Provides an overview of the origin and evolution of life on earth and of what has been learned from the study of evolution.

Text about and photography of experiments, animals, plants, bones, and fossils reveal the ideas and discoveries that have changed our understanding of the natural world and how life began.

Relates the evolution of the family of mankind, from single cells in the sea to human beings with "big brains that wonder who we are."

Sifting through rich layers of scientific evidence, Dawkins' "The Greatest Show on Earth" is a stunning counterattack on advocates of "Intelligent Design," explaining the evidence for evolution while exposing the absurdities of the creationist "argument."

Describes the formation of planet Earth, from its beginnings as molten rock and poison gas, to the formation of oceans, to the evolution of life.

"In the style of When Bugs Were Big and When Fish Got Feet this book discusses all the exciting developments of the Triassic Age, from the split of Pangaea into Gondwanaland and Laurasia, to the first appearance of the dinosaurs. There were Pterosaurs (flying reptiles), the first flowering plants, humongous sea creatures, early turtles, and the first coral reefs. Early mammals also appeared in the Triassic, and there were several dramatic extinction...

"Based on a lifetime of pioneering research, preeminent naturalist Edward O. Wilson gives us a new history of human evolution, presented in an elegant and provocative narrative that promises to have reverberations in fields as diverse as anthropology and social psychology, neuroscience and 21st-century intellectual and religious history. Wilson begins by addressing three 'fundamental questions' of religion and philosophy that have fascinated thinkers...

Through the works of biologist and philosopher Ernst Haeckel, the role of the sea as the "outer space" of his time is explored. Based almost entirely on 19th-century scientific illustrations, paintings, and photographs brought to life through innovative animation, Proteus explores the undersea world through a complex tapestry of biology, oceanography, scientific history, poetry and myth.

"One of the master naturalists of our time" (American Scientist) reveals how evolutionary theory explains and affects not just the natural world but our society--and its future. Evolution has outgrown its original home in biology and geology. The Evolutionary World shows how evolution--descent with modification--is a concept that organizes, explains, and predicts a multitude of unconnected facts and phenomena. Adaptation plays a role not only in...