Russell, E. S. — The Diversity of Animals: An Evolutionary Study

Brill Leiden viii, 151, 47 text figs. . HB. 8vo, orig. cloth. Vg. From the library of Prof. J. Green (1928-2016) with his name to endpaper.. Acta Biotheoretica, Vol. 13, Suppl. 1. A wide-ranging study of animal diversity viewed through the principles of evolution. Russell brought together comparative anatomy, morphology, adaptation and classification to explain the relationships between the major animal groups and the development of their distinctive body plans. Published at a time when zoology was increasingly being interpreted through the modern evolutionary synthesis, the work forms an important bridge between traditional descriptive zoology and modern evolutionary biology. Although some of its classifications have since been revised by molecular research, it remains a valuable historical account of mid-twentieth-century zoological thought and comparative method..