It took just over three and a half billion years for the world to become what we see it. During this time, all kinds of creatures created the climate of the Earth, the ocean in its modern form, contributed to the formation of many rocks and minerals. And, even having passed away tens and hundreds of millions of years ago, they continue to influence all the processes taking place around us and, most importantly, within us. How this happened and happens is described in the book of paleontologist Andrei Zhuravlev. Along the way, the reader will get acquainted with the fantastic discoveries of paleontologists of recent years - embryos that are more than half a billion years old, ten millionth old bone marrow and feathered and also poisonous dinosaurs, learn about creatures with teeth made of natural iron itself and that the evolution of multicellular organisms began... from fungi crawling along the ocean floor.