Before The Backbone
Buy it now from the
USA
or
UK.
Also available in Japanese.
"[The] problem of the origin of the vertebrates
remains an important one for the simple reason
that many zoologists have tried to solve it and all have
failed.
What makes this failure especially interesting is that
over the past 150 years
someone, somewhere, has probably hit on the answer:
it is just that he has been unable to convince all his
colleagues of it.
Henry Gee has written an excellent book explaining why
this is so."
-- Armand LeRoi in the London Review of Books.
"Gee's scholarly treatment of all theories of vertebrate
origins is admirable.
The central themes of each theory are clearly and simply
outlined and placed
within a historical context that allows a naive reader
to trace the genesis of these
ideas and to appreciate how they still constrain our thinking.
The treatment is sufficiently rich, however, to delight
even
veteran readers of the literature and to provide new insights
into the
complexities of vertebrate origins and theories of same."
-- R. Glenn Northcutt in Science.
"Before the Backbone is warmly recommended to professional
biologists
and palaeontologists, historians of science,
lecturers, students and even amateur zoologists."
-- Philippe Janvier in Nature.
"A thorough, scholarly and highly readable book which
will become a classic."
-- H. D. Jones in the Zoological Journal of the Linnean
Society.
"In dealing with this often dense subject, Gee adopts
a breezy, light-handed but sure style."
-- Keith Stewart Thomson in
Paleobiology. (See
full review
here)
"A major strength is the discussion of the older embryological/morphological
and the latest molecular/genetic evidence. Gee explicitly
resists erecting
his own scheme but does a masterly job of evaluating everyone
else's.
Upper-division undergraduates through professionals."
-- Brian K. Hall.
"Henry Gee has admirably mastered a formidable library
of
scattered reference to bring this timely book together...
Palaeontologists, zoologists and geneticists should
read this book and learn from it".
-- Endeavour
"The book is a true mine of information"
-- Ethology Ecology & Evolution
"Before the Backbone is certainly a valuable addition
to my bookshelf,
and I commend it to all of those interested in vertebrates
in particular
or in metazoan phylogeny as a whole."
-- Geological Magazine
