This book summarizes the knowledge in the field of methods to identify signatures of natural selection. A number of mathematical models and methods have been designed to identify the fingerprints of natural selection on genes and genomes. Such methods are provided in a simple and direct way so that students of different disciplines can navigate through molecular fitness landscapes using complex methods with a basic knowledge on bioinformatics. A collection of the main methods to detect selection in protein-coding genes and amino acid sequences is given at different levels of complexity, from nucleotides to proteins and molecular networks. The importance of identifying natural selection in genes and genomes through the methods described in this book transcends the bioinformatics and computational biology fields, presenting applications for experimental biologists in a straightforward and understandable way.

This seven-volume series is the most extensive treatise on early life histories of the freshwater fishes of North America. It represents the state-of-the-art in fishery biology and provides a systematic approach to the study of early life histories of all the fishes in this region. Each volume contains distinguishing characteristics and a pictorial guide to the families of fishes in the OR Drainage, followed by chapters on the families. This series fills a gap in the literature, providing information on the spawning habitat requirements, reproductive behavior, and ecological relationships during the first few months of life for most species. This fifth volume examines the families aphredoderidae through sciaenidae.

Contents:
1. Molecular Clocks: Whence and Whither 2. Molecular Clocks and a Biological Trigger for Neoproterozoic Snowball Earth Events and the Cambrian Explosion 3. Phylogenetic Fuses and Evolutionary 'Explosions': Conflicting Evidence and Critical Tests 4. The Quality of the Fossil record 5. Ghost Ranges 6. Episodic Evolution of Nuclear Small Subunit Ribosomal RNA Gene in the Stem-lineage of Foraminifera 7. Dating the Origin of Land Plants 8. Angiosperm Divergence Times: Congruence and Incongruence Between Fossils and Sequence Divergence Estimates 9. The Limitations of the Fossil Record and the Dating of the Origin of the Bilateria 10. The Origin and Early Evolution of Chordates: Molecular Clocks and the Fossil Record 11. Bones, Molecules and Crown-tetrapod Origins 12. The Fossil record and Molecular Clocks: Basal Radiations Within the Neornithes

Coupled with biomechanical data, organic geochemistry and cladistic analyses utilizing abundant genetic data, scientific studies are revealing new facets of how plants have evolved over time. This collection of papers examines these early stages of plant physiology evolution by describing the initial physiological adaptations necessary for survival as upright structures in a dry, terrestrial environment. The Evolution of Plant Physiology also encompasses physiology in its broadest sense to include biochemistry, histology, mechanics, development, growth, reproduction and with an emphasis on the interplay between physiology, development and plant evolution.
* Contributions from leading neo- and palaeo-botanists from the Linnean Society
* Focus on how evolution shaped photosynthesis, respiration, reproduction and metabolism.
* Coverage of the effects of specific evolutionary forces -- variations in water and nutrient availability, grazing pressure, and other environmental variables

Scientists have developed a featherless chicken designed to make industrial chicken production more efficient, while specially trained Pacific bottlenose dolphins are being deployed in the Persian Gulf to disarm mines and protect our Navy. Everyone knows Darwin's theory of natural selection, but what about his idea of artificial selection-how humans, not nature, rework natural organisms to meet our needs? Industrializing Organisms brings us to the threshold of the new field of evolutionary history-from the mobilization of war horses in the nineteenth century to today's engineered plants and manipulated animals.

Originally published in 1982, The Masterpiece of Nature examines sex as representative of the most important challenge to the modern theory of evolution. The book suggests that sex evolved, not as the result of normal Darwinian processes of natural selection, but through competition between populations or species - a hypothesis elsewhere almost universally discredited. The book also discusses the nature of sex and its consequences for the individual and for the population, as well as various other theories of sex. Since the value of these theories is held to reside wholly in their ability to predict the patterns of sexuality observed in nature, the book seeks to provide an extensive review of the circumstances in which sexuality is attenuated or lost throughout the animal kingdom, and these facts are then used to weigh up the merits of the rival theories. This book will be of interest to researchers in the area of genetics, ecology and evolutionary biology.

A new voice in the nature-nurture debate can be heard at the interface between evolution and development. Phenotypic integration--or, how large numbers of characteristics are related to make up the whole organism, and how these relationships evolve and change their function--is a major growth area in research, attracting the attention of evolutionary biologists, developmental biologists, and geneticists, as well as, more broadly, ecologists, physiologists, and paleontologists. This edited collection presents much of the best and most recent work the topic.

