Keywords and Concepts in Evolutionary Developmental Biology

Evolutionary developmental biology is one of the most exciting areas of contemporary biology. The fundamental principle of evolutional developmental biology ("evo-devo") is that evolution acts through inherited changes in the development of the organism. Evo-devo is not merely a fusion of the fields of developmental and evolutionary biology, the grafting of a developmental perspective onto evolutionary biology, or the incorporation of an evolutionary perspective into developmental biology. Evo-devo strives for a unification of genomic, developmental, organismal, population and natural selection approaches to evolutionary change. It draws from developmental, evolution, palaeontology, ecology and molecular and systematic biology, but has its own set of questions, approaches and methods. This volume is a comprehensive reference work for this expanding field.
Covering more than 50 central terms and concepts in entries written by leading experts, the book offers an overview of all that is embraced by this sub-discipline of biology, providing the core insights and ideas that show how embryonic development relates to life-history evolution, adaptation and responses and integration with environmental factors.