“Addresses an important topic for biologists and zoologists about vertebrates’ place in the ‘grand scheme’ . . . genuinely witty and charming . . . magn

The first vertebrate animals appear in the fossil record over 520 million years ago. These lineages diversified and eventually crept ashore leading to further e

The vertebrate integument arose about 450 million years ago as an ‘armour’ of dermal bony plates in small, jawless fish-like creatures, informally known as

Chordate Origins and Evolution: The Molecular Evolutionary Road to Vertebrates focuses on echinoderms (starfish, sea urchins, and others), hemichordates (acorn