Animals Without Backbones has been considered a classic among biology textbooks since it was first published
to great acclaim in 1938. It was the first biology text book ever reviewed by Time and was also featured with illustrations
in Life. Harvard, Stanford, the University of Chicago, and more than eighty other colleges and univerisities adopted
it for use in courses. Since then, its clear explanations and ample illustrations have continues to intoduce hundreds
of thousands of students and general readers around the world to jellyfishes, corals, flatworms, squids, starfishes,
spiders, grasshoppers, and the other invertebrates that make up ninety-seven percent of the animal kingdom.
This new edition has been completely written and redesigned, but it retains the same clarity and careful scholarship
that have earned this book its continuing readership many new drawings and photographs. Informative, concise legends
that form an integral part of the text accompany the illustrations. The text has been updated to include findings
from recent research. Eschewing pure morphology, the authors use each group of animals to introduce one or more
biological principles.
In recent decades, courses and texts on invertebrate zoology at many universities have been available only for
advanced biology majors specializing in this area. The Third Edition of Animals Without Backbones remains an ideal
introduction to invertebrates for lower-level biology majors, nonmajors, students in paleontology and other related
fields, junior college and advanced high school students, and the general reader who pursues the rewarding study
of the natural world.