During the last 10 years numerical methods have begun to dominate paleontology. These methods now reach far beyond the fields of morphological and phylogenetic analyses to embrace biostratigraphy, paleobiogeography, and paleoecology. The availability of cheap computing power, together with a wide range of software products, have made increasingly complex algorithms accessible to the vast majority of paleontologists. Paleontological Data Analysis explains the key numerical techniques in paleontology, and the methodologies employed in the software packages now available. Following an introduction to numerical methodologies in paleontology, and to univariate and multivariate techniques (including inferential testing), are chapters on morphometrics, phylogenetic analysis, paleobiogeography and paleoecology, time series analysis, and quantitative biostratigraphy. Each chapter describes a range of techniques in detail, with worked examples, illustrations, and appropriate case histories. The purpose, type of data required, functionality, and implementation of each technique are described, together with notes of caution where appropriate. The book and the accompanying PAST software package available through www.blackwellpublishing.com/hammer are important investigative tools in a rapidly developing field characterized by many exciting new discoveries and innovative techniques. Paleontological Data Analysis is an invaluable tool for all students and researchers involved in quantitative paleontology.

Dr Øyvind Hammer is currently a Researcher in Paleontology at the Geological Museum in Oslo, and in Geobiology at the research center “Physics of Geological Processes”. In addition to a number of research publications, he is the author of the popular data-analysis software PAST.

David Harper is Professor of Paleontology and Deputy Director of Geology at the Natural History Museum of Denmark, University of Copenhagen. His research interests include the history of biodiversity; fossil brachiopods from the Palaeozoic rocks of NW Europe, North America, and China, and from the Cretaceous and Cenozoic rocks of the Caribbean; computer-based methods for the analysis and modeling of fossils and their distributions.