As bewilderingly diverse then as the beetle is today, they survived in the arctic or the tropics, were spiky or smooth, were large as lobsters or small as fleas. And because they flourished for three hundred million years, they can be used to glimpse a less evolved world of ancient continents and vanished oceans. Erudite and entertaining, this book is a uniquely exuberant homage to a fabulously singular species.

    Psychologist Geoffrey Miller offers the most convincing-and radical-explanation for how and why the human mind evolved.Consciousness, morality, creativity, language, and art: these are the traits that make us human. Scientists have traditionally explained these qualities as merely a side effect of surplus brain size, but Miller argues that they were sexual attractors, not side effects. He bases his argument on Darwin's theory of sexual selection, which until now has played second fiddle to Darwin's theory of natural selection, and draws on ideas and research from a wide range of fields, including psychology, economics, history, and pop culture. Witty, powerfully argued, and continually thought-provoking, The Mating Mind is a landmark in our understanding of our own species.

    Colin Tudge argues that we are entering a new phase of biology in which, for the first time, biologists are achieving profound insight into life's true diversity and developing the tools to keep track of it. The Variety of Life heralds this new phase. The first part of the book describes why biologists now feel that there could have been as many as 4,000 billion species on Earth since life began. It then discusses the need for classification, beginning with the most basic principles--the strictly practical classification of fishmongers and foresters, who speak of "shellfish" and differentiate "hardwood" from "softwood"--and moves on to explore the intriguing deliberations of the modern "transformed cladists" and the novel contributions of molecular genetics. Part II describes the creatures themselves. It is divided into 24 sections, each describing a different group, illustrated by nearly 50 double-page spreads which present genealogical "trees" that summarize the evolutionary relationships between the creatures in each group. Some sections describe large, comprehensive groups such as the kingdoms of the Animals or the Plants. Others treat similar sub-groups in more detail, such as the Mammals, a class, or the Hominids, a family. In lively and accessible prose, all the significant groups of creatures--both alive and extinct--are described and their relationships clarified. For general readers and serious biologists alike, The Variety of Life offers an unprecedented storehouse of knowledge of life on earth.

    Created from the ground up to make the most of today's multimedia technology, it provides a rich learning experience and a wealth of valuable information and materials - including interactive models that allow learners to study dynamic systems, detailed maps, and links to resources on the World Wide Web - that build upon and enhance traditional approaches to the subject.Conserving Earth's Biodiversity is a pioneering educational tool based on the teachings and writings of renowned biologist Edward O. Wilson, and created and developed by science educator Dan Perlman.The program's insightful pedagogy combined with a unique use of multimedia makes it an ideal complement to any standard textbook.Edward O. Wilson is University Professor Emeritus at Harvard University. Arguably the most important evolutionary biologist of his time, he has made seminal contributions to the study of evolution and ecology, created the field of sociobiology, and was one of the earliest voices to speak out about biodiversity loss. Among his books are Sociobiology (Harvard, 1975), The Diversity of Life (Harvard, 1992), and Consilience (Knopf, 1998). Books published by Island Press are Naturalist (1994) and In Search of Nature (1996).Dan L. Perlman has taught conservation biology at Harvard University for nine years, in addition to teaching all ages from pre-school to post-graduate education for college professors and professionals. He has designed curricula, co-authored with Glenn Adelson the textbook Biodiversity: Exploring Values and Priorities in Conservation (Blackwell, 1997), and is a nature photographer and former systems analyst.

    In doing so, the authors synthesize information from astronomy, biology, and paleontology, and apply it to what we know about the rise of life on Earth and to what could possibly happen elsewhere in the universe. Everyone who has been thrilled by the recent discoveries of extrasolar planets and the indications of life on Mars and the Jovian moon Europa will be fascinated by Rare Earth, and its implications for those who look to the heavens for companionship.

    The main part of the book describes ten of these icons', devoting one chapter to each, and shows what is wrong with them in the light of published scientific evidence. The chapters are all fairly brief, and each is divided into short sections, to make the material easier to assimilate. The author's thesis is amply documented with 71 pages of research notes at the end of the book.

