Text for students taking a first course in invertebrate palaeontology. Early chapters deal with concepts and mechanisms of evolution, classifications of organisms and the value of fossils in deciphering Earth history and in mineral resource exploration. Exciting recent discoveries relating to the origin of life and the emergence of invertebrates are examined, before proceeding to a discussion of those invertebrates which have a rich fossil record. For each group the biology of a living relative is described before moving on to a description of its fossil representatives.