Pleistocene Mammals of North America

Customer Reviews:

An indispensible reference.......2002-03-12

As one fascinated by the Ice Age, especially vanished megafauna, I looked for a long time for a comprehensive book on vanished Ice Age animals of North America. This is it.
The treatise is exhaustive in terms of what was known up to the publishing date. If it is read carefully, it will impart a knowledge of these interesting animals and also give the reader an excellent backgound on the Pleistocene ice advances. The authors' discussion regarding the breakdown of time periods is excellent.
Even though the passage of time and new findings, particularly in Florida, have lessened the value of some of the data presented, the book remains a peerless review of a dynamic part of Earth's history.
Caveat: The reader should have some background in zoology and anatomy, otherwise constant recourse to a dictionary may be required.

THE authority on Plesitocene mammals of North America.......2001-03-07

If you are serious at all on the mammals of Pleistocene North America, whether extinct or still with us, then you have to purchase this book. A great resource, it exhaustively and authoritatively chronicles all known mammals preserved as fossils from that period of earth's history. In addition to the well known megafauna such as mammoths, mastodons, dire wolves, ground sloths, and giant bison, Kurten and Anderson detail animals nearly always ignored in popular works, such as rodents, bats, and insectivores.

The book begins with a thorough listing of all known sites of Blancan, Irvingtonian, and Rancholabrean faunas throught the United States and Canada, with each site sorted by state or province, its location noted on a map (and in detail in the text), and notes included on general nature of the site, species recovered there, and often notes on its general importance. Nice black and white illustrations of some of the faunas are interspersed in this section of the tome.

The bulk of the book though is the exhaustive listing of fossil mammals, each chapter organized around a particular order, and the chapter subdivided by family. Each species has common, alternate common, genus, species, and alternate (and no longer valid) genus and species names (such as in the case with the Jefferson's Mammoth, Mammuthus jeffersoni; it has also been called the Columbian Mammoth and the Imperial Mammoth, and seven other scientific names have been ascribed to it).

Entries vary in the detail to which the species is described, though many are given several paragraphs devoted to description, life habits, and speculation as to the reason for extinction. Black and white illustrations of fossils are included in each chapter, and a small number of extinct mammals are shown as how they appeared in life. Occasional maps illustrate sites of major finds.

Though not really a book one can sit down in a nice chair and read, it is interesting to flip through. Though more of a scholarly resource, it gives one pause to consider just how many mammals are no longer present on this continent. North America not only had the infamous "sabretooth," the dire wolf, the mastodon, mammoths, tank-like glyptodonts, and the exotic ground sloth, but it once had scores of camels and llamas, a bewildering variety of horses, as well as giant beavers, yaks, cheetah, giant marmots, and possibly even pandas.

Excellent reference for American mammals of the recent past.......1998-01-10

This book has the most information that a paleontologist can find about North American mammals in one place. It is an exhaustive text book chock full of facts about all the mammals from that continent that have lived in the last 3 million years. As a layman interested in paleontology I found the book fascinating and easy to read. The book is seperated into two main parts: first chronology of faunas, and then than a discusion of all the orders of mammals , species by species. The book also discusses possible reasons for extinction. The only flaw in the book are some of the reasons given for extinction are contradictary. For example the extinction for the giant beaver was supposedly caused by competition with the modern day beaver, yet they coexisted for 2 million years, and the dental patterns suggest that they didn't have the same habits. Modern day beavers probably even created habitat that was favourable to prehistoric giant beavers.

The Primate Fossil Record (Cambridge Studies in Biological and Evolutionary Anthropology)

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The Primate Fossil Record (Cambridge Studies in Biological and Evolutionary Anthropology)

Manufacturer: Cambridge University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Primate Origins (Developments in Primatology: Progress and Prospects)

ASIN: 0521663156

Book Description

The Primate Fossil Record is a profusely illustrated, up-to-date, and comprehensive treatment of primate paleontology that captures the complete history of the discovery and interpretation of primate fossils. Each chapter emphasizes three key components of the record of primate evolution: history of discovery, taxonomy of the fossils, and evolution of the adaptive radiations they represent. The volume objectively summarizes the many intellectual debates surrounding the fossil record and provides a foundation of reference information on the last two decades of astounding discoveries and worldwide field research for physical anthropologists, paleontologists, and evolutionary biologists.