Crustaceans, due to the great diversity of their body organization, segmentation patterns, tagmatization, limb types, larval forms, cleavage, and gastrulation modes, are highly desirable for the study of questions at the interface of evolution and development. Modern interest in evolutionary developmental biology (evo-devo) rests on the molecular genetic approach and a variety of molecular techniques have proven fruitful when performed on crustaceans.
Evolutionary Developmental Biology of Crustacea presents a comprehensive treatment of all aspects of the field, beginning with a discussion of the implications of the typological Bauplan and phylum concepts versus historical concepts such as ground pattern and monophylum for the formulation of conceptual questions in evo-devo. Following this, the authors present the results of Hox gene expression in various crustacean taxa, aspects of segment formation at the cellular and genetic levels, the formation of segmental structures such as neurons, ganglia, and limbs, and the role of morphological ontogenetic characters in resolving phylogenetic relationships.
By covering so many general aspects of crustacean development, morphology, and evolution, Evolutionary Developmental Biology of Crustacea serves as an indispensable reference for developmental and evolutionary biologists investigating the role of genetics in evolution and development.

There is a revolution underway in biology. It is based on a new perception of bodies and genes, in which the former are the end product of the latter within the continuum of evolution. Twenty five years after Richard Dawkins helped revolutionize our thinking about "selfish genes," it is time to re-evaluate. "Revolutionary Biology" explains in simple, vivid terms what this exciting approach has to offer, and then applies its stunning insights to human beings. This novel perspective, galvanizes our understanding of how evolution works, what living things are all about and, not least what it means to be human. The controversial disciplines of sociobiology and evolutionary psychology have generated startling insights into longstanding questions concerning the nature and purpose of families, altruism vs. selfishness, and free will vs. biological determinism. Written by one of its foremost figures, "Revolutionary Biology" is a manifesto and educated layman's guide to this ongoing revolution.

Barash's purpose is to demystify the basic concepts of the genetic revolution and take the reader on a tour--accessible and authoritative--of the principles that underlie this fascinating turn in scientific thought. Much has been written about evolution, animals, and the animal and evolutionary origins of human behavior, yet only recently have biologists begun to appreciate these connections. The key concept is that genes--not species, not groups, and not even individuals--are the apple of evolution's eye. The result has been a major biological paradigm shift that is making itself felt in the social sciences as well. Barash explores the phenomenon of altruism both at the animal level, and the human level.

Barash draws not only on a wealth of biological evidence but on literature, philosophy, and the familiar details of everyday life to communicate the essentials of this increasingly influential approach to the study of the human species. Clearly and engagingly written, "Revolutionary Biology" will be fascinating reading for those seeking an entry into this new science.

Originally published in 1997 Evolutionary Change addresses the somatic mechanism of change. Although astounding advances in molecular biology have opened up new engineering possibilities to shape our future in terms of "improving" the human species as well as eradicating all kinds of pathological characteristics of biological development, these possibilities pose potentially serious dangers. They arise primarily from the local nature of changes that are introduced and the impact of the environment on the overall development of the biological system. The book explores the biological mechanisms of change in their entirety - as they fit into the general dynamics of biological systems - and demonstrates the pitfalls of tackling change from a narrow perspective, using cancer as an example of certain pathological manifestations of these mechanisms of change.

"Evolutionism in Cultural Anthropology"traces the interaction of evolutionary thought and anthropological theory from Herbert Spencer to the twenty-first century. It is a focused examination of how the idea of evolution has continued to provide anthropology with a master principle around which a vast body of data can be organized and synthesized. Erudite and readable, and quoting extensively from early theorists (such as Edward Tylor, Lewis Henry Morgan, John McLennan, Henry Maine, and James Frazer) so that the reader might judge them on the basis of their own words, "Evolutionism in Cultural Anthropology" is useful reading for courses in anthropological theory and the history of anthropology.

Appropriate as a textbook for graduate courses, "The Evolution and Function of Cognition" provides a systematic and progressively inclusive integration of the facts and principles of cognitive psychology. It includes contributions of information processing and reaction, and emphasizes historical continuity. In addition, the book shows how evolutionary psychology fits in with the mainstream of thought in psychological theory.
"The Evolution and Function of Cognition" will benefit scholars and researchers interested in the general topics of evolutionary psychology and cognitive science.

