Milestones of Evolution-Laminated

Description

This exciting new poster provides a comprehensive overview of vertebrate evolution in accordance with the new cladistics system, which it introduces. The most important evolved characteristics are shown and explained as the "Milestones of Vertebrate Evolution.

These provide the foundation for grouping similar animals together into "clades,."

The main design is an "Evolution Tree," which is a stylized cladogram. It shows and identifies all of the major clades. The "tree" design shows how each branched off from earlier ones and other relationships. Each of the milestones is predominately marked on the tree as they are the basis for the most important clades.

The Evolution Tree is superimposed over a geological time chart. The branches show how milestones resulted in new groups of animals. The position of the branches shows how animals are related. The beginning, end and length of each branch shows when they lived, and, the thickness of branches provides a symbolic representation of the relative abundance or scarcity of those animals during each period of geological time.

Insets provide a wealth of additional information about related subjects. These include an introduction to geological time, the dangers of unchecked evolution, the impact of mass extinctions, adaptive radiation and how various types of animals dominated the earth at various times. The evolution tree dramatically shows the impact of the mass extinctions and the animals that radiated as a result of them. This posters shows around 116 different species positioned to show the results of evolutionary milestones. Collectively they provide an incredible overview of the diversity of prehistoric animals. The linage of each group can be followed forward or backward in time. The design makes it easy to see the mix of animals that lived at various times. Dr. Robert Reisz, vertebrate paleontology at the University of Toronto is a pioneer in cladistics. He was the consultant on this poster, along with Alan Kazlev, webmaster of palaeo.com.

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