"The erythrocyte presents morphologic, cytochemical and quantitative adaptations as it progresses through its evolutionary continuum. The text can be considered a comprehensive monograph regarding the erythrocyte in birds which explores the evolutionary relationship of the avian erythrocyte with the erythrocytes of the antecedent lower vertebrates (e.g., amphibians and reptiles) and the subsequent mammalians. It also presents comprehensive tabular erythrocytic taxonomically organized data which serve as a reference source as well as documentation for statements expressed in the text"--

"The erythrocyte is perhaps the world's single best known cell, an opinion affirmed by its inseparable linkage with the French expression "Le sang c'est la vie" (i.e., Blood is life). The red cell made its debut in a few invertebrates and thereupon conducted a conceptual phylogenetic odyssey through the Classes of poikilothermic vertebrates, onward to the first homeotherms the avians, and thereafter to the mammals including man. The erythrocyte presents morphologic, cytochemical and quantitative adaptations as it progresses through its evolutionary continuum. The text can be considered a comprehensive monograph regarding the erythrocyte in birds which explores the evolutionary relationship of the avian erythrocyte with the erythrocytes of the antecedent lower vertebrates (e.g., amphibians and reptiles) and the subsequent mammalians. It also presents comprehensive tabular erythrocytic taxonomically organized data which serve as a reference source as well as documentation for statements expressed in the text. "--