2009 Outstanding Academic Title, ChoiceHonorable Mention, Biological
and Life Sciences, 2009 PROSE Awards, Professional and Scholarly
Publishing division of the Association of American Publishers
For nearly 100 million years, amphibians and their ancestors dominated
the terrestrial and shallow water environments of the earth. Archaic
animals with an amphibious way of life gave rise not only to modern
frogs, salamanders, and caecilians but also to the ancestors of
reptiles, birds, and mammals. In this landmark publication, one of the
leading paleontologists of our time explores a pivotal moment in
vertebrate evolution, the rise of amphibians.
Synthesizing findings from the rich and highly diverse fossil record of
amphibians, Robert Carroll traces their origin back 365 million years,
when particular species of fish traveled down an evolutionary pathway of
fin modification that gave rise to legs. This period of dramatic
radiation was followed by a cataclysmic extinction 250 million years
ago. After a long gap, modern amphibian groups gradually emerged. Now
the number of amphibian species and individuals throughout the tropical
and temperate regions of the earth exceeds that of mammals.
The Rise of Amphibians is documented with more than two hundred
illustrations of fossil amphibians and sixteen exquisite color plates
depicting amphibians in their natural habitats throughout their long
existence. The most comprehensive examination of amphibian evolution
ever produced, The Rise of Amphibians is an essential resource for
paleontologists, herpetologists, geologists, and evolutionary
biologists.
