Rise of Fishes

John A. Long is the vice president of Research and Collections at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County. His numerous books include Prehistoric Mammals of Australia and New Guinea: One Hundred Million Years of Evolution and Palaeozoic Vertebrate Biostratigraphy and Biogeography, also published by Johns Hopkins.

• Foreword, by Philippe JanvierPreface to the Second EditionAcknowledgments1. Earth, Rocks, Evolution, and Fish2. Glorified Swimming Worms: The First Fishes3. Jawless Wonders4. Armored Fishes and Fishes with Arms5. Sharks and Their Cartilaginous Kin6. Spiny-Jawed Fishes7. An Epiphany of Evolution8. Primitive Ray-Finned Fishes9. Teleosteans, the Champions10. The Ghost Fish and Other Primeval Predators11. Strangers in the Bite: Dipnomorphans12. Big Teeth, Strong Fins13. The Greatest Step in EvolutionA Classification of FishesGlossaryBibliographyIndex

Anyone wanting an overview of '500 million years of evolution' of fish and aquatic creatures really needs to read this acclaimed text. It is the work of Australian palaeontologist and curator John A. Long, who works at the Natural History Museum in Los Angeles. This is a second edition incorporating research from the past 15 years. This is not a work of popular science. It is a richly illustrated technical book that will be of interest to anyone wanting to know about fish before they crawled out of the oceans and started the long journey from amphibians to mammals. Sydney Morning Herald 2011