Valuable popular account by a respected scientific journalist to a subject which has been invigorated by technical advances in molecular and developmental biology. Before the Backbone is a valuable resource for students (both advanced undergraduates and graduates), as well as lecturers and researchers.
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- The origins of vertebrates
- Head to head
- Jefferies' calcichordate theory
- Conclusions
"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