This book provides practical morphological information, together with detailed illustrations and brief explanatory texts. Each chapter starts with a brief introduction, and goes on to describe the respective organism’s morphology in detail through numerous illustrations. This is followed by a brief note on its classification, and concludes with illustrated examples of stratigraphically important organisms through time with their major distinguishing characteristics. Featuring over 2500 clearly labelled, hand-drawn and classroom-friendly illustrations, the book offers a fundamental resource for budding palaeontologists, petroleum geologists and palaeobiologists.

Protozoa; Porifera; Coelenterata; Ctenophora; Worm phyla; Annelida; Bryozoa; Polyzoa; Phoronida; Brachiopoda; Mollusca; Annelida; Onychophora; Arthopoda; Echinoderma; Hemichordata; Conodontophoridia.

Extensively revised, this edition contains a new treatment of evolution theory, new classifications of certain groups which are illustrated in range charts, and many new photographs and illustrations.