Genetics, Paleontology, and Macroevolution, Second Edition
Cambridge University Press
Edition: 2, 10/25/2001
EAN 9780521005500, ISBN10: 0521005507
Paperback, 634 pages, 25.3 x 17.7 x 3.4 cm
Language: English
An engaging area of biology for more than a century, the study of macroevolution continues to offer profound insight into our understanding of the tempo of evolution and of the evolution of biological diversity. What regulates biological diversity and its historical development? Can it be explained by natural selection alone? Has geologic history regulated the tempo of diversification? This expanded and updated second edition offers a comprehensive look at macroevolution and its underpinnings, with a primary emphasis on animal evolution. From a Neodarwinian point of view, it integrates evolutionary processes at all levels to explain the diversity of animal life. It examines a wide range of topics including genetics and speciation, development and evolution, the constructional and functional aspects of form, fossil lineages, and systematics, and it takes a hard look at the Cambrian explosion. Researchers and graduate students will find this book a most comprehensive examination of macroevolution.
Preface to the first edition
Preface to the second edition
1. Macroevolution
the problem and the field
2. Genealogy, systematics, and macroevolution
3. Genetics, speciation, and trans-specific evolution
4. Development and evolution
5. The constructional and functional aspects of form
6. Patterns of morphological change in fossil lineages
7. Patterns of diversity, origination, and extinction
8. A Cambrian explosion?
Glossary
References
Author index
Subject index.
' ... worth reading and having on the desk.' PalAss Newsletter