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A major textbook, now also available on CD, integrating all levels of evolutionary biology, including molecular evolution and palaeobiology. The latest edition reflects all the recent advances in the field and is closely modeled on the ways today's evolution courses are being taught. It includes two new chapters on evolutionary genomics and evolution and development.
1. Video: 12 evolutionary theorists contribute their views throughout the CD; Simon Conway Morris, Cambridge; Helena Cronin, London School of Economics & Political Science; Richard Dawkins, Oxford; Daniel Dennett, Tufts; Michael Donoghue, Harvard; David Haig, Harvard; William Hamilton, Oxford; Marc Kirschner, Harvard Medical School; Richard Lewontin, Harvard; Linda Partridge, University College London; Naomi Pierce, Harvard; John Maynard Smith, Sussex 2. Animaton: 24 animations help to explain difficult concepts 3. Virtual Experiments: Virtual experiments allow you to simulate the central processes in evolutionary biology. Stochastic experiments present different results for each simulation 4. Timeline: Travel through billions of years of evolutionary history via the interactive timeline 5. Classic Texts The author has selected 20 classic papers and text extracts which shaped the field of evolutionary biology famous authors include Darwin, Fisher, Dobzhansky and Gould 5. Colour Images: Full colour images capture the diversity of life at all levels
Mark Ridley works in the Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, UK, and formerly worked at Emory University, Atlanta, and the University of Cambridge, UK. He has carried out research in several areas of evolutionary biology, particularly in sexual selection and the comparative method.
"Good textbooks shape a field. They present up-to-date information in such a well-organized way that gaps in our knowledge become glaringly apparent. Alert students who read such books are driven to ask how these gaps might be filled in, and sometimes to ask even more fundamental questions about the field. The late Albert Lehninger's Biochemistry was such a text, as were James Watson's Molecular Biology of the Gene and EO Wilson's Sociobiology. I expect that Mark Ridley's new book on evolution will join their distinguished company"
- Nature
"This is one of the best and certainly the most complete and up-to-date evolutionary textbooks in the market. This book has undergone extensive and welcome upgrading in the successive editions, since I have seen the earlier editions. Though it is comprehensive, it is easily followable by the students. The author is well known in the field and that is a big plus point. The pedagogical aids are very good, with chapter opening outlines, summaries and questions, etc. The colour plates are very good, and the associated website is also quite useful. Hence, we are taking this valuable book as additional required reading."
- V. Lakshminarayanan
" [...] this book certainly provides a good solid and up-to-date foundation to the subject of Evolution and one that I think students will find easy to use."
- Nick Colegrave, University of Edinburgh, in Genetic Research, May 2004