Performance and Evolution in the Age of Darwin reveals the ways in which the major themes of evolution were taken up in the performing arts during Darwin's adult lifetime and in the generation after his death.
The period 1830-1900 was the formative period for evolutionary ideas. While scientists and theorists investigated the law and order of nature, show business was more concerned with what was out of the natural order. Missing links and throwbacks, freak taxonomies and exotic races were favourite subject matter for the burgeoning variety theatre movement. Focusing on popular theatre forms in London, New York and Paris, Jane Goodall shows how they were interwoven with the developing debate about human evolution.
With this book, Goodall contributes an important new angle to the debates surrounding the history of evolution. She reveals that, far from creating widespread culture shock, Darwinian theory tapped into some of the long-standing themes of popular performance and was a source for diverse and sometimes hilarious explorations.

A groundbreaking review of the seldom-studied semi-aquatic freshwater mammals, covering biology, behavior, and conservation. Semi-aquatic mammals are some of the rarest and most endangered mammals on earth. What binds them together in the minds of biologists, despite their diverse taxa and body forms, are evolutionary traits that allow them to succeed in two worlds-spending some time on land and some in the water. Semi-aquatic Mammals fills a crucial void in the literature by highlighting the important ecological roles and curious biology of these remarkable animals. In this unique book, wildlife ecologist Glynnis A. Hood presents the first comprehensive examination of a global suite of 140 freshwater semi-aquatic mammals. Each one has overcome the distinct ecological challenges of thriving in both aquatic and terrestrial habitats as part of everyday life. Covering millions of years, Hood's exploration begins with the extinct otter-like Buxolestes and extends to consider the geographical, physical, behavioral, and reproductive traits of its present-day counterparts. Hood explains how semi-aquatic mammals are able to navigate a viscous environment with almost no resistance to heat loss, reveals how they maintain the physical skills necessary to avoid predation and counter a more thermally changeable environment, and describes the array of adaptations that facilitate success in their multifaceted habitats. She also addresses specific conservation challenges faced by these mammals. Her analysis takes readers to the haunts of intriguing semi-aquatic mammals from around the world, * introducing the "paradoxical platypus," an Australian egg-laying monotreme that detects prey through electroreception * venturing into the swamps and mangroves of Southeast Asia, where fishing cats wave their paws above the water's surface to lure prey * trawling the streams and lakes of South America, where the female water opossum uses its backward-facing pouch to keep her babies warm during deep dives * spending time with species that engineer freshwater habitats into more productive and complex systems, including North American beavers and Africa's common hippopotamus Featuring award-winning artist Meaghan Brierley's stunning illustrations throughout, Semi-aquatic Mammals is an unparalleled reference on some of the world's most tenacious and fascinating mammals.

Here is a book for everyone who has an interest in how our planet works, what has happened during its 4,550 million year history and what might happen in the future. It tells how Earth scientists study the pattern of events that have shaped the planet and guided the evolution of life on Earth. In clear and simple language it describes how the effects of these events are measured and the careful detective work needed to unravel the extraordinary complexity of Earth history. The latest advances in dating methods, including the detection of regular patterns of global climate change, are explained and illustrated with real case histories. Our environment is unexpectedly unstable.
Dramatic and catastrophic changes in the environment have directed the evolution of life and the rise of Man, and we can expect similar events in the future. If we are to control their effects, we will have to understand what to expect - and what could happen if we try to intervene in the 'natural' development of our home, the Earth.

Haldane, Mayr, and Beanbag Genetics presents a summary of the classic exchange between two great biologists - J.B.S. Haldane and Ernst Mayr - regarding the value of the contributions of the mathematical school represented by J.B.S. Haldane, R.A. Fisher and S. Wright to the theory of evolution. Their pioneering contributions from 1918 to the 1960s dominated and shaped the field of population genetics, unique in the annals of science. In 1959, Mayr questioned what he regarded as the beanbag genetic approach of these pioneers to evolutionary theory, "an input or output of genes, as the adding of certain beans to a beanbag and the withdrawing of others." In 1964, Mayr's contention was refuted by Haldane in a remarkably witty, vigorous and pungent essay, "A defense of beanbag genetics" which compared the mathematical theory to a scaffolding within which a reasonably secure theory expressible in words may be built up. Correspondence between Haldane and Mayr is included.
Beanbag genetics has come a long way since 1964. Mayr's (1959) critique of simple uncomplicated population genetics is no longer valid. Population genetics today includes much more than Mayr's beanbag genetics. Population genetics models now include multiple factors, linkage, dominance and epistasis. These may be regarded as the advanced beanbag models. Furthermore, population genetics and developmental genetics have become interdependent. Contemporary beanbag genetics includes molecular clocks, nucleotide diversity, coalescence and DNA-based phylogenetic trees, along with the four major holdovers from classical genetics, mutation, selection, migration and random drift. Molecular genetics has made it possible to study evolution rates at the nucleotide level. It is also possible today to compare DNA similarities and divergence in diverse species of animals and plants, which were not previously crossable.

