Re: Nature of the fossil record

[jlipps@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (Jere H. Lipps)]

1.  I like what I'm reading now about the s-L effect.   RE:
Biostratigraphy.  Since the effect applies to boundaries, it means that
biostrat zones may be a little fuzzy near their tops and bottoms, but since
zones are based on evidence (i.e., the ranges of taxa) and not on the
absence (usually) of taxa, s-L has little effect.  I don't think anybody
correlates with only the top or bottom of a zone anyway (and I don't know
how you'd do that)--don't we usually mean that Zone A here is more or the
less the same as Zone A there?   In most marine microfossil correlations,
the s-L effect would be less because of the greater chance of finding the
taxa (due to greater abundance, better preservation, perhaps more uniform
distribution, etc.) than in fluvial systems, for example.

2.  Newt Gingrich, our new self-proclaimed leader in the US, may know what
he's doing when he proposes cutting the USGS.  I heard a rumor that he was
a paleontology major before he took up law.   We should ask him.

Jere



Jere H. Lipps
Professor, Department of Integrative Biology
Director, Museum of Paleontology
University of California at Berkeley
Berkeley, CA 94720
510-642-9006 fax 642-1822
jlipps@ucmp1.berkeley.edu