This book deals primarily with the principal extracellular macromole cules of animal connective tissues. It attempts to answer some general questions about the biological organization of the tissues: What is the nature of this organization at various dimensional levels? What functions does the organization serve? How has it evolved? I have given major emphasis to the structures and properties of the macromolecular components of extracellular matrices from a wide range of invertebrates and vertebrates. In doing so, however, I have treated cursorily many important aspects of connective tissue...