Life began about four billion years ago on our planet. Like an old patchwork quilt, evolution stitched the human being together from parts of ancient species now long extinct. Like any species, humans have hundreds or even thousands of traits that have been passed down through time. The evolutionary age of our different traits can be told from how widely distributed they are among today's living creatures. The book aims to explain some human traits and how we-as social, sexual, language-obsessed technological apes-evolved into our own modern species. Combining hard science with philosophical thought, this work aims to explain where humans have come from, and where we are going. Free of complicated jargon, it breaks down the concept of evolution starting with the human body's most basic component-our cells. Building from there, chapters explore which traits became inherited over evolutionary time, ultimately projecting what could be next for our species.

This work is intended to portray the interrelationship of heredity, individual development, and the evolution of species in a way that can be understood by nonspecialists. In striving to offer a straightforward historical exposition of the complex topic of nature and nurture, the author tells the story through a central cast of characters beginning with Lamarck in 1809 and ending with a synthesis of his own that depicts how extragenetic behavioral changes in individual development could be the first stages in the pathway leading to evolutionary change. On the way to that goal, he describes relevant conceptual aspects of genetics, embryological development, and evolutionary biology in a nontechnical and accurate way for students and colleagues in the behavioral and social sciences. The book presents a highly selected review as a prelude to the description of a developmental theory of the phenotype in which behavioral change leads eventually to evolutionary change.
This book grew out of an invited interdisciplinary course of lectures for advanced undergraduate and graduate students at the University of Colorado, Boulder. Presenting the various ways about thinking about heredity, individual development, and evolution, the author had three goals in mind:
*to establish the relevance of individual development to the evolution of species;
*to describe the most appropriate way to think about or conceptualize heredity in relation to individual development;
*to show that this somewhat unorthodox manner of conceptualizing heredity and individual development gives rise to a new way to think about the behavioral pathway leading to evolution.
In conclusion, the present work will provide a contribution toward the possible dissolution of the nature-nurture dichotomy, as well as a contribution to evolutionary theory.

Crisis in Sociology presents a compelling portrait of sociology's current troubles and proposes a controversial remedy. In the authors' view, sociology's crisis has deep roots, traceable to the over-ambitious sweep of the discipline's founders. Generations of sociologists have failed to focus effectively on the tasks necessary to build a social science. The authors see sociology's most disabling flaw in the failure to discover even a single general law or principle. This makes it impossible to systematically organize empirical observations, guide inquiry by suggesting falsifiable hypotheses, or form the core of a genuinely cumulative body of knowledge.

Absent such a theoretical tool, sociology can aspire to little more than an amorphous mass of hunches and disconnected facts. The condition engenders confusion and unproductive debate. It invites fragmentation and predation by applied social disciplines, such as business administration, criminal justice, social work, and urban studies. Even more dangerous are incursions by prestigious social sciences and by branches of evolutionary biology that constitute the frontier of the current revolution in behavioral science. Lopreato and Crippen argue that unless sociology takes into account central developments in evolutionary science, it will not survive as an academic discipline.

Crisis in Sociology argues that participation in the "new social science," exemplified by thriving new fields such as evolutionary psychology, will help to build a vigorous, scientific sociology. The authors analyze research on such subjects as sex roles, social stratification, and ethnic conflict, showing how otherwise disconnected features of the sociological landscape can in fact contribute to a theoretically coherent and cumulative body of knowledge.

Where do we come from? Where are we going? These are fundamental questions, which the human race has asked itself for centuries.
Presenting a brief and accessible overview of contemporary scientific thought, Creation is an imaginative and poetic exploration of the origins of the universe. WIllem Drees assesses the religious and philosophical impact of scientific theories of evolution and the natural world, and examines the changing relationship between us and our planet.

