Research Article| July 01, 1995 Testing the marine and continental fossil records M. J. Benton; M. J. Benton 1Department of Geology, University of Bristol, Bristol BS8 1RJ, United Kingdom Search for other works by this author on: GSW Google Scholar M. J. Simms M. J. Simms 2Department of Geography and Geology, Cheltenham and Gloucester College of Higher Education, Francis Close Hall, Cheltenham GL50 4AZ, United Kingdom Search for other works by this author on: GSW Google Scholar Author and Article Information M. J. Benton 1Department of Geology, University of Bristol, Bristol BS8 1RJ, United Kingdom M. J. Simms 2Department of Geography and Geology, Cheltenham and Gloucester College of Higher Education, Francis Close Hall, Cheltenham GL50 4AZ, United Kingdom Publisher: Geological Society of America First Online: 02 Jun 2017 Online ISSN: 1943-2682 Print ISSN: 0091-7613 Geological Society of America Geology (1995) 23 (7): 601–604. https://doi.org/10.1130/0091-7613(1995)023<0601:TTMACF>2.3.CO;2 Article history First Online: 02 Jun 2017 Cite View This Citation Add to Citation Manager Share Icon Share Facebook Twitter LinkedIn MailTo Tools Icon Tools Get Permissions Search Site Citation M. J. Benton, M. J. Simms; Testing the marine and continental fossil records. Geology 1995;; 23 (7): 601–604. doi: https://doi.org/10.1130/0091-7613(1995)023<0601:TTMACF>2.3.CO;2 Download citation file: Ris (Zotero) Refmanager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search Dropdown Menu toolbar search search input Search input auto suggest filter your search All ContentBy SocietyGeology Search Advanced Search Abstract The fossil record of continental vertebrates is as good as that of echinoderms at the family level, as shown by tests of the match of cladistic and stratigraphic data and of relative completeness. If echinoderms and vertebrates are typical of their environments, the continental fossil record is not worse than the marine, despite the fact that, at a local level, fossils are usually more abundant in marine sequences than in continental successions. The explanation of this paradox may be that vertebrates have attracted more intensive study than echinoderms, and thus the level of knowledge of their fossil record is some decades ahead of that of echinoderms. This finding validates the use of different kinds of fossil data in broad-scale phylogenetic studies. This content is PDF only. Please click on the PDF icon to access. First Page Preview Close Modal You do not have access to this content, please speak to your institutional administrator if you feel you should have access.
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Benton et al. (1995) studied this question.