This is an outstanding book. Donald Prothero has put together an extremely comprehensive account of the fossil record as it stands today. There are chapters on the origin of life; prokaryote development; microfossils; the evolution of the backbone and the first vertebrates; the transition from fish to tetrapods; from primitive tetrapods to amniotes; the evolution of dinosaurs and from avian dinosaurs to birds; from primitive synapsids to mammals; and the evolution of humans.

Each chapter lists the many transitional fossils in each group - over the last couple of decades, the fossil record has increased substantially to provide excellent transitional forms for many groups and species - as well as corroborating evidence from molecular biology. Some species have such a complete transitional fossil record - the whale for example - that they merit sections of the book all to themselves.

But there is much more than that in this book. The first part of the book deals with the nature of science and the importance of the scientific method. He explains how fossilisation occurs, and how rocks are dated. He outlines the evolution of evolutionary biology itself, from before Darwin up to the latest uses of the cladistic model of evolutionary heritage and DNA analysis.

Prothero also gives an account of the history of the creationist movement in America, giving a damning appraisal of the pseudo-science of "flood geology" and "intelligent design", and clearly demonstrating exactly where and why creationists distort, lie about, or just ignore, evidence for evolution. He pulls no punches in his portrayal of them, nor in his obvious disgust for their intentions to disrupt science education. I cannot recommend this book highly enough - it is extremely well written, and full of fascinating and meticulously researched facts. It should be required reading for all.