More than three hundred million years ago—a relatively recent date in the two billion years since life first appeared—vertebrate animals first ventured onto land. This usefully illustrated book describes how some finned vertebrates acquired limbs, giving rise to more than 25,000 extant tetrapod species. Michel Laurin uses paleontological, geological, physiological, and comparative anatomical data to describe this monumental event. He summarizes key concepts of modern paleontological research, including biological nomenclature, paleontological and molecular dating, and the methods used to infer phylogeny and character evolution. Along with a discussion of the evolutionary pressures that may have led vertebrates onto dry land, the book also shows how extant vertebrates yield clues about the conquest of land and how scientists uncover evolutionary history.

Although herbivory probably first appeared over 300 million years ago, it only became established as a common feeding strategy during Late Permian times. Subsequently, herbivory evolved in numerous lineages of terrestrial vertebrates, and the acquisition of this mode of feeding was frequently associated with considerable evolutionary diversification in those lineages. This book represents a comprehensive overview of the evolution of herbivory in land-dwelling amniote tetrapods in recent years. In Evolution of Herbivory in Terrestrial Vertebrates, leading experts review the evolutionary history and structural adaptations required for feeding on plants in the major groups of land-dwelling vertebrates, especially dinosaurs and ungulate mammals. As such, this volume will be the definitive reference source on this topic for evolutionary biologists and vertebrate paleontologists.

This book focuses on the first vertebrates to conquer land and their long journey to become fully independent from the water. It traces the origin of tetrapod features and tries to explain how and why they transformed into organs that permit life on land. Although the major frame of the topic lies in the past 370 million years and necessarily deals with many fossils, it is far from restricted to paleontology. The aim is to achieve a comprehensive picture of amphibian evolution. It focuses on major questions in current paleobiology: how diverse were the early tetrapods? In which environments did they live, and how did they come to be preserved? What do we know about the soft body of extinct amphibians, and what does that tell us about the evolution of crucial organs during the transition to land? How did early amphibians develop and grow, and which were the major factors of their evolution? The Topics in Paleobiology Series is published in collaboration with the Palaeontological Association, and is edited by Professor Mike Benton, University of Bristol. Books in the series provide a summary of the current state of knowledge, a trusted route into the primary literature, and will act as pointers for future directions for research. As well as volumes on individual groups, the series will also deal with topics that have a cross-cutting relevance, such as the evolution of significant ecosystems, particular key times and events in the history of life, climate change, and the application of a new techniques such as molecular palaeontology. The books are written by leading international experts and will be pitched at a level suitable for advanced undergraduates, postgraduates, and researchers in both the paleontological and biological sciences.

The Synapsida are the 'mammal-like' reptiles and mammals, a group that diverged from a common ancestor shared with reptiles and birds about 340 million years. The fossil record of the synapsids is extraordinarily good, and documents the three phases of the history of the group, each one of which points to important evolutionary generalisations as well as relating an intrinsically fascinating story. The first stage leads from the origin of the group to the earliest mammals. The non-mammalian synapsids constituted the first radiation of fully terrestrial vertebrates, dominating the land long before the dinosaurs displaced them and took over that role. The fossil record illustrates the relationship between this radiation and the environmental conditions of the Permo-Triassic when it occurred. It also illustrates to a far greater degree than any other fossil record the origin of a major new taxon. The sequence of acquisition of mammalian structures and functions inferred from the fossils leads to an interpretation about the processes involved in the evolution of mammalian biological organisation. The second stage is the Mesozoic history of mammals. Throughout the Jurassic and Cretaceous Periods, mammals remained small, insectivorous or omnivorous animals living a nocturnal existence. They were abundant and diverse, but failed completely to evolve into any of the middle-sized and large-sized forms familiar amongst today's mammals. This is usually, though not completely satisfactorily, explained by competitive exclusion by dinosaurs. The third stage is the great Cenozoic radiation of mammals. From the moment the dinosaurs disappeared 65 million years ago, new kinds of mammals proceeded to evolve. Medium and large bodied herbivore and carnivore groups appeared early, and from then onwards a kaleidoscope of origins, flourishings, and extinctions of lineages of mammals took place. This great story interweaves changing climates, shifting continents, ecological opportunities, and the fulfilment of the adaptive potential of Mammalia. The latest molecular evidence that is having a huge impact on ideas about the timing and origins of the modern mammalian taxa is discussed along with the fossil evidence. The book reviews these three stages in turn, bringing up to date the palaeontological evidence and incorporating the molecular taxonomic data that has been rapidly accumulating over the last few years, and which is responsible for a series of exciting, radicalnew ideas about relationships amongst mammals and their inferred palaeo-biogeographic history.