The history of life through more than 500 million years is recorded by fossils. From trace fossils (covered in the companion book "Trace Fossil Analysis) we learn about the behaviour of animals that moved on or within the sediment. Body fossils cover a broader spectrum; but they usually preserve only hard parts and commonly belong to groups of organisms that have become extinct long ago. Based on what we know from modern biology, the shapes of these remains can be interpreted as evolutionary compromises between functional requirements (paradigm) and the constraints imposed by heritage (bauplan), fabrication (biomaterials and morphogenetic processes) and environment. The post-mortem (taphonomic) overprint contained in every fossil must also be removed.
The first part of the book discusses the principles of this approach, while the second part applies them to a broad range of case histories referring to fossil as well as modern invertebrates in systematic order.