Benton manages to write a thorough text on various vertebrate groups and their evolutionary trends, mentioning specific important species and basic morphology without making the book as dry as a bone. As one can always state about books that are overviews, one could wish for more thorough coverage of personal groups of interest, but as an overview, this is a great book. The diagrams and phylogenetic charts are very helpful, and the case studies that are provided in offset boxes are very interesting.

One major complaint about the book is the number of typos and mislabeled diagrams...it can become rather confusing. I have taken a pen to the book and with careful reading, re-reading and cross referencing, have corrected the errors in my own copy to save me the brain strain...but on the whole, this book does what one would want from it. ( )