Researchers and scientists have used branching tree diagrams to depict correlations between organisms for centuries. In Trees of Life, Theodore Pietsch compiles an impressive collection of these images to represent the evolution of the original family tree.
Early bracketed designs, like Francis Willughby's "Piscium Cartilagineorum Tabula" (a classification of cartilaginous fishes), exhibit the imagined order of life creation. Modern and meticulous pictorial phylogenies, such as "The Evolution of the Pineal Eye-Hole in Geologic Time," exemplify current scientific research into the evolution of organisms. Pietsch holds the diverse range of trees together with a cohesive timeline showing the development and transformation between these life system blueprints. He includes accompanying explanations of each diagram and a comprehensive glossary as well as end notes.
Trees of Life commemorates the tree as a visual representation of life; science buffs will revel in this dazzling forest of transformation. --Jen Forbus of Jen's Book Thoughts