Geomorphology is the study of surface processes and landforms (Easterbrook 1993). Most geomorphologists, including Easterbrook, consider that geomorphology also encompasses the evolution of landforms and interpretations as to their origin. Geomorphology therefore examines the processes currently or recently operative on the earth's surface that erode, transport, and deposit sediment and that create landforms. Rhoads and Thorn (1993, p. 288) succinctly summarized the discipline of geomorphology while extending its reach both temporally and spatially, by stating that the discipline is “the study of past, present, and future landforms, landform assemblages (physical landscapes), and surficial processes on the earth and other planets.”

In typical introductory geomorphology textbooks, a variety of surficial and internal processes are described. A common list of topics covered in such books would include diastrophic forces of folding and faulting, internal and surface volcanism, weathering and soil development, gravity and mass movement, the work of running water on and under the surface, the work of glacial ice and ground ice, wind, and wave and current action. (See Gregory [1988] for a discussion of recent curriculum trends in geomorphology.) Unfortunately, these processes are frequently presented as if they were operative in a sterile, nonliving void. When the biosphere is even acknowledged or recognized in such works, it is usually restricted to largescale overviews of geomorphic processes operative in different climatic regions or biomes (i.e., climatic geomorphology).

Animals are, however, a conspicuous element of the earth's physical landscape and its environmental systems, but one that is typically glossed over or completely ignored in earth–science texts and classes at the primary and secondary–school levels.