Evolution recreates the 3.5-billion-year story of life on Earth in stunning detail through vivid full-color illustrations and graphics, the latest scientific information, and hundreds of photographs. At the heart of the book is an astonishing, beautifully detailed panorama by renowned illustrator Peter Barrett that, in 100 double-page site reconstructions, offers a freeze-frame view of the communities--from microbes to humankind--that have lived on our planet's continents and in its oceans. These groundbreaking artworks, based on the most recent findings at some of the most famous fossil sites around the world, are paired with an authoritative and highly informative text written for a wide audience of readers. A landmark project, published to commemorate the 200th anniversary of Charles Darwin's birth and the 150th anniversary of his book On the Origin of Species, Evolution has been produced in association with the Natural History Museum in London, one of the most important centers of evolution research in the world.The volume includes an index of the hundreds of species shown in the illustrations, introductory articles on evolution, and many other features, making it a must-have reference for all homes, schools, and libraries.
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Editorial Reviews
From Booklist
Covering evolution from the worldwide fossil record, this lavishly illustrated source reflects the latest discoveries in paleontology, like early birds found in China and small hominids found in Indonesia. The book contains an introduction to evolution followed by chronologically arranged two-page spreads on “100 of the finest fossil sites.” Also found in the volume are a “Tree of Life” section that covers cladistics, an alphabetical gazetteer of the 100 sites, a species listing, a glossary, an index, and a foldout time line. The depictions of individual sites detail the ecosystem as documented by the fossils found there and include a time line and rich artwork, with numbers and icons keyed to accompanying captions and other information. Also on each page set is a map of the earth and the sea level at the time represented and a map showing the fossil site. The fauna and flora (if they survived in the fossil record) reflect the biodiversity of the ancient ecosystems and document evolution over time. Each spread also gives a list of species appearing in an illustration, which takes up most of the space. Examples of illustrations include the Siwalik Hills in India and Pakistan; a rich source of fossils from the Neogene era; and Folsom, New Mexico, an important site for evidence of big-game hunters in the Holocene. The end papers offer a “Panoramic View” of the site illustrations. What sets this book apart from other reference books on evolution is that it is not a textbook or an encyclopedia. It is rather a pictorial history of life on earth. Science writer Palmer and well-known illustrator Peter Barrett have teamed up to create an exciting record of life on earth. It will be a big hit in reference collections, circulating collections, or on coffee tables. --Jack O'Gorman
Review
"If time machines were real, this would be the book to carry on nature hikes into the distant past."--Natural History
"This beautiful volume is worthy of any collector's coffee table."--Library Journal
"An exciting record of life on earth."--Booklist
"Stunning . . a wonderful tribute 150 years after Darwin published his seminal work."--Wildlife Activist
"Overwhelming scope and depth. If not for yourself, and if not merely for the bizarrely reasonable price, I seriously recommend seeding the library."--American Paleontologist
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
25 of 29 people found the following review helpful
2.0 out of 5 stars
Not informative enough for a textbook, not pretty enough for a coffee table book
November 15, 2009
Format:Hardcover
You've all heard the saying don't judge a book by it's cover. Well, that's what I would say here. The cover (a dramatic shot of a mudskipper) is one of the best for any evolution book I've ever seen. Unfortunately, the contents inside the book are not as good. The book seems like it's trying to be both a biology textbook and coffee table book at the same time, but succeeds at neither. The artwork consists of less than impressive drawings of ancient life, compared to the visually stunning computer-generated images of ancient animals in Prehistoric Life: The Definitive Visual History of Life on Earth. The text doesn't make up for the lack of visual appeal since it mostly consists of a few small paragraphs running along the bottom of the page. The book does explain a few key concepts about evolution, but it never goes deep enough to satisfy more curious readers. For a good textbook, I'd recommend Carl Zimmer's The Tangled Bank: An Introduction to Evolution. For a coffee table book on the same subject, Prehistoric Life: The Definitive Visual History of Life on Earth's layout and pictures are better.
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
By Dino Dan
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
I found this book to be well-written and very nicely illustrated with a unique presentation. The illustrations strive to depict not just the lifeforms, but also the environments in which they lived. In addition, the illustrations, done in a 'traditional' medium opposed to CGI, also blend into each other, creating a mural effect.
Each featured time depicts the animals (and to lesser degree plants), relates climate, then-and-now locations, and data of noteworthy signifigance. The only aspect in which the book could be viewed as falling short is perhaps the brevity on entries. Much of the information on a given lifeform is usually a paragraph or so. Simply knowing the size of creature would've been nice. Some of the illustrations do appear a bit 'stiff', but overall I preferred this book's approach over the similar Prehistoric Life: Definitive Guide book. I purchased both, and I recommend doing so as well, as the two books compliment one another.
Each featured time depicts the animals (and to lesser degree plants), relates climate, then-and-now locations, and data of noteworthy signifigance. The only aspect in which the book could be viewed as falling short is perhaps the brevity on entries. Much of the information on a given lifeform is usually a paragraph or so. Simply knowing the size of creature would've been nice. Some of the illustrations do appear a bit 'stiff', but overall I preferred this book's approach over the similar Prehistoric Life: Definitive Guide book. I purchased both, and I recommend doing so as well, as the two books compliment one another.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
This book by Palmer and Barrett is the best graphic display of each evolutionary period of any book on the subject that I have reviewed. It has a timeline above each period with commentary and pictures of fossils. It provides the kind of overview that is needed in beautiful graphics. In addition, it has outstanding foldouts of important topics in evolution such as cladistics of each phyla, geological time scales, and important events in biological time.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Beautifully illustrated coffee table book
I don't understand the negative reviews for this book, which seem to criticize it for not being what the reviewer wanted it to be. Read more
Published on November 22, 2010 by Corraleno
1.0 out of 5 stars
Astonishing amount of typos
There are so many typos in this volume that very soon you wonder if any of the latin terms are spelled correctly, and how many factual flaws are concealed in the glossy pages.
Published on September 20, 2010 by Alexander Kaiser
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent intro to evolution
With its abundance of drawings and concise text this is a very interesting overview of sites and findings that underpin the theory of evolution (ToE). Read more
Published on February 15, 2010 by J. Mero
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great book
I thought the book overall was great in explaining evolution and the illustrations were well done and very informative. Read more
Published on January 24, 2010 by Carl
3.0 out of 5 stars
I rate this a little higher than TurtleDom does...but not much.
I just read the TurtleDom review, and he has some good points. The image on the cover is so stunning, it doesn't really prepare one for the comparitively unimpressive images... Read more
Published on December 28, 2009 by Greg
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