PREFACE This book is based on a series of programmes made*tbr BBC Television. It and they are sequels to an earlier series and book entitled Life on Earth. That project attempted to describe the way in which animals and plants developed on this planet over the past three thousand million years and traced the rise of different groups of animals which culminated in the expansion of the mammals and ultimately the appearance of man. This new book surveys the situation as it is today. It examines the manner in which the survivors of ancient groups as well as the representatives of newly-evolved ones have together colonised and adapted to the great variety of environments that exist on earth. Here and there， the two narratives may overlap slightly， but the variety of animals and plants is so immense that I have been able， in most instances， to illustrate such episodes with species other than those described in the earlier book. I have retained the same style as before， avoiding as far as possible technical scientific terms and not encumbering the text with Latin names. However， the index has been compiled to serve as a glossary in which each organism is given not only a page reference but also its scientific name， so a reader who wishes to know precisely what family， genus or species is being referred to can discover by looking it up in the index. The book was written at the same time as the programmes were being filmed. The one is not， therefore， the direct descendant of the other. Rather the two are cousins， both descended from the same body of research and years of travel. They therefbre have the sort of differences and likenesses that you might expect from such a relation- ship. I hope the one may enhance the other.
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