Missing Links: Evolutionary Concepts and Transitions Through Time (Jones and Bartlett Series in Biology)

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Fills in the Gaps
SUPERB!!!

Missing Links: Evolutionary Concepts and Transitions Through Time (Jones and Bartlett Series in Biology)
Robert A. Martin
Manufacturer: Jones and Bartlett Publishers, Inc.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0763721964

Book Description

This book introduces newcomers to the field of evolutionary science with an accessible discussion of basic scientific practices, rock and fossil dating techniques and schools of classification.

Customer Reviews:

Fills in the Gaps.......2004-10-29

This is a compact answer to creationist's demands to show them just one transitional fossil. This book has over 300 pages of them.

SUPERB!!!.......2003-08-09

Read this book if you ever wanted to know anything about evolution! It is full of interesting and incredibly insightful information on the subject!!

Average customer rating:

Not too bad, but dated
One of the few college texybooks I kept.
Best vertebrate paleontology book ever
I spent 2 weeks chewing on this book...

Vertebrate Paleontology and Evolution
Robert L. Carroll
Manufacturer: W.H. Freeman & Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0716718227

Customer Reviews:

Not too bad, but dated.......2003-06-23

This is an excellent overview of the evolutionary history and osteology of the vertebrate taxa, but it is dated, particularly as regards the Archosauromorpha. It's opposition to cladistic practices for formulating phylogenies, is also noteworthy. Thus, you will find that numerous bankrupt taxa and no longer accurate classification schemes still, unfortunately, present themselves in this volume.

One of the few college texybooks I kept........2002-04-09

This book was my textbook for Vertebrate Paleontology and Evolution at the University of Rochester back in 1992. The book is very daunting to look at if you just flip through it. However, it does a nice job of introducing concepts and terms to the reader. Its organization is straightforward, starting with the simplest vertebrates and eventually finishing with mammals. Most groups are covered well, considering that the author's cover every group of vertebrates known. The biggest problem I had with the book was the section on dinosaurs, the biggest reason why I took the class. The information on them was limited to a few pages and much of the information was out-dated even in 1992. However, if you are looking for a good book on vertebrates, this is a must have. Just realize that some of the information may not reflect our current understanding since the book is over 10 years old and many new finds have come to light, new ideas have been introduced, and old ideas reexamined.

Best vertebrate paleontology book ever.......2001-06-10

Vertebrate Paleontology and Evolution is the most complete and detailed book on that subject. It is the bible for people whose major interest in on vertebrate paleontology.

I spent 2 weeks chewing on this book..........2000-05-11

...the only easily available work that goes to any depth on this intensely interesting subject. A large book of medium thickness with an average of about two drawings per page, including familial relationship diagrams.

Since the late Paleozoic, there have been two significant branches of terrestrial vertebrates: the diapsids (crocs, dinosaurs, birds) and synapsids (pelycosaurs, theraspids, mammals). Sharing a common ancestry and evolving at times in parallel, nevertheless distinctive features appear early that, though not of immediately apparent significance, in fact consign the lines to their separate fates.

The pelycosaur Dimetrodon, the familiar lizard-like reptile with a sail on its back that is often reproduced as a toy, and which I have always associated with the dinosaurs, is in fact a member of the synapsid line. The book points out how the process on the mandible that reaches up toward the temporal lobe is the beginning of a shift away from the ancestral quadrate-angular jaw articulation maintained by the diapsids through the birds. With the additional points of leverage provided, mammals were destined to become better chewers, able to move their jaws sideways in addition to up and down. The angular bone and one other bone in the mandible, incidentally, become modified to help pick up soundwaves, and eventually migrate to become one of the three bones in the middle ear. (Birds only have one bone in their middle ear, though interestingly, their hearing appears to be just as acute.)

Mammals continued to refine their chewing mechanism, introducing improvements to their teeth. Instead of the saw of teeth possessed by dinosaurs and early reptiles, the mammals developed closely occluding teeth that allowed them to grind food more efficiently. Apparently the price for this matching of the upper and lower teeth is that mammals cannot replace their adult teeth once lost.

Book Description

Taphonomic studies are a major methodological advance, the effects of which have been felt throughout archaeology. Zooarchaeologists and archaeobotanists were the first to realise how vital it was to study the entire process of how food enters the archaeological record, and taphonomy brought to a close the era when the study of animal bones and plant remains from archaeological sites were regarded mainly as environmental indicators.This volume is indicative of recent developments in taphonomic studies: hugely diverse research areas are being explored, many of which would have been totally unforeseeable only a quarter of a century ago.

