596.04

This is an informational book about the skeletons of humans, insects, and other animals divided into many chapters and subchapters. This book would be useful when doing a lesson on the human body, or the bodies of some animals such as sharks, birds, and deer.

This work offers offers an excellent introduction to the skeletons of humans and other animals, in a non-technical form accessible to both younger and older readers. Although the book focuses on the backboned animals, invertebrates do not go unnoticed. Skeletons are explored in terms of their functional and evolutionary diversity. Thus, we see in full page spreads the skeletal features of major groups of animals (birds, mammals, etc.), followed by functional diversity of individual components -- skulls, teeth, limb bones, shoulder blades (scapulae), backbones, and so on. The human skeleton gets special attention, in terms of its components, joint types, and comparison to other primates.

One major strength of the book is its stunning photographs and other visuals. The author has sought out illustrative examples to demonstrate the diversity of adaptations for feeding, locomotion, and protection that have evolved among animals.

Originally published by DK, this book was published in the US as an item in the Eyewitness Series. Skeleton is unique for its accessible and entertaining presentation of the diversity of animal skeletons, and is suitable for non-technical audiences as well as students of comparative anatomy. ( )