Table of Contents

Contents; Acknowledgments; Abbreviations; 1.Introduction; 2.Skulls and Skeletons in Transition; 3.Relationships and Relatives: The Lobe-Fin Family; 4.Setting the Scene: The Devonian World; 5.The First Feet: Tetrapods of the Famennian; 6.From Fins to Feet: Transformation and Transition; 7.Emerging into the Carboniferous: The First Phase; 8.East Kirkton and the Roots of the Modern Family Tree; 9.The Late Carboniferous: Expanding Horizons; 10. Gaining Ground: The Evolution of Terrestriality

Reviews

"The journey our ancestors made from the sea to dry land is one of the greatest transformation in the history of life, and Gaining Ground documents it magnificently. This should come as no surprise, since Jennifer Clack has been revolutionising our understanding of this crucial evolutionary episode for years now. In Gaining Ground, she decodes a wonderful tale encrypted in fossils, genes, and flesh." --Carl Zimmer, author of At the Water's Edge "Clack does a fine job of shedding light on a key evolutionary transition that has received far too little attention. Her text is clear and her art is simple but effective at showing how fish transformed into the first amphibians. Highly recommended as a window on an often overlooked era."--New Scientist, 12 October 2002 " ... Gaining Ground presents a thorough if somewhat personal review of this controversial and dynamic subject in early vertebrate evolution."--Palaeontological Newsletter, Issue 56, 2004