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Hurried, choppy and sketchy
Disappointing quality
Chinese Fossil Vertebrates

Chinese Fossil Vertebrates
Spencer G. Lucas
Manufacturer: Columbia University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 023108482X

Book Description

The literature on Chinese fossil vertebrates is extremely difficult for Western scholars to assimilate and interpret. In part, this is because much of that literature is in Chinese, and few useful reviews exist in Western languages. Yet China has an extensive vertebrate fossil record, one that plays a key role in understanding the evolution of vertebrates. Spencer Lucas gives an up-to-date review and synthesis of the Chinese vertebrate fossil record that will greatly facilitate an understanding of and further research into this outstanding fossil record. The book provides the reader with a comprehensive, chronologically ordered review of China's vertebrate fossil record. It also presents a history of vertebrate paleontological studies in China and an entrée to some important issues of systematics, evolutionary history, paleoecology, taphonomy, and functional anatomy best elucidated by China's fossils. This volume should therefore become an indispensable part of the library of any student of vertebrate evolution.

Customer Reviews:

Hurried, choppy and sketchy.......2005-03-15

There seems to be a fly-over tone and quality to this book. It lacks flow and cohesion. The photo quality is indeed poor. Lucas also mis-cites Henry Fairfield Osborn's theorizing -- the citation should be to Osborn's article in Science (April 13, 1900), particularly at p. 567, not his later 1910 book publication. As to recounting the Central Asiatic Expeditions, the treatment is uneven and somewhat speculative. Also, some spellings are inconsistent: eg., "Granter" (caption Figure 2-10) vs. "Granger" (text, p. 24), and neither is found in the Index; "William Morris" (p. 24) actually was "Frederick B. Morris," and, again, neither is found in the Index; the expedition sequence on p. 24 is muddled (incorrect use of "First," "Second," etc.) and also ignores those made in China beginning in 1921; and etc.

Disappointing quality.......2004-11-25

I have been a collector of Chinese fossils for several years and was interested in purchasing a book on the subject. This book is very informative, but the pictures are of such low quality that some of them cannot even be made out. In other cases, the fossil specimen is described with no photograph or drawing at all. All in all, this book is not worth the money for those who enjoy collecting and understanding Chinese fossils.

Chinese Fossil Vertebrates.......2003-02-11

Chinese Fossil Vertebrates written by Spencer G. Lucas is a well-written book that covers what we know of the history of Vertebrate Paleontological Studies.

China is the world's third largest nation. Its vast land area contains extensive exposures of sedimentary rocks, many of nonmarine origin. Serious scientific study of China's vertebrate fossil record began in the last century. This record extends back to the Early Cambrian, nearly 550 million years. Today, Chinese vertebrate fossils represent one of the most extensive and important records of vertebrate evolution.

China has a very complex geology that encompasses great thickness of sedimentary rock of Phanerozoic age. Equally complex is the plate tectonic history of China prior to the late Mesozoic. Most workers recognize that during the Paleozoic and much of the Mesooic, what is now Chinaa belonged to several microplates. South China encompasses the region south of the Qinling fold belt. North China is north of the Qinling fold belt, extending east of the Qilian Mountains.

This book employs concepts of vertebrate biochronology... the use of fossil vertebrates to discriminate intervals of geologic time... earlier advocated by Lucas. The Basic unit of vertebrate biochronology is the biochron. A Biochron is simply as interval of geologic time that corresponds to the duration of a taxon. Each vertebrate taxon has a corresponding biochron.

This book is divided according to time:

Cambrian-Ordovician
Silurian
Devonian
Carboniferous
Pernian
Triassic
Jurassic
Cretaceous
Paleogene
Miocene-Pilocene
Pleistocene

Each of these times represents a chapter in this book and each chapter is sub-divided as the vertebrate producing strata yeild its species via the biochron.

Book Description

In recent years archaeologists and paleontologists have become increasingly interested in how and why vertebrate animal remains become, or do not become, fossils. Vertebrate Taphonomy introduces interested researchers to the wealth of analytical techniques developed by archaeologists and paleontologists to help them understand why prehistoric animal remains do or do not preserve, and why those that preserve appear the way they do. This book is comprehensive in scope, and will serve as an important work of reference for years to come.

