Cover -- Halftitle -- Title -- Copyright -- Dedication -- Contents -- Preface -- One How Can We Reconstruct Evolutionary History? -- Classification and Biological Nomenclature -- Modern Phylogenetics -- Homology and Analogy: Lungs, Swim Bladders, and Gills -- Geological Time Scale and the Chronology of a Few Key Events -- A Few Relevant Paleontological Localities -- Two Conquest of Land: Data from Extant Vertebrates -- Are Animals Still Conquering the Land Today? -- The Coelacanth, a Living Fossil? -- Dipnoans: Our Closest Extant Finned Cousins -- Reproduction among Tetrapods: Amphibians Are Not All Amphibious! -- Three Paleontological Context -- The Conquest of Land in Various Taxa -- The History of Our Ideas about the Conquest of Land by Vertebrates -- The Lateral-Line Organ and the Lifestyle of Paleozoic Stegocephalians -- Four Vertebrate Limb Evolution -- The Vertebrate Skeleton -- Hox Genes and the Origin of Digits -- Sarcopterygian Fins and the Origin of Digits -- Fragmentary Fossils, Phylogeny, and the First Digits -- The Gills of Acanthostega and the Original Function of the Tetrapod Limb -- Bone Microanatomy and Lifestyle -- Five Diversity of Paleozoic Stegocephalians -- Temnospondyls -- Embolomeres -- Seymouriamorphs -- Amphibians -- Diadectomorphs -- Amniotes -- Stegocephalian Phylogeny -- Six Adaptations to Life on Land -- Limbs and Girdles -- Vertebral Centrum and Axial Skeleton -- Breathing -- The Skin and Water Exchange -- Sensory Organs -- Seven Synthesis and Conclusion -- Conquest of Land and the First Returns to the Aquatic Environment -- Why Come onto Land? -- Modern Paleontology and the "Indiana Jones" Stereotype -- Glossary -- Bibliography -- Index.