Product Description

Armored fishes and monster sharks, fishes with arms and fishes that breathe air--these and many other strange creatures are part of the remarkable story told in this book. In The Rise of Fishes, John Long traces the evolutionary history of fishes over the course of 500 million years, describes the discovery of extraordinary fossil remains, and explains the techniques used in their interpretation. Featuring more than 300 color illustrations, the book includes photographs of fossils from around the world as well as the author's dramatic color illustrations of what the fish may have actually looked like.

Long tells the story of how these creatures lived and developed and why their rise from the waters of the archaic seas and rivers onto land was so momentous an event in the evolution of life on earth. He combines current scientific information with entertaining stories about his own field work in Australia, Thailand, Vietnam, and Antarctica. Detailed, accessible, and lavishly illustrated, The Rise of Fishes is a book for anyone with an interest in evolution, fossils, or fish.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2409592 in Books
• Published on: 1995-04-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 224 pages

Review
Current scientific information blends with stories of the scientist author's own field work research around the world to present an intriguing, college-level exploration of the rise of fishes around the world. 500 million years of evolution are charted in a fine coverage which includes excellent, high-quality color illustrations to compliment a strong expose. -- Midwest Book Review

Review

"A great deal of background information and, above all, hundreds of superb photographs and drawings. One could almost take this for a coffee-table book at first glance, so profusely and well is it illustrated... This book is not just a scientific and educational tool; it is also a visual celebration of the glories of biological diversity as seen in the fossil record. It will come as a surprise to many who have not realized how far the paleontology of early vertebrates has progressed or experienced the depth of evolutionary information available from fossils. And, best of all, there is clearly more to come." -- Nature

"[Long] enlivens his account with tales from his extensive field work... Exceptionally lucid and comprehensively illustrated." -- New Scientist

"Scholarly, but very readable." -- D. Moskowitz, Northeastern Naturalist

About the Author

John A. Long is curator of vertebrate palaeontology at the Western Australian Museum in Perth. An established authority in palaeontology and ichthyology, he is the editor of Palaeozoic Vertebrate Biostratigraphy and Biogeography, which is also available from Johns Hopkins.

Customer Reviews

Fossil fish with a slight "Aussie" bias.
John A. Long, a vertebrate paleontologist in Perth, is proud of the fossil record found in Austrialia. In this book he presents a manageable overview, encompassing 500 million years of fish evolution, with some interesting anecdotes about his own research. Long is a talented writer and brilliant scientific educator with a gentle, but obvious, bias towards the "land down under". The Rise of Fishes is well organized and beautifully illustrated. Photography of fossil specimens and locations is artfully presented. The chapters on lungfish development and tetrapod evolution (independent of one another) are easily understood and well documented sections. It's certainly one of the most visually compelling reference books available for the amateur fossil hunter or professional icthyologist/vertebrate paleontologist.

An authorative synopsis of the evolution of fishes downunder
John Long presents a beautifully illustrated summary of the 500 million year evolution of arguably the most successful of the chordate faunas. If you have found the exclusion of Australian fishes from general texts on marine evolution irritating, then you'll be pleased at the wealth of information and photograph's on Australian - Gondwanaland - fishes that is contained within these pages. John is vertebrate curator at the West Australian Museum, has published over 80 scientific papers, and is author of the book "Dinosaurs of Australia and New Zealand ...". If you are a professional Paleontologist, or aspire to be, or an enthusiastic fossil-hunter, then this book is cumpulsory reading. Order it today!

A FASCINATING JOURNEY BACK THROUGH TIME
Curator of vertebrate paleontology at the Western Australian Museum in Perth, Western Australia, John A. Long is a thoughtful scholar. He writes in his introduction, "The story of fishes through time is also the story of changing continents and climates, devastating mass extinctions, and changing faunas and floras."

So begins a fascinating journey back through our planet's distant ages to begin the story of the evolution of fishes - the first creatures to have a skeleton. Armosred fishes, monster sharks, fishes with arms and fishes that breathe are all characters in this ongoing panorama of life then and now.

Some 220 vibrant color photographs plus numerous color drawings and black and white photos enhance this meticulously prepared volume.

For those with an interest in evolution, fossils or fish, The Rise of Fishes is not to be missed.

- Gail Cooke