Customer Reviews

Vertebrate Life (6th Edition)

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Vertebrate Life would serve as an excellent upper-level college textbook to anyone interested in becoming informed about vertebrates. Professionally, I am a physicist, who after visiting the American Museum of Natural History's Hall of Vertebrates, wanted to learn more about the subject. Even after reading Vertebrate Life, I don't think that I could point out the squamate bone on a fossilized skull. On the other hand, with 733 pages, it is unfair to critize this book about a lack of coverage! The authors provide several pages of excellent references at the end of each chapter. So, if I really wanted to be able to identify a squamate bone, I'm sure that I could have found out from one of references. However, I was troubled by a number of typos, some of the them serious. Figure 15-3 appears to have the second half of the figure repeated as the first half. It would have been nice to see missing illustrations. Figure 3-6b identifies the Otic capsule as "Optic capsule" at one point. This confused me for a while. Even with all this, I was fascinated by what I read, and read the entire book, cover to cover, all 733 pages worth. For the serious student of our natural world, I would recommend spending full price for this book, and plan on spending more than a few hours with it.

As the product description hints, this text is organized around the evolutionary innovations that gave rise to modern (and extinct) vertebrate lineages. The narrative style of the chapters, with names like "Living on Land" and "Ectothermy: A Low-Cost Approach to Life" makes a potentially bewildering array of material very approachable. While this book relies somewhat heavily (as it probably should) on cladograms, these are well-explained in the text--few taxa are represented on a phylogeny and then left hanging as loose ends, and the various defining innovations are clearly described.

I purchased this book (actually the International Edition, which did not differ in any way except the cover from the more expensive version), for a Natural History of the Vertebrates class in the fall of 2010 at NMSU, and it provided a good backdrop for the lectures and discussions. I have no intention of reselling it; it is a truly great reference to keep on hand. One very minor gripe: the photographs are all black-and-white, and the drawings and other figures are represented only in various shades of blue. This was not a real problem, and completely understandable given the price of the edition I bought, but, as others have said, such a book really ought to have some color photos in it at the price it goes for.

I actually purchased the UCLA soft cover version of this book, which is just as good as the hardcover and even less expensive. In terms of content, the book is an excellent summary of the topic.

The book arrived on time. It was in the condition that was advertised. The book was reasonably priced compared to others.

M. Karr. Sigh..... Are you so dense that you would damage the efforts of gifted academics such as Ms. Janis because you have an issue with the publisher? I mean, do you think that Ms. Janis is actively consulted in their ostensibly heinous marketing maneuvers? Have you ever considered that a good book might be owned by a greedy publisher?

This is the second time I have purchased a textbook for my son who is at university. Even with the shipping costs, the text is generally quite a bit cheaper than what he would pay at the university.
It came promptly and was new, so in excellent shape.
He still has 2 years of study left before he gets his degree, so we will be using Amazon to look for any other texts books he may need.
We have reccomended Amazon to all his friends.
Thank you,
F. McQuiggin
Winnipeg, Canada

Unless this book is specifically required by a class in which you're currently enrolled, you should NOT buy this book! I bought this book, but when I went to their website to download the web content, Pearson told me that ONLY qualified employed instructors were allowed to not only look at the content, but download it as well. This INCLUDES ALL OF THE COLOUR PHOTOGRAPHS FROM THE BOOK. They published the book in two-colour ink, black and blue, to save on costs by providing the colour images from their website. You will not be given access to these colour images by the publishers!!! In my opinion, this publisher is just ripping off people's money, and giving them a misrepresented product which is inferior in quality. If you have a choice of which vertebrate zoology text to buy, DO NOT BUY ONE FROM PEARSON PUBLISHING!!! They're still giving me the runaround just to even LOOK at the pictures from this textbook which I already purchased($>100!!!). I may end up returning it if no resolution is reached!!!