Amphibian Evolution

About this book

This book focuses on the first vertebrates to conquer the land, and on their long journey to become fully independent of the water. It traces the origin of tetrapod features and explains how they evolved into organs suited to a terrestrial life. The major part of the story covers events that occurred up to 370 million years ago, and necessarily deals with many fossils, but the text is by no means restricted to paleontology. The book presents a comprehensive picture of amphibian evolution, focusing on several major questions in current paleobiology. How diverse were the early tetrapods? In what environments did they live, and how did they come to be preserved? What do we know about the soft bodies of extinct amphibians, and what does that knowledge tell us about the evolution of crucial organs during the transition to land? How did early amphibians develop and grow, and what were the major factors in their evolution? -- from back cover.