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Cover image of The Rise of Animals
Cover image of The Rise of Animals
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The Rise of Animals

Evolution and Diversification of the Kingdom Animalia

Mikhail A. Fedonkin, James G. Gehling, Kathleen Grey, Guy M. Narbonne, and Patricia Vickers-Rich
foreword by Arthur C. Clarke

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Winner, 2009 Victorian Premier's Literary Prize for Science Writing

Among the major events in evolutionary history, few rival in importance the appearance of animals. The Rise of Animals—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 paleontologists 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 deserts of southwest Africa...

Winner, 2009 Victorian Premier's Literary Prize for Science Writing

Among the major events in evolutionary history, few rival in importance the appearance of animals. The Rise of Animals—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 paleontologists 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 deserts of southwest Africa, and the rugged coasts of Newfoundland. Each of these places holds a rich fossil record that reveals how the animal form came into existence and why some groups succeeded while others failed. The authors describe the diversification of the Kingdom Animalia into the familiar body plans of today: from simple animals such as sponges to complex groups like mollusks, arthropods, echinoderms, and chordates that appear explosively in the Cambrian.

This exquisitely illustrated book reveals the early moments of an evolutionary process that eventually resulted in our own species. An essential resource for paleontologists, biologists, geologists, and teachers, The Rise of Animals is the best single reference on one of earth’s most significant events.

Reviews

Reviews

It's a beautiful book and the definitive account of the period... I love it and expect it to become a classic.

The Rise of Animals offers a much-needed avenue to communicate to the general public the past decade's exciting discoveries of Ediacaran fossils.

Recommended. Informed general readers; researchers/faculty; professionals/practitioners.

A one-stop shop for up-to-date information about this puzzling meagerie... non-professionals will likewise find that it is a fine-looking book that captures the excitement of scientific discovery.

It's a magnificent book, not only because it is unique, but also because it has been produced in a wonderful way with so many text figures, many of them in good colors. This gives a good picture of the appearance of the animals as well as of the environment in which they must have occurred.

About

Book Details

Publication Date
Status
Available
Trim Size
9.25
x
11.5
Pages
344
ISBN
9780801886799
Illustration Description
677 color illus.
Table of Contents

Foreword
Acknowledgements
Introduction
Part I: The Background: The Archean and Proterozoic Eons
Chapter 1. The Background. The Archean (4.5 Million to 2500 Million Years Ago)
Chapter 2. The Background. The

Foreword
Acknowledgements
Introduction
Part I: The Background: The Archean and Proterozoic Eons
Chapter 1. The Background. The Archean (4.5 Million to 2500 Million Years Ago)
Chapter 2. The Background. The Proterozoic (2.5 Billion to 542 Million Years Ago)
Part II: The Fossil Sites: Rare and Extraordinary
Introduction
Chapter 3. The Misty Coasts of Newfoundland
Chapter 4. The Nama Fauna of Southern Africa
Chapter 5. The Ediacara Hills
Chapter 6. The White Sea's Windswept Coasts
Chapter 7. Podolia's Green Valleys
Chapter 8. The Siberian Tundra
Chapter 9. The Urals
Chapter 10. The Canadian Cordillera
Chapter 11. Beyond the Major Sites
Part III: Other Evidence of Animalia
Chapter 12. First Trace of Motion
Chapter 13. The World of the Very Small: Fueling the Animalia
Part IV: A Dramatic Crossroads—The Cambrian "Explosion"?
Chapter 14. Body Plans, Strange and Familiar, and the Enigma of 542
Atlas of Precambrian Metazoans
Bibliography
Index

Author Bios
Featured Contributor

Kathleen Grey

Kathleen Grey is the chief paleontologist at the Geological Survey of Western Australia.
Guy M. Narbonne
Featured Contributor

Guy M. Narbonne

Guy M. Narbonne is a professor and Queen's Research Chair at Queens University, Canada.
Featured Contributor

Patricia Vickers-Rich, Ph.D.

Patricia Vickers-Rich holds a personal chair of paleontology and is founding director of the Monash Science Centre at Monash University in Australia.
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