Each chapter is divided into sections that are headed by an intriguing variety of quotations that add to the rich flavour and texture of Martin's highly readable book. The title evokes the 'seamless network of trails left by living organisms, broken only where time and erosion have removed pieces of the puzzle the trail that connects past, present and future' These 'signatures of the past' are full of meaning and can be read like a book. The most interesting theme running through the book is Martin's explanation of the unity of form and function. Here he aligns himself with the organic approach of Mae-Wan Ho and Brian Goodwin, but draws more particularly on the work of Wolfgang Schad, who has developed Goethe's ideas on animal form. He explains that a change of perception leads to noticing relationships between tracks and the whole organism, for instance in the correlation in ungulates between the shape of hooves and horns.
Good trackers keep track of their own perceptions.
He builds on Schad's work on patterns of organisation in animals. So the whole animal is tracked, not just its feet. Herein lies the originality and fascination of the book. He adds Schad's phenomenological approach whereby 'life processes .are determined not so much by past and future conditions, but rather at each moment by their own present', i.e. by simultaneous rather than causal or teleological relationships. This is seen in terms of Ho's manifold coupled cycles whereby behaviour and shape evolve together.