scientific meeting on our origins nowadays might be attended by archeologists..[and] taphonomists. 1981Nature 10 Dec. 598/3 Palaeontologists are.. bringing their subject out of the museum through studies of the processes by which the fossil record forms (taphonomy). Ibid., Much of the book concentrates on the principles, methods of study and results of taphonomic studies of (mainly) African vertebrates. |