Review "This remarkable book succeeds, within less than 300 pages, in summarizing everything essential about all living creatures for more than three billion years. If you are looking for one convenient, reliable, highly readable reference to replace your whole library, this is it."--Jared Diamond "Besides being a gripping yarn, The Story of Life is an impeccable review of the science."--Lynn Dicks, New Scientist "Extremely few living scientists would be able to cover the entire history of life authoritatively, with wisely chosen examples and principles, presented in lucid prose, and all in fewer than 260 well-illustrated pages. Richard Southwood is one of them, has done so, and I accordingly recommend this book to scientists and public alike."--E O Wilson Product Description In this attractively illustrated volume, eminent biologist Sir Richard Southwood offers a remarkable survey of life in all its forms, ranging from the earliest single-celled bacteria, to the evolution and extinction of animals such as the dinosaurs, to the variety of life today. The book follows the major geological periods--such as the Cambrian, Ordovician, Silurian, and Devonian--explaining how great planetary changes such as the movement of the continents, the rising and falling of sea level, and the periods of glaciation, affected the forms of life on Earth. Beginning with the earliest and simplest forms of life, Southwood discusses such amazing creatures as bacteria that live around geysers a