Book description
The purpose of this book is to give a comprehensive picture of the evolution of the human body. This cannot, of course, be done by considering man alone. It must include the history of the whole group of creatures known as the verterbrates, or back-boned animals, to which man belongs. This involves not only the other warm-blooded hairy creatures to which man is closely allied, but such varied forms as birds, reptiles, frogs and salamanders, and fishes, for we cannot properly understand man, his body or mind, unless we understand his verterbrate ancestry.
Starting with the earliest verterbrates, this volume traces the main steps in the story of evolution from fish to man, and also deals with various groups of fihes, birds, reptiles, and mammals which are of interest but not closely related to human evolution.
