The author of the geological foundations of the theory of evolution, Gustav Steinmann (April 9, 1856, in Braunschweig; October 7, 1929, in Bonn), was a German geologist and paleontologist. In 1926, he was elected to the Commission of the International Geological Map for the South America region at the International Geological Congress in Madrid. In Freiburg and later in Bonn, he also studied the Pleistocene of the Upper Rhine and other aspects of regional geology, as well as the Swiss Alps (especially Graubünden) and generally focused on paleontology and the theory of evolution, advocating the theory of polyphyletic origins of larger groups of organisms. In addition to South America, he traveled to the Ural Mountains and in 1929 to East Asia (Java, Indonesia, Japan, Hong Kong). He was an honorary member of the German Geological Society. This volume is illustrated with 172 black-and-white images. It is a reprint of the original edition.