    We now know that our planet’s surface, far from being fixed or stable, is composed of tectonic plates in continual movement, drifting in oceans which themselves appear and disappear over millennia. Such insecurity lies at the heart of both the physical and the living world, providing the creative impetus for all life forms to confront change, adapt and evolve.This exceptional book celebrates the inevitability of global change and highlights our need as human beings to recognize and adjust to it. Its entertaining and accessible text displays a remarkable breadth and diversity of knowledge, drawing upon discoveries in natural history, geology, geography and paleontology to unravel secrets of millions of years. Its unique structure offers the opportunity to pursue two distinct but parallel narratives in one volume - the first characterized by discrete photo-essay spreads, and the second by authoritative running text illustrated with clearly numbered icons. Designed either to be browsed through like a website or read in chronological sequence, each chapter provides a fascinating glimpse into the formation and development of our world.Glorious panoramic photography by the author, a specialist in interpretive landscape, reveals the physical legacy of the Earth’s distant past. This intriguing exploration of key sites, often remote and inaccessible, provides a clear and original perspective on the Earth as a dynamic, interactive planet. The compelling narrative by a bestselling science writer places the history of our planet in a challenging contemporary context in which human beings, like all living things, must embrace change or fail to survive.As a science writer Ron Redfern has received a number of prestigious literary and academic awards, perhaps most notably the American Institute of Professional Geologists’ Outstanding Achievement Award. This was presented to him before his permanent return to England in 1996. The award was in recognition of his contribution to the public understanding in science.

    Females--both human and of other species--are naturally monogamous. That at least is what the study of sexual behavior after Darwin assumed, perhaps because it was written by men. Only in recent years has this version of events been challenged. Females, it has become clear, are remarkably promiscuous and have evolved an astonishing array of strategies, employed both before and after copulation, to determine exactly who will father their offspring. Tim Birkhead reveals a wonderful world in which males and females vie with each other as they strive to maximize their reproductive success. Both sexes have evolved staggeringly sophisticated ways to get what they want--often at the expense of the other. He introduces us to fish whose first encounter locks them together for life in a perpetual sexual embrace; hermaphrodites who "joust" with their reproductive organs, each trying to inseminate the other without being inseminated; and tiny flies whose seminal fluid is so toxic that it not only destroys the sperm of rival males but eventually kills the female. He explores the long and tortuous road leading to our current state of knowledge, from Aristotle's observations on chickens, to the first successful artificial insemination in the seventeenth century, to today's ingenious molecular markers for assigning paternity. And he shows how much human behavior--from the wife-sharing habits of Inuit hunters to Charlie Chaplin's paternity case--is influenced by sperm competition.Lucidly written and lavishly illustrated, with a wealth of fascinating detail and vivid examples, "Promiscuity" is the ultimate guide to the battle of the sexes.

    Emerging now from modern science is a unified scenario of the cosmos, including ourselves as sentient beings, based on the time-honored concept of change. From galaxies to snowflakes, from stars and planets to life itself, we are beginning to identify an underlying ubiquitous pattern penetrating the fabric of all the natural sciences--a sweepingly encompassing view of the order and structure of every known class of object in our richly endowed universe.This is the subject of Eric Chaisson's new book. In Cosmic Evolution Chaisson addresses some of the most basic issues we can contemplate: the origin of matter and the origin of life, and the ways matter, life, and radiation interact and change with time. Guided by notions of beauty and symmetry, by the search for simplicity and elegance, by the ambition to explain the widest range of phenomena with the fewest possible principles, Chaisson designs for us an expansive yet intricate model depicting the origin and evolution of all material structures. He shows us that neither new science nor appeals to nonscience are needed to understand the impressive hierarchy of the cosmic evolutionary story, from quark to quasar, from microbe to mind.

