Ever since the dawn of life on Earth, about 3.6 billion years ago, there has been a close relationship between the planet's transformations and the evolution of living organisms that have colonised the continents. In certain periods, life may have been on the verge of vanishing from the face of the Earth, but such "biological crises" were followed by phases of evolutionary explosion and emergence of new species. This book outlines the main periods of this long history, from the advent of multicellular organisms in the seas to the conquest of dry land by plants, from the dominion of reptiles to the arrival of modern fauna and Homo Sapiens.

Raffaele Sardella is a paleontologist and researcher at "La Sapienza" University in Rome.