Non-mammalian synapsids were the dominant terrestrial vertebrates from the Late Carboniferous to the Middle Triassic and play a key role in understanding the origin and evolution of mammals. Despite these facts and the outstanding fossil record of the group, early synapsids remain obscure. This book showcases the full breadth of contemporary research on non-mammalian synapsids, ranging from taxonomy and phylogenetics to functional morphology, biogeography, paleoecology, and patterns of diversity. It also underscores the importance and potential of studying non-mammalian synapsid paleobiology in its own right, not just in the context of mammalian evolution.​

This first Congress to be held in the United States attracted more than 900geologists from 20countries, including for the first time official representatives of the People's Republic of China. Some highlights of this first of five volumes are a special lecture on the Carboniferous of China by Yang Shihpu, Wuhan College of Geology, China; a concise summary of the Tectonic evolu­tion of the Iberian massif by Manuel Julivert, University of Barcelona, Spain; a short history of the founding of the Carboniferous System by W. H. C. Ramsbottom, Institute of Geological Sciences, Great Britain; an intensive look at world energy prospects for the next two decades by Philip H. Abelson, editor of Sci­ence; an outline of the geology of the Spanish Carboniferous coalfields by A. Garcia-Loygorri, Institute of Geology and Mining, Spain; and a novel treat­ment of detailed paleobotanical com­parisons between west European coal basins and the Donetz Basin, USSR, by O. P. Fissunenko, Institute Pedagogique, Voroshilovgrad, USSR, and J. P. Leveine, Lille University, France.