| Description |
xiv, 287 pages : illustrations (chiefly color) ; 29 cm |
| Contents |
Earth, rocks, evolution, and fish : background information to understanding fish evolution -- Glorified swimming worms : the first fishes : origins of chordates and the first vertebrates -- Jawless wonders : hagfishes, lampreys, and their extinct armored kin -- Armored fishes and fishes with arms : the armored placoderms, kings of the Devonian seas, rivers, and lakes -- Sharks and their cartilaginous kin : killers from the dawn of time -- Spiny-jawed fishes : the odd mixture of early jawed fishes such as acanthodians and their kin -- An epiphany of evolution : the Osteichtyes, fishes having well-ossified internal skeletons -- Primitive ray-finned fishes : the rapid rise of the first bony fishes -- Teleosteans, the champions : the origin and diversification of the world's most successful vertebrates -- The ghost fish and other primeval predators : lobe-finned sarcopterygians and where they fit -- Strangers in the bite : dipnomorphans : how fishes learned to breathe air -- Big teeth, strong fins : fishes with fin bone patterns like human arms and legs -- The greatest step in evolution : from swimming fishes to walking land animals |
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references and index |
| Subject |
Fishes -- Evolution.
|
| LC no. |
2010009524 |
| ISBN |
9780801896958 hardcover alkaline paper |
|
0801896959 hardcover alkaline paper |
|
