Over the past four billion years, life on our planet has evolved from microscopic single-celled organisms to the incredible array of flora and fauna today. In the course of this time, layer upon layer of life was buried in sediment, turning into a fossilised record of the planet's history. This highly-illustrated, large-format book looks at all the incredible things that scientists have learned from the fossil record, including the ways in which continents have drifted, merged and fragmented again; and the life forms that have evolved and the great extinction events that wiped them out.