Coragyps/Andya,
Trilobite! was by Richard Fortey.
I'm on chapter 3 of Gaining Ground, what did you think? Personally I find the monograph stuff heavy going & dry (why this should surprise me I'll never know), but the discussion is fascinating. Being just published it's obviously bang up to date, & I was surprised to learn that the words "crossopterygian" & "rhipidistan" have fallen into disuse because newer evidence shows the groups to be paraphyletic. Early days, but this is looking like a seminal work, IMO. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone new to palaeontology or evolution, though, it's very jargonny, despite Clacks best efforts. I suspect this the sort of thing Andya is looking for, though, basically everything there is to know about fish to tetrapod evolution, all bang up to date, it's main detraction for the casual reader would be the advanced nature of the material.
To answer Andya's question, I would go for something simpler. The problem with the books written on the subject, is that they assume a high level of biological knowledge in the first place, even the basic ones. When I get into a subject I kick off with a "basic" introduction into the subject, then build up, I sense you want something that starts simple & builds up to the edge of human knowledge, a "one stop answer", I fear no such thing exists. People interested will have to read several books on the subject to become
au fait.
I would recommend to Andya,
Basic Palaeontology, by Michael Benton & David Harper. ISBN 0-582-22857-3 (342). I'm not sure it's what you need, but it would be a good introduction for yourself. A more advanced text (in terms of assumed knowledge), but in many ways more readable (simply by virtue of identifying with vertebrates rather than some squidgy extinct marine thingy!), is
Vertebrate Palaeontology By Michael J Benton ISBN 0-632-05614-2 (450 pages).
If anyone has any other good palaeontology books, I'm always on the lookout, so don't be shy
.
Mark
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Occam's razor is not for shaving with.