Customer Reviews:

A must have for any archaeologist........1999-12-22

A long, technical, and amazing compilation of what every zooarchaeologist should know. Not for the beginner.

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Technical and Dry
Not a book for the dinofans
An excellent collection of papers on extinct marine reptiles

Ancient Marine Reptiles

Manufacturer: Academic Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0121552101

Book Description

Vertebrate evolution has led to the convergent appearance of many groups of originally terrestrial animals that now live in the sea. Among these groups are familiar mammals like whales, dolphins, and seals. There are also reptilian lineages (like plesiosaurs, ichthyosaurs, mosasaurs, thalattosaurs, and others) that have become sea creatures. Most of these marine reptiles, often wrongly called "dinosaurs", are extinct. This edited book is devoted to these extinct groups of marine reptiles. These reptilian analogs represent useful models of the myriad adaptations that permit tetrapods to live in the ocean.

Key Features
* First book in more than 80 years devoted exclusively to fossil marine reptiles
* Documents the most current research on extinct marine reptiles
* Prepared by the world's most prominent experts in the field
* Well illustrated

Customer Reviews:

Technical and Dry.......2004-09-15

Unless your a paleontologist yourself, this book will probably be too technical to read and too dry to enjoy. Specialists familiar with serious scientific jargon may delight in Ancient Marine Reptiles. Otherwise, you're bound to get a headache trying to understand what's going on.

Not a book for the dinofans.......2001-11-06

If you were thinking about buying this book for your kids or a dinofan friend, a word of advise: it mightbe a bit over their heads. This book is basically an amalgamate of scientific papers without any editorial instrusion; they are true scientific papers for scientists in the style of scientific journals. Though profusely illustrated, it is not a field guide with lots of recreations and dioramas which might be what most kids and dinofans would want. Most of the illustrations are maps of the areas where a sample fossil was found or drawings and pictures of actual fossil bone at the site where found. Only the turtles and crocodiles sections of the book have some recreations of the creatures; but you will not find a single recreation drawing of an ichthyosaur. For the scientific reader this is a definite 5 star, for most everyone it might be only 2 or 3 star.

An excellent collection of papers on extinct marine reptiles.......1999-07-11

The editors, Callaway and Nicholls, have assembled 17 papers describing the results of current research by the experts on the various groups of extinct marine reptiles (Ichthyosaurs, Plesiosaurs, Turtles, Mosasaurs and Crocodiles), and their associated faunas, behavior and evolution. Well researched and profusely illustrated, this book is a must read for those seriously interested in the biology, ecology and paleontology of this diverse and fascinating group of animals.

Patterns and Processes of Vertebrate Evolution (Cambridge Paleobiology Series)

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Evolution - the big picture

Patterns and Processes of Vertebrate Evolution (Cambridge Paleobiology Series)
Robert Lynn Carroll
Manufacturer: Cambridge University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0521472326

Book Description

This new text provides an integrated view of the forces that influence the patterns and rates of vertebrate evolution from the level of living populations and species to those that resulted in the origin of the major vertebrate groups. The evolutionary roles of behavior, development, continental drift, and mass extinctions are compared with the importance of variation and natural selection that were emphasized by Darwin. It is extensively illustrated, showing major transitions between fish and amphibians, dinosaurs and birds, and land mammals to whales. No book since Simpson's Major Features of Evolution has attempted such a broad study of the patterns and forces of evolutionary change. Undergraduate students taking a general or advanced course on evolution, and graduate students and professionals in evolutionary biology and paleontology will find the book of great interest.

Customer Reviews:

Evolution - the big picture.......2000-11-26

This reference starts off by noting problems in evolutionary theory, particularly that while short-term microevolution shows Darwinian characteristics, long-term macroevolution based on the fossil record does not, with species suddenly appearing and then persisting for long periods with few changes. Vertebrates are proposed as a model for studying evolution, noting that they are a monophyletic group, have sexual reproduction, share a similar body plan, and most importantly have an excellent fossil record. While the knowledgeable reader will find this reference interesting in its integration of the forces affecting vertebrate evolution, the more general reader will find a variety of topics from fundamentals of population genetics to evolutionary development to the origins of major vertebrate groups, useful reading.

