A clear, simple guide to early life and its remains 180 illustrations and photographs in full color Independent sections for quick and easy reference Life has existed on the Earth for hundreds of millions of years yet until the last century humanity was totally unaware of this immense time-span. It was the discovery of fossils and the realisation of their significance that finally helped Man begin to understand the past and the vast number of remarkable plants and animals that Once were alive. Fossils may be many different things: the outline of a fern in a piece of coal, the remains of an ancient sea creature, the footprint of an extinct dinosaur, a prehistoric man's flint axe-head. Each one helps us to discover a little more about the past. In this book, the author explains how fossils were created, how their age can be estimated from the geological strata in which they lie, and how to collect and prepare specimens. In addition, he describes how life evolved from simple single-celled organisms 3000 million years ago to the complex life-forms of recent times. Each of the major geological periods and the creatures that flourished then are described: the simple organisms of the Cambrian, the numerous fishes of the Devonian Era, the forests of the Carboni-ferous, the ascendancy of the dinosaurs in the Mesozoic Era, and the rise of the mammals and, later, Man in the Cainozoic and Quaternary Eras. Examples of fossils from each period are illus-trated, to give some impression of the diversity that exists. The text is accompanied by 180 photographs and illustrations to make this attractive book a valuable companion to anyone who is interested in the evolution of life.