This book delves into one of the greatest riddles perplexing modern science: Why are humans so smart? In a format understandable even by the non-expert, the author investigates the origins of human intelligence, starting with classical Darwinian concepts. Thus, the strengths and beauty of natural selection are presented with many examples taken from natural history. Common criticisms of Darwin, from scientists and non-scientists alike, are confronted and shown to be either inconclusive or outright false. The author then launches into a discussion of human intelligence, the most important feature of human evolution, and how it cannot be fully explained by mutational selection. Modern humans are smarter than what is demanded by our evolutionary experience as hunter-gatherers. The difficulty lies in the inability of natural selection to answer the following question: how can a complex set of genes, controlling expensive traits with little immediate benefit, come into permanent existence within a short time period in every member of a small population (which was dispersed and geographically isolated over a huge planet) which had a low reproductive output and a low mutation rate? The book concludes with a speculative epigenetic theory of intelligence that does not require DNA mutations as a source of evolution. Although the book is comprehensible by anyone with a college education, this last section in particular should intrigue both layman and expert alike.

As we approach a great turning point in history when technology is poised to redefine what it means to be human, The Fourth Age offers fascinating insight into AI, robotics, and their extraordinary implications for our species. "If you only read just one book about the AI revolution, make it this one" (John Mackey, cofounder and CEO, Whole Foods Market). In The Fourth Age, Byron Reese makes the case that technology has reshaped humanity just three times in history: 100,000 years ago, we harnessed fire, which led to language; 10,000 years ago, we developed agriculture, which led to cities and warfare; 5,000 years ago, we invented the wheel and writing, which lead to the nation state. We are now on the doorstep of a fourth change brought about by two technologies: AI and robotics. "Timely, highly informative, and certainly optimistic" (Booklist), The Fourth Age provides an essential background on how we got to this point, and how-rather than what-we should think about the topics we'll soon all be facing: machine consciousness, automation, changes in employment, creative computers, radical life extension, artificial life, AI ethics, the future of warfare, superintelligence, and the implications of extreme prosperity. By asking questions like "Are you a machine?" and "Could a computer feel anything?", Reese leads you through a discussion along the cutting edge in robotics and AI, and provides a framework by which we can all understand, discuss, and act on the issues of the Fourth Age and how they'll transform humanity.

A look at isopod systematics and evolution, topics confronted include the influence of genetic and extrachromasomal factors on their population rate and a comparison of different species in different habitats.

This multidisciplinary book focuses on the relationships and interactions between palaeobiogeography, biogeography, dispersal, vicariance, migrations and evolution of organisms in the SE Asia-Australasian region. The book investigates biogeographic links between SE Asia and Australasia which go back more than 500 million years. It also focuses on the links between geological evolution and biological migrations and evolution in the region. It was in the SE Asian region that Alfred Russell Wallace established his biogeographic line, now known as Wallace's Line, which was the beginning of biogeography. Wallace also independently developed his theory of evolution based on his work in this area.;The book brings together, for the first time, geologists, palaeontologists, zoologists, botanists, entomologists, evolutionary biologists and archaeologists, in the one volume, to relate the region's geological past to its present biological peculiarities. The book is organized into six sections. Section 1 Paleobiogeographic Background provides overviews of the geological and tectonic evolution of SE Asia-Australasia, and changing patterns of land and sea for the last 540 million years. Section 2 Palaeozoic and Mesozoic Geology and Biogeography discusses Palaeozoic and Mesozoic biogeography of conodonts, brachiopods, plants, dinosaurs and radiolarians and the recognition of ancient biogeographic boundaries or Wallace Lines in the region. Section 3 Wallace's Line focuses on the biogeographic boundary established by Wallace, including the history of its establishment, its significance to biogeography in general and its applicability in the context of modern biogeography.;Section 4 Plant biogeography and evolution includes discussion on primitive angiosperms, the diaspora of the southern rushes, and environmental, climatic and evolutionary implications of plants and palynomorphs in the region. The biogeography and migration of insects, butterflies, birds, rodents and other non-primate mammals is discussed in section 5, Non Primates. The final section 6 Primates focuses on the biogeographic radiation, migration and evolution of primates and includes papers on the occurrence and migration of early hominids and the requirements for human colonization of Australia.