Exploring Evolutionary Biology Readings from American Scientist

About this book

A collection of articles from American Scientist over the last 12 years, intended to introduce the reader to modern research topics in the field.

Contents

Part 1 Decoding the fossil record: early life on land, Jane Gray and William Shear; the evolution of early land plants, Patricia G. Gensel and Henry N. Andrewsm; evolution of the early vertebrates, Peter Forey and Philippe Janvier; where did tetrapods come from?, Keith Stewart Thompson; extraordinary fossils, Derek E.G. Briggs; taphonomy and the fossil record, Anna K. Behrensmeyer; what killed the dinosaurs?, William Glen; recent animal extinctions - recipes for disaster, David A. Burney; land mammals and the great American interchange, Larry G. Marshall. Part 2 Interpreting patterns: cladistic analysis and vicariance biogeography, Joel Cracraft; evolution and the triumph of homology, or why history matters, Stephen Jay Gould; the evolution of life without oxygen, Tom Fenchel and Bland J. Finlay; the origin of the life cycle of land plants, Linda E. Graham; the early evolution of the domestic dog, Darcy F. Morey; "Giardia" - a missing link between prokaryotes and eukaryotes, Karen S, Kabnick and Debra A. Peattie; troglobites - the evolution of cave-dwelling organisms, John R. Holsinger; evolutionary relationships of the coelacanth, Thomas Gorr and Traute Kleinschmidt. Part 3 Genetics and evolution: the adaptive importance of genetic variation, Richard K. Koehn and Thomas J. Hibish; the evolutionary potential of crop pests, Fred Gould; Fisher's microscope, or the gradualist's dilemma, Keith Stewart Thompson; directed evolution reconsidered, Donald MacPheem; updating the theory of mutation, John W. Drake, Barry W. Glickman and Lynn S. Ripley; development and evolution in amphibians, James Hanken. Part 4 Sex and behaviour: evolution of sexual differences in insects, Randy Thornhill and Darryl T. Gwynne; female choice in mating, Meredith F. Small; signals, species and sexual selection, Michael Ryan; spider fights as a test of evolutionary game theory, Susan E. Riechert; untangling the evolution of the web, William A. Shear; naked mole rats, Rodney L. Honeycutt; the evolution of primate behaviour, Alison Jolly; the monkey and the fig, Stuart A. Altmann.

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