30-Second Evolution
The 50 most significant ideas and events, each explained in half a minute
Published on 7. May 2015
176 pages
978-1-84831-841-0 (ISBN)
Description
Adapt or die: it's nature's most famous imperative. But how does evolution actually happen? It's too slow to see, but it's going on all around you, all the time. Even if you're on top of the key terms - variation? Natural selection? Parent-offspring conflict? - you still need some context to put them in. From populations to speciation and polymorphism to evolutionary psychology, here's the one-stop source for all you need to know.
Evolution unlocks the laboratory of life, dissecting it into the 50 most significant topics that provide the missing links to understand the natural world's four-billion-year ancestry and the process of natural selection in which species either adapt in myriad ways - mutation, ingenuity, and intelligence - to meet the challenges of a changing environment, or die. Unravel the development of living organisms, at micro and macro level - from genes to geniuses.
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Mark Fellowes | Nicholas Battey
30-Second Evolution
The 50 most significant ideas and events, each explained in half a minute
Book
05/2015
Icon Books
€38.56
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Persons
Mark Fellowes is Head of the School of Biological Sciences and Nicholas Battey is Head of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Reading, England. Together, their expertise spans the diversity of their subject: Professor Battey's background is in cells, genes, and plants; Professor Fellowes's is in ecology, evolution, animals, and the interactions between species.
Content
- Intro
- Title Page
- Contents
- Introduction
- The History of Evolution
- GLOSSARY
- Before Evolution
- Transmutation & Archetypes
- Variation & Selection
- Profile: Charles Darwin
- The Rediscovery of Mendel
- Understanding Genes in Populations
- The Modern Synthesis
- Controversies
- The Origin of Species
- GLOSSARY
- Species & Taxonomy
- Building Phylogenies
- Making Species: Isolation
- Profile: Alfred Russel Wallace
- Mechanisms of Isolation
- Mutation & Speciation
- From Adaptation to Speciation
- Species Diversity
- Natural Selection
- GLOSSARY
- Populations
- The Need for Adaptation
- Genes
- Profile: J.B.S. Halbane
- Genetic Variation
- Polymorphism & Genetic Drift
- Types of Selection
- Units of Selection
- Evolutionary History & Extinction
- GLOSSARY
- How Life Began
- The Geological Record
- Geological Change & Mammalian Evolution
- Profile: Lynn Margulis
- Emergence of Major Plant and Animal Groups
- Evolutionary Rates & Extinctions
- The Mystery of the Cambrian Explosion
- Great Extinctions
- Causes of Extinction
- Evolution in Progress
- GLOSSARY
- Evolutionary Constraints
- Coevolution
- Convergent Evolution
- Industrial Melanism
- New Species
- Profile: Peter & Rosemary Grant
- Evolution of Animal Behaviour
- Altruism & Selfishness
- Sex & Death
- GLOSSARY
- The Paradox of Sex
- Sex Ratios
- Sexual Selection
- Sperm Competition
- Parent-Offspring Conflict
- Profile: Bill Hamilton
- Sex & Evolutionary Arms Races
- Inbreeding Avoidance
- Humans & Evolution
- GLOSSARY
- Ancestors & Timescale
- Tool Use by Humans & Other Apes
- Evolution of the Brain
- Evolution of Human Language
- Evolutionary Psychology
- Profile: The Leakey Family
- Humans Causing Evolution
- Human Evolution: The Future
- APPENDICES
- Resources
- Notes on Contributors
- Index
- Acknowledgements
- Copyright
