One of the most significant and revolutionary developments in the history of life was the evolution of the multi-cellular organisms. Almost all the life that we can see with a naked eye is multi-cellular, including the vast majority of animals. The unique biology of multi-cellular organisms required the development of the means for creating a whole organism from a single (germ) cell. The process of achieving this complicated goal is the developmental biology.

This very short introduction to developmental biology is very detailed and exhaustive, or at least as exhaustive as this format would permit. The book covers both the animal and plant developmental biology, but the accent is definitely on animals. This is somewhat understandable since animal development is much more fascinating and complex, but I wish there had been more information on plant growth and development. The book contains many illustrations and images that help you visualize various aspects of an organism’s development, as well as compare the developments across the species.

The sheer amount of information and specialized biology jargon on each page of this book makes this a very thorough and informative read. Unfortunately, this also means that this book is not terribly accessible to a general reader. In my estimation a year of college-level biology (or the equivalent) would be the minimal prerequisite for being able to wade through this introduction. The book also doesn’t provide a lot of explanation of why certain developmental features and processes occur. In other words, there are plenty of answers to “what?” and “how?” types of questions, but not enough answers to the “why?” inquiries. Part of this is due to the fact that the best (or perhaps the only) way to understand anything in biology is from an evolutionary perspective, but the chapter on evolution in this VSI is rather brief and relegated to the end of the book. Overall, however, this is a very well written book and if you don’t mind investing the time and effort you can learn a lot by reading it.