The rise of animals: evolution and diversification of the kingdom animalia.

Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2007.
Quarto, dustwrapper, 326 pp. colour photographs, colour illustrations, line drawings, maps.

Among the major events in evolutionary history, few rival in importance the appearance of animals. This book, a significant reference providing a comprehensive synthesis of the early radiation of the animal kingdom, fully captures this moment in geologic time. Five of the world's leading palaeontologists take us on a journey to the most important fossil sites that serve as unique windows to the earliest animal life - including the Ediacara Hills of Australia, the Russian taiga and tundra, the sandy deserts of southwest Africa, and the rugged coasts of Newfoundland. Each of these places is a rich record of how animals came into existence and how some succeeded and others failed. The authors also explore the diversification of Animalia into the familiar body plans of today: from simple sponges to complex molluscs, arthropods, echinoderms, and chordates that appear explosively in the Cambrian. This exquisitely illustrated book is an essential resource for palaeontologists, biologists, geologists, and teachers.