Fossils The Key to the Past

About this book

Fossils: The Key to the Past is the Natural History Museum's classic introduction to fossils. It provides a comprehensive guide to all aspects of fossils and their use in reconstructing the history of life on Earth.

Written by world leading palaeontologist Richard Fortey and extensively illustrated in full colour throughout, this new edition has been fully updated to include the most recent research into the fossil record and the latest fossil finds.

Contents

Preface

Chapter 1: Buried in the rocks
Chapter 2: Time and change
Chapter 3: Rocks and fossils
Chapter 4: Recognising fossils
Chapter 5: Reviving fossils
Chapter 6: Origin of life
Chapter 7: Extinction & evolution
Chapter 8: Human evolution
Chapter 9: Fossil DNA
Chapter 10: Uses of fossils
Chapter 11: Making a collection

Further information
Glossary
Index

Customer Reviews

Biography

Richard Fortey was a senior palaeontologist at the Natural History Museum. He is the author of several books including The Hidden Landscape which won the Natural World Book of the Year in 1993, Life: An Unauthorised Biography which was short-listed for the Rhone Poulenc Prize in 1998, and Trilobite: Eye Witness to Evolution, short-listed for one of Britain's top literary awards, the Samuel Johnson Prize. Richard's latest book Dry Store Room No. 1: The Secret Life of the Natural History Museum was published in January 2008. Richard lives in Oxford, UK.