Gaining Ground: The Origin and Early Evolution of Tetrapods

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One Layman's Experience of
A humerus tale . . .
Fills a Large Gap in Early Tetrapod Evolution
First step on land
Gaining Ground: The Origin & Evolution of Tetrapods

Gaining Ground: The Origin and Early Evolution of Tetrapods
Jennifer A. Clack
Manufacturer: Indiana University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Evolution | Science | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0253340543

Book Description

"The journey our ancestors made from the sea to dry land is one of the greatest transformation in the history of life, and Gaining Ground documents it magnificently. This should come as no surprise, since Jennifer Clack has been revolutionizing our understanding of this crucial evolutionary episode for years now. In Gaining Ground, she decodes a wonderful tale encrypted in fossils, genes, and flesh." --Carl Zimmer, author of At the Water's Edge

Around 370 million years ago, a distant relative of a modern lungfish began the most exciting adventure the world had ever seen: it emerged from the sea and lay claim to the land. Over the next 70 million years, this tentative beachhead had become of worldwide colonization by any ever-increasing variety of four-limbed life. These first ãtetrapodsä are the ancestors of all vertebrate life on land. This book tells the story of their emergence and evolution.

Customer Reviews:

One Layman's Experience of .......2005-11-24

Other reviews on this page describe the contents well, so I'll focus on my own experience in the hope that it will be helpful to others with similar backgrounds. I have no formal education in science past the high-school level. I learn about science by reading and Scientific American is my favorite source, although I sometimes read more technical material. Gaining Ground falls into the "more technical" category.

One thing I found is that I can't keep track of all the terminology. For example, Clack describes changes in the structures of skulls and that involves a lot of bones I had never heard of before. But by concentrating on the things that I could keep track of, I could follow her basic points. For example, as our ancestors moved to land, where the buoyancy of water no longer kept their heads from sagging, the many skull bones were consolidated into a smaller number for strength. I'll never remember the names of all the bones, but I'll always remember why they changed. The same is true of the separation of the skull from the shoulder girdle and the formation of the neck, and of various other changes. I was content with the fact that there was much I couldn't follow because there was much that I could follow and learn from. And I enjoyed reading it.

Since I read the book, an article by Clack appeared in Scientific American (Dec. 2005) giving an overview of the origin of tetrapods, without most of the technical detail. It is excellent and I will tuck a copy into the book before I read it the next time. If you're unsure about buying the book, read the article. Then tuck a copy into the book as soon as you get it.

[...].

A humerus tale . . ........2005-05-24

. . . along with some ribs, vertebrae and shoulder bones. But it's the skull that captures the most attention. The multitude of variations that occurred as animals moved in delicate steps from water onto land that make the story most interesting. And Jenny Clack's story of our four-legged forebears is a wondrous tale. Ever since Charles Darwin explained the nature of life's evolution, the question of how sea creatures moved to the land has been an enigma. Consider the many issues involved: walking, breathing air instead of filtering water, hearing in air instead of water, how to feed - and where, and protecting eggs. Clack shows how these topics were addressed by slow, incremental changes in body plan, with changes in one area integrated with those in another.

Walking on land meant not only building bones strong enough to support the body, but muscles to drive them. The humerus, the single bone in your upper arm, not only had to be stronger, it had to have joints for a new form of movement. A stride is far different from the flapping of a fin, so the paddling fin had to change. Clack discounts the older, simpler views that the "lobe-finned" fish just developed better "legs". Moving from the sea requires more than just crawling up the beach. There had to be an intermediate step. Clack finds that step in brackish lagoons and shallow, meandering rivers. There, the new four-legged creatures learned to walk on silty soils and learn to mix air and water breathing methods.

It was a reinforcing cycle as the change in surroundings developed new capacities. Diet went from fish to insects. No longer able to simply swallow prey as fish do, tetrapods began feeding on insects and their own smaller cousins. That meant biting and chewing, requiring stronger jaws and specialised teeth. Skulls once short and narrow became wide and flat. This reorganising of the entire skull required new musclature for support. The more time on land, Clack shows, meant not only stronger legs, but a sturdier backbone. Ribs developed that held muscles for breathing. Although the earliest tetrapods likely gulped air as a fish gulps water, before long they were using their nostrils to fill lungs.

