Gaining Ground: The Origin and Early Evolution of Tetrapods

by Jennifer A. Clack

Around 370 million years ago, a distant relative of a modern lungfish began the most exciting adventure the world had ever it emerged from the water and laid claim to the land. Over the next 70 million years, this tentative beachhead became a worldwide colonization by an ever-increasing variety of four-limbed life. These first ""tetrapods"" are the ancestors of all vertebrate life on land. Gaining Ground tells the rich and complex story of their emergence and evolution. Beginning with their closest relatives, the lobefin fishes such as lungfishes and coelacanths, Jennifer A. Clack defines the characteristics of tetrapods, describing their anatomy and explaining how they are related to other vertebrates. Clack looks at the Devonian environment in which tetrapods evolved, describes the known species, and explores the order and timing of anatomical changes that occurred during the fish-to-tetrapod transition. She reports that older ideas about the transition are being overturned by recent discoveries and new ideas about evolutionary change. Following the story through the Carboniferous period, she shows how the evolution of terrestrial characters occurred several times, convergently, among different groups.

Genres: Science, Biology, Evolution, Palaeontology, Nonfiction, Natural History

400 pages, Hardcover

First published May 23, 2002

Reviews

[Mel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very challenging read. Originally I had bought this book just as I was entering university. All the terminology is difficult for someone who's had comparatively limited experience with this level of anatomy. This is a textbook for an upper-level biology course do not be mistaken. Read at your own risk. I found it easier to comprehend, however, after studying neuroscience and understood what the author meant when it comes to positions on the skull for example. Didn't change that this was a very dense read though.

Very informative. I recommend for those who have a background in biology (with a focus on anatomy or animal adjacent specialization). If you are not familiar with medical-level terminology I suggest picking up a book about it first before reading this. Similarly, if you don't have a background at all in biology pick up a gen bio book first.

[Rebecca Lyons · Rating 4 out of 5]

More a book for undergraduate or graduate students majoring in this area, rather than a popular science book. Very comprehensive and technical, but full of fascinating information.

[Ogi Ogas · Rating 5 out of 5]

My ratings of books on Goodreads are solely a crude ranking of their utility to me, and not an evaluation of literary merit, entertainment value, social importance, humor, insightfulness, scientific accuracy, creative vigor, suspensefulness of plot, depth of characters, vitality of theme, excitement of climax, satisfaction of ending, or any other combination of dimensions of value which we are expected to boil down through some fabulous alchemy into a single digit.

[Emily · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brought for personal interest in tetrapods and their evolution and now I’m definitely hooked! The diagrams are really helpful as the writing is for someone studying palaeontology instead of just a popular science book. That has made it really helpful for my university course though and allows me to use it as a reference so love it!

[Matthew · Rating 4 out of 5]

I skimmed some of the more detailed anatomical analyses, but still enjoyed this thorough study of a fascinating topic.

[Stefan Verch · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent read. Highly technical but a fascinating insight into the origin of vertebrate life on land.