In this attractively illustrated volume, eminent biologist Sir Richard Southwood offers a remarkable survey of life in all its forms, ranging from the earliest single-celled bacteria, to the evolution and extinction of animals such as the dinosaurs, to the variety of life today.

The book follows the major geological periods--such as the Cambrian, Ordovician, Silurian, and Devonian--explaining how great planetary changes such as the movement of the continents, the rising and falling of sea level, and the periods of glaciation, affected the forms of life on Earth. Beginning with the earliest and simplest forms of life, Southwood discusses such amazing creatures as bacteria that live around geysers and thermal vents and can survive in boiling water. He explains how the development of skeletons triggered the Cambrian Explosion, when animals such as trilobites, sea scorpions, shellfish, cephalopods first spread around the earth. He also examines such landmarks of evolution as the appearance of eggs in shells and of insects in flight. We read about the great dinosaurs and the arrival of the mammals and the primates, and the great extinctions, including the Permian (the largest in fossil history, wiping out 95% of animals) and the Cretaceous/Tertiary (K/T) extinction (the one that wiped out the dinosaurs). Southwood concludes by examining the impact of humanity on Earth, considering if we ourselves might not unleash the next major extinction.

Southwood's love for his subject, for the life he describes so vividly, shines through this carefully crafted story. Generously illustrated with line drawings showing the fauna and flora of the Earth, both past and present, The Story of Life will enthrall anyone interested in nature and natural history.

"This remarkable book succeeds, within less than 300 pages, in summarizing everything essential about all living creatures for more than three billion years. If you are looking for one convenient, reliable, highly readable reference to replace your whole library, this is it."--Jared Diamond

"Besides being a gripping yarn, The Story of Life is an impeccable review of the science."--Lynn Dicks, New Scientist

"Extremely few living scientists would be able to cover the entire history of life authoritatively, with wisely chosen examples and principles, presented in lucid prose, and all in fewer than 260 well-illustrated pages. Richard Southwood is one of them, has done so, and I accordingly recommend this book to scientists and public alike."--E O Wilson

In this volume, one of India's foremost political scientists offers a richly detailed and critical analysis of Indian politics in the fifty years since independence. Using a variety of genres--essays, book reviews, commentaries and journal entries--Partha Chatterjee scans the entire period

from the Nehru era through the through the regimes of Indira and Rajiv Gandhi to the present. He attempts to develop a true perspective on democracy in India, not in the cliche-ridden sense of government of, by, and for the people, but as politics of the governed.

Sir Richard Southwood FRS is former head of Imperial College and Oxford's Zoology Departments as well as ex-Vice-Chancellor of Oxford University. He is co-author of Ecological Methods, which is widely considered the ecologist's bible.

Introduction

Special chemistry

A quick start

Jellyfish, polyps, and worms?

Clawas, rasps, and shells

Sand, mud, and shallow seas

The giant continent forms

A sparse start

The world of the dinosaurs

Today's world dawns

The evolution of the able ape

Humans - the great modifiers

Further reading

Acknowledgements

Index