As should be obvious, this isn't a simple narrative. The fossil bones are meticulously detailed - when they are available. Clack's task is rendered more difficult by the paucity of fossils. She has been lucky in her own finds in Greenland and Scotland. Others have encountered Carboniferous fossils in the Ohio Valley, Nova Scotia and Australia. The real treasures should be in coal seams where plant remains have become burnable stone. However, mining operations leave little opportunity for discovery. What has been found has often been misinterpreted. In order to depict what happened to tetrapod bodies over time, she is meticulous in describing individual bone types and how they changed. She helps the description with photographs and a wealth of line drawings. Still, this isn't a book for the uninitiated. It requires careful reading and no little back-flipping of the pages. The endeavour is well worth the effort, however. Clack has established an new foundation for understanding where and how creatures like ourselves originated. [stephen a. haines - Ottawa, Canada]

Fills a Large Gap in Early Tetrapod Evolution.......2004-08-28

Dr. Clack has really come up with a winning book. I envy her personal experiences finding Paleozoic fossils in Greenland. She goes into considerable detail with fish and amphibian osteology which is difficult to non-exitant to find in popular literature. But this book is no dry scientific text. It is an exciting subject and she does an excellent job of handling the task. I found her understanding of chemistry a little weak in a couple of places but the other information is superb. I had to give this book five stars because it is well presented and it is alone in its class. I am glad I purchased the book because it will make a great reference for my library. Thank you Jennifer Clack for a wonderful book!

First step on land.......2003-02-19

This is the book to be read. There's no reason to hesitate, neither to read the commentaries to decide. As far as books of prehistoric animals are concerned, those of dinosaurs occupy most of them. And maybe this is the first, and the best I insist, to be written on the primitive form of tetrapods. Detailed investigations show us before and after the first members of tetrapods including their environmental conditions, soft tissues such as respiratory, sensory and reproductive systems and interpretation inferred based on the existent animals whose morphological character is insinuating. And, of course, their relationship analysed by cladistics comes in later chapter.
The most important point the author puts emphasis on is to urge our public image or concept on the early members of tetrapods. She intentionally avoids the word "amphibians" for them. You'll see why through the text. This is a superb book! Why don't you take a close look at their intriguing story?

Gaining Ground: The Origin & Evolution of Tetrapods.......2003-02-11

Gaining Ground: The Origin and Evolution of Tetrapods written by Jennifer A. Clark is a book on comparative anatomy of tetrapods on Earth.

The origin and evolution of tetrapods started about 370 million years ago, something strange and significant happened on Earth. That time, part of an interval of Earth's history called the Devonian Period by scientists such as geologists and paleontologists, is known popularly as the Age of Fishes. After about 200 million years of earlier evolution, the vertebrates... animals with backbones... had produced an explosion of fishlike animals that lived in the lakes, rivers, lagoons, and estuaries of the time. The strange thing that happened during the later parts of the Devonian period is that some of these fishlike animals evolved limbs with digits, fingers and toes. Over the ensuing 350 million years or so, these so-caled tetrapods gradually evolved from their aquatic ancestry into walking terrestrial vertebrates, and these have dominated the land since their own explosive radiation allowed them to colonize and exploit the land and its opportunities. The tetrapods, with limbs, fingers, and toes, include humans, so this distant Devonian event is profoundly significant for humans as well as for the planet.

This book tells the story of the evolution of tetrapods from their fish ancestry and puts the sequence of events into its ecological context. The story if founded on an understanding of the evolutionary relationships between tetrapods and their fishy relatives... their phylogeny... and traces the family tree of tetrapods from its roots to the point at which the major groups of modern tetrapods branch off from its original trunk. The tetrapod family tree is in fact more like a bush, with several main branches, some of which have died out during the course of evolution and some of which have become large and important from small beginnings.

This book looks at the changes that occured in the transition from creatures with fins and scales to those with limbs and digits in an attempt to understand how, as well as when, these changes occurred, and to do this, it is necessary to understand something of the anatomy of the animals involved. Chapters 2 & 3 are devoted to these parts of the story. Chapters 4,5,& 6 set out what is currently known of the earliest tetrapods and their lifestyles. By careful analysis of what is known of them from fossils, and by comparison with modern animals that live at the transition between water and land, it may be possible to understand a little of how the early tetrapods worked as animals. After the tetrapods had become established, they radiated into a ranges of forms requiring modification of the original tetrapod pattern. Chapters 7,8,& 9 carry the story forward from the origin of tetrapods to their ultimate conquest of terrestrial living. The final chapter drws together some of the threads that have been taken up in the preceding chapters and shows how they impact the study and understanding of tetrapods today.

All in all, this is a well- written, illustrated, and organized book, making for a fairly fast read even though there is a lot of material covered. Devonian environment and the timing of anatomical changes was fascinating.

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