This 1911 volume describes chief groups in the animal kingdom and traces some of the main streams of animal evolution.Geoffrey Smith's Primitive Animals, which was first published in 1911 as part of the Cambridge Manuals of Science and Literature series, contains an account of the chief groups in the animal kingdom and the evidence by which some of the main streams of animal evolution can be traced.Geoffrey Smith's Primitive Animals, which was first published in 1911 as part of the Cambridge Manuals of Science and Literature series, contains an account of the chief groups in the animal kingdom and the evidence by which some of the main streams of animal evolution can be traced.Originally published during the early part of the twentieth century, the Cambridge Manuals of Science and Literature were designed to provide concise introductions to a broad range of topics. They were written by experts for the general reader and combined a comprehensive approach to knowledge with an emphasis on accessibility. Geoffrey Smith's Primitive Animals, which was first published in 1911, contains an account of the chief groups in the animal kingdom and the evidence by which some of the main streams of animal evolution can be traced.Preface; 1. The animal kingdom; 2. The simplest animals and plants and the origin of life; 3. The appendiculate phylum; 4. Embryonic and larval histories; 5. The ancestry of the vertebrates; 6. The origin of the land vertebrates; 7. The rise of the mammalia; 8. Reflections on the past and future of animal life; Appendix A. Classification of the chief animal phyla; Appendix B. A table of the chief geological epochs; Index.