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The first vertebrate animals appear in the fossil record over 520 million years ago. These lineages diversified and eventually crept ashore leading to further evolutionary divergence and the appearance of the familiar charismatic vertebrates of today.
List of contents
- Introduction
- The Origin of Vertebrates
- Jawless fish
- Primitive gnathostomes
- Bony Fish
- The transition to land
- Tetrapods diversify
- Primitive reptiles
- Back to the sea: marine reptiles
- The Scaly ones: Lizards and snakes
- Ruling Reptiles: Archosaurs
- Crocodylomorphs
- Pterosaurs
- Origin of dinosaurs
- Ornithischian dinosaurs I
- Ornithischian dinosaurs II
- Sauropods
- Theropods
- Birds
- Synapsids: The origin of mammals: Synapsids
- Primitive Mammals: Mesozoic Mammals, Monotremes, and Marsupials
- The placental explosion: The Mammals Diversify
- Laurasiatheria I: Carnivores, Bat, Insectivores, and their Kin
- Laurasiatheria II: The Ungulates
- Euarchontoglires: Rodents, Rabbits, Primates—And Humans
About the author
Donald Prothero has taught college geology and paleontology for 40 years, at Caltech, Columbia, Cal Poly Pomona, and Occidental, Knox, Vassar, Glendale, Mt. San Antonio, and Pierce Colleges. He earned his B.A. in geology and biology (highest honors, Phi Beta Kappa, College Award) from University of California Riverside in 1976, and his M.A. (1978), M.Phil. (1979), and Ph.D. (1982) in geological sciences from Columbia University. He is the author of over 40 books (including 8 leading geology textbooks, and several trade books), and over 300 scientific papers, mostly on the evolution of fossil mammals (especially rhinos, camels, and horses) and on using the earth's magnetic field changes to date fossil-bearing strata. He has been on the editorial boards of journals such as Geology, Paleobiology, Journal of Paleontology, and Skeptic magazine. He is a Fellow of the Linnean Society of London, the Paleontological Society, and the Geological Society of America, and also received fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and National Science Foundation. He served as President of Pacific Section SEPM (Society for Sedimentary Geology) in 2012, and served for five years as Program Chair of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology. In 1991, he received the Charles Schuchert Award for outstanding paleontologist under the age of 40. In 2013, he received the James Shea Award of the National Association of Geology Teachers for outstanding writing and editing the geosciences. In 2015, he received the Joseph T. Gregory award for service to vertebrate paleontology. In 2016 he was named a “Friend of Darwin” by the National Center for Science Education. He has been featured on numerous TV documentaries, including Paleoworld, Walking with Prehistoric Beasts, Prehistoric Monsters Revealed, Monsterquest, Prehistoric Predators: Entelodon and Hyaenodon, Conspiracy Road Trip: Creationism, as well as Jeopardy! and Win Ben Stein's Money.
Summary
The first vertebrate animals appear in the fossil record over 520 million years ago. These lineages diversified and eventually crept ashore leading to further evolutionary divergence and the appearance of the familiar charismatic vertebrates of today.
