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CONTENTS List of boxes Preface 1 Vertebrate origins Key questions Introduction 1.1 Sea squirts and the lancelet 1.2 Phylum hemichordata: pterobranchs and acorn worms 1.3 Deuterostome relationships 1.4 Chordate origins 1.5 Vertebrates and the head 1.6 Further reading 2 How to study fossil vertebrates Key questions Introduction 2.1 Digging up bones 2.2 Geology and fossil vertebrates 2.3 Biology and fossil vertebrates 2.4 Discovering phylogeny 2.5 The quality of the fossil record 2.6 Further reading 3 Early fishes Key questions Introduction 3.1 Cambrian vertebrates 3.2 Vertebrate hard tissues 3.3 The jawless fishes 3.4 Origin of jaws and gnathostome relationships 3.5 Class Placodermi: armour-plated monsters 3.6 Class Chondrichthyes: the first sharks 3.7 Class Acanthodii: the 'spiny skins' 3.8 Devonian environments 3.9 Class Osteichthyes: the bony fishes 3.10 Early fish evolution and mass extinction 3.11 Further reading 4 The early tetrapods and amphibians Key questions Introduction 4.1 Problems of life on land 4.2 Devonian tetrapods 4.3 The Carboniferous world 4.4 Diversity of Carboniferous tetrapods 4.5 Temnospondyls and reptiliomorphs after the Carboniferous 4.6 Evolution of modern amphibians 4.7 Further reading 5 The evolution of early amniotes Key questions Introduction 5.1 Hylonomus and Paleothyris - biology of the first amniotes 5.2 Amniote evolution 5.3 The Permian world 5.4 The early evolution of anapsids and diapsids 5.5 Basal synapsid evolution 5.6 Mass extinction 5.7 Further reading 6 Reptiles of the Triassic Key questions Introduction 6.1 The Triassic scene 6.2 Evolution of the archosauromorphs 6.3 In Triassic seas 6.4 The origin of the dinosaurs 6.5 Further reading 7 The evolution of fishes after the Devonian Key questions Introduction 7.1 The early sharks and chimaeras 7.2 Post-Palaeozoic chondrichthyan radiation 7.3 The early bony fishes 7.4 Radiation of the teleosts 7.5 Post-Devonian evolution of fishes 7.6 Further reading 8 The age of dinosaurs Key questions Introduction 8.1 Biology of Plateosaurus 8.2 The Jurassic and Cretaceous world 8.3 The diversity of Saurischian dinosaurs 8.4 The diversity of Ornithischian dinosaurs 8.5 Were the dinosaurs warm-blooded or not? 8.6 Order Terosauria 8.7 Order Testudines: the turtles 8.8 Order Crocodylia 8.9 Superorder Lepidosauria 8.10 The great sea dragons 8.11 Diversification of Jurassic-Cretaceous reptiles 8.12 The KT event 8.13 Further reading 9 The birds Key questions Introduction 9.1 Archaeopteryx 9.2 The origin of bird flight 9.3 Toothed birds of the Cretaceous 9.4 The radiation of modern birds 9.5 Flightless birds: division Palaeognathae 9.6 Division Neognathae 9.7 Diversification of the birds 9.8 Further reading 10 The mammals Key questions Introduction 10.1 Cynodonts and the acquisition of mammalian characters 10.2 The first mammals 10.3 The Mesozoic mammals 10.4 The marsupials 10.5 South American mammals - another world apart 10.6 The Afrotheria and break-up of Gondwana 10.7 The beginning of the age of placental mammals 10.8 Basal Laurasiatherians: insectivores and bats 10.9 Superorder Cetartiodactyla: cattle, pigs and whales 10.10 Order Perissodactyla: grazers and browsers 10.11 Orders Carnivora and Pholidota 10.12 Superorder Archonta: primates, tree shrews and flying lemurs 10.13 Superorder Glires: rodents, rabbits and relatives 10.14 Ice Age extinction of large mammals 10.15 The pattern of mammalian evolution 10.16 Further reading 11 Human Evolution Key questions Introduction 11.1 What are the primates? 11.2 The early fossil record of primates 11.3 Superfamily Hominoidea: the apes 11.4 Evolution of human characteristics 11.5 The early stages of human evolution 11.6 The last two million years of human evolution 11.7 Further reading Appendix 1: Classification of the vertebrates Appendix 2: Summary of branching dates Glossary References Index
Library of Congress Subject Headings for this publication: Vertebrates, Fossil