    This introductory book provides an overview of the key theoretical principles of human sociobiology and evolutionary psychology and shows how they illuminate the ways humans think and behave. The book takes as one of its main premises the idea that we think, feel, and act in ways that once enhanced the reproductive success of our ancestors.The book covers fundamental issues such as the origins and function of sexual reproduction, mating behavior, human mate choice, patterns of violence in families, altruistic behavior, the evolution of brain size and the origins of language, the modular mind, and the relationship between genes and culture. It also examines the larger implications of Darwinism for how we view ourselves as a species and our sense of ourselves as a moral animal. The book includes a valuable historical introduction to evolutionary theories of behavior and concludes with an examination of the social and political ramifications of evolutionary thought. It contains numerous diagrams and illustrations, comprehensive references, summaries, and suggestions for further reading.

    Today the rich diversity of life on the Earth is again in grave danger--and the cause is not a sudden cataclysmic event but rather humankind's devastation of the environment. Is life on our planet teetering on the brink of another mass extinction? In this absorbing new book, acclaimed paleontologist Peter D. Ward answers this daunting question with a resounding yes.Elaborating on and updating Ward's previous work, The End of Evolution, Rivers in Time delves into his newest discoveries. The book presents the gripping tale of the author's investigations into the history of life and death on Earth through a series of expeditions that have brought him ever closer to the truth about mass extinctions, past and future. First describing the three previous mass extinctions--those marking the transition from the Permian to the Triassic periods 245 million years ago, the Triassic to the Jurassic 200 million years ago, and the Cretaceous to the Tertiary 65 million years ago--Ward assesses the present devastation in which countless species are coming to the end of their evolution at the hand of that wandering, potentially destructive force called Homo sapiens.The book takes readers to the Philippine Sea, now eerily empty of life, where only a few decades of catching fish by using dynamite have resulted in eviscerated coral reefs--and a dramatic reduction in the marine life the region can support. Ward travels to Canada's Queen Charlotte Islands to investigate the extinctions that mark the boundary between the Triassic and Jurassic periods. He ventures also into the Karoo desert of southern Africa, where some of Earth's earliest land life emerged from the water and stood poised to develop into mammal form, only to be obliterated during the Permian/Triassic extinction.Rivers of Time provides reason to marvel and mourn, to fear and hope, as it bears stark witness to the urgency of the Earth's present predicament: Ward offers powerful proof that if radical measures are not taken to protect the biodiversity of this planet, much of life as we know it may not survive.

    It can cause a single ancestral species to differentiate into an impressively vast array of species inhabiting a variety of environments. Much of life's diversity has arisen during adaptive radiations. Someof the most famous recent examples include the East African cichilid fishes, the Hawaiian silverswords, and Darwin's Galapagos finches. This book evaluates the causes of adaptive radiation. It focuses on the 'ecological' theory of adaptive radiation, a body of ideas that began with Darwin and weredeveloped through the early part of the 20th century. This theory proposes that phenotypic divergence and speciation in adaptive radiation are caused ultimately by divergent natural selection arising from differences in environment and competition between species. The text re-evaluates theecological theory, along with its most significant extensions and challenges, in the light of all the recent evidence. It is the first full exploration of the causes of adaptive radiation in decades.

    Michener reveals a diverse fauna that numbers more than 17,000 species and ranges from the common honeybee to rare bees that feed on the pollen of a single type of plant. With many new facts, reclassifications, and revisions, the second edition of The Bees of the World provides the most comprehensive treatment of the 1,200 genera and subgenera of the Apiformes. Included are hundreds of updated citations to work published since the appearance of the first edition and a new set of plates of fossil bees.The book begins with extensive introductory sections that include bee evolution, classification of the various bee families, the coevolution of bees and flowering plants, nesting behavior, differences between solitary and social bees, and the anatomy of these amazing insects. Drawing on modern studies and evidence from the fossil record, Michener reveals what the ancestral bee—the protobee—might have looked like. He also cites the major literature on bee biology and describes the need for further research on the systematics and natural history of bees, including their importance as pollinators of crops and natural vegetation. The greater part of the work consists of an unprecedented treatment of bee systematics, with keys for identification to the subgenus level. For each genus and subgenus, Michener includes a brief natural history describing geographical range, number of species, and noteworthy information pertaining to nesting or floral biology.The book is beautifully illustrated with more than 500 drawings and photographs that depict behavior, detailed morphology, and ecology. Accented with color plates of select bees, The Bees of the World will continue to be the world's best reference on these diverse insects.

    It focuses on the debates that have engaged, divided, and ultimately provoked scientists to ponder the origins of organisms—including humankind—paying regard to the nineteenth-century clash over the nature of classification and debates about the fossil record, genetics, and human nature. Much attention is paid to external factors and the underlying motives of scientists.In these pages you will meet Charles Darwin’s ebullient grandfather Erasmus, the contentious Frenchmen Georges Cuvier and Etienne Geoffroy Stain-Hillaire, new creationist Phillip Johnson, the brilliant J. B. S. Haldane, outspoken Richard Dawkins, and many other stars of the debates. The Evolution Wars explores the ten greatest controversies surrounding evolution in world history, with emphasis on recent times, including the infamous Scopes trial of the 1920s: the search for human origins and speculation about the “missing link,” spurred by the discovery of “Lucy;” the debate surrounding the new theory of paleontology proposed by Stephen Jay Gould; and the rise of teaching “creation science” in public school as a subject on par with evolution.Although the author takes a strong stand on the side of evolution, he also shows respect for dissenting viewpoints. Thus, the book is intellectually rewarding not only for evolutionists but also for opponents of evolution theory, especially those who want to see how one of the great ideas of Western civilization resonates through time, both within and beyond the scientific community.

    It illustrates how birds, among vertebrates, have more impressive and consistent building abilities than any other builders, excluding humans. However, birds seem to require no special building equipment and use quite uncomplicated behavior. The book raises general issues in the field of behavioral ecology, including the costs of reproduction, sexual selection, and the organization and complexity of behavior. This volume was written for students and researchers of animal behavior, behavioral ecology, and ornithology, it will nevertheless make fascinating reading for architects and engineers interested in understanding how structures are created by animals.

    In The Pure Society, André Pichot, one of France’s foremost specialists in the history of science, excavates the underside of the Darwinian legacy, where the notions of ‘race’ and heredity became powerful tools of malign political agendas and instruments of social oppression.Pichot examines the relationship between science, politics and ideology through an analysis of specific cases: from Nazism and the concentration camps to the various eugenicist research programmes launched or financed by eminent scientific organizations.Racist eugenic ideas were once prevalent among the scientific community, despite a patent lack of supporting evidence. As today’s scientists and writers applaud the advance of science, the egregious mistakes made along the way are too often forgotten. Now, with the mapping of the human genome and rapid advances in gene therapies, Pichot warns that biologists are increasingly emboldened to venture into the realms of public policy and politics. If moral philosophers abandon these fields, it is all too possible that the lights of a misguided science will resurrect the dream of a ‘pure society’.

    Because scaling relationships are among the most general empirical patterns in biology, they have stimulated research to develop mechanistic hypotheses and mathematical models. While there have been many excellent empirical and theoretical investigations, there has been little attempt to synthesize this diverse but interrelated area of biology. In an effort to fill this void, Scaling in Biology, the first general treatment of scaling in biology in over 15 years, covers a broad spectrum of the most relevant topics in a series of chapters written by experts in the field. Some of those topics discussed include allometry and fractal structure, branching of vascular systems of mammals and plants, biomechanical and life history of plants, invertebrates and vertebrates, and species-area patterns of biological diversity. Many more examples are included within this text to complete the broader picture. Scaling in Biology conveys the diversity, promise, and excitement of current research in this area, in a format accessible to a wide audience of not only specialists in the various sub-disciplines, but also students and anyone with a serious interest in biology.

    Wilson published Sociobiology, it generated a firestorm of criticism, mostly focused on the book's final chapter, in which Wilson applied lessons learned from animal behavior to human society. In Defenders of the Truth, Ullica Segerstrale takes a hard look at the sociobiology controversy, sorting through a hornet's nest of claims and counterclaims, moral concerns, metaphysical beliefs, political convictions, strawmen, red herrings, and much juicy gossip. The result is a fascinating look at the world of modern science. Segerstrale has interviewed all the major participants, including such eminent scientists as Stephen Jay Gould, Richard C. Lewontin, Richard Dawkins, John Maynard Smith, Nobel Laureates Peter Medawar and Salvador Luria, and of course Edward Wilson. She reveals that most of the criticism of Wilson was unfair, but argues that it was not politically motivated. Instead, she sees the conflict over sociobiology as a drawn-out battle about the nature of good science and the social responsibility of the scientist. Behind the often nasty attacks were the very different approaches to science taken by naturalists (such as Wilson) and experimentalists (such as Lewontin), between the planters and the weeders. The protagonists were all defenders of the truth, Segerstrale concludes, it was just that everyone's truth was different. Defenders of the Truth touches on grand themes such as the unity of knowledge, human nature, and free will and determinism, and it shows how the sociobiology controversy can shed light on the more recent debates over the Human Genome Project and The Bell Curve. It will appeal to all readers of Edward O. Wilson or Stephen Jay Gould and all those who enjoy a behind-the-scenes peek at modern science.

    This book presents a unique perspective--a combined historical, scientific, and philosophical anaylsis, which does justice to the complex nature of the subject. The book's first part offers an overview of the main ideas on the origin of life as they developed from antiquity until the twentieth century. The second, more detailed part of the book examines contemporary theories and major debates within the origin-of-life scientific community. Topics include:Aristotle and the Greek atomists' conceptions of the organismAlexander Oparin and J.B.S. Haldane's 1920s breakthrough papersPossible life on Mars?

    In this book is all the information you need to find, identify, and learn about Hawaii's unique land animals, plants and sealife. The author visited national parks and nature reserves, discussed wildlife with local and international experts, and then selected for color illustrations and photos about 400 of Hawaii's most common insects, fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals--the species you are most likely to see. In one easy-to-carry, entertainingly written, beautifully illustrated book, you will have as a constant companion on your journey. Features: * Provides identifying, location, and conservation information on the frequently spotted animals * Gives up-to-date information on the ecology, behaviour, and conservation of the families of animals to which the pictured species belong * Contains information on Hawaiian habitats and on the most common plants you will see, and on the underwater animals most dive

    The Universe Unveiled uniquely focuses on these artifacts and devices resulting from the attempts to decipher the Universe from the late fifteenth to the early twentieth century. Beautiful, full-color photographs capture these extremely rare and sometimes unusual curios. Beginning with the discovery of ways to keep time, The Universe Unveiled depicts the shift from an Earth-centered understanding of the Universe to a Sun-centered view, the mapping of the stars, and the ever-expanding knowledge of the heavens using telescopes. It also examines the developing technologies of navigation and of the measuring and mapping of the Earth. In addition to rare European curios, the book is illustrated with non-Western and American works. With more than 250 full-color images, this unique volume will delight the inventive as well as the curious.

    In Art and Intimacy she argues for the joint evolutionary origin of art and intimacy, what we commonly call love.It all begins with the human trait of birthing immature and helpless infants. To ensure that mothers find their demanding babies worth caring for, humans evolved to be lovable and to attune themselves to others from the moment of birth. The ways in which mother and infant respond to each other are rhythmically patterned vocalizations and exaggerated face and body movements that Dissanayake calls rhythms and sensory modes.Rhythms and modes also give rise to the arts. Because humans are born predisposed to respond to and use rhythmic-modal signals, societies everywhere have elaborated them further as music, mime, dance, and display, in rituals which instill and reinforce valued cultural beliefs. Just as rhythms and modes coordinate and unify the mother-infant pair, in ceremonies they coordinate and unify members of a group.Today we humans live in environments very different from those of our ancestors. They used ceremonies (the arts) to address matters of serious concern, such as health, prosperity, and fecundity, that affected their survival. Now we tend to dismiss the arts, to see them as superfluous, only for an elite. But if we are biologically predisposed to participate in artlike behavior, then we actually need the arts. Even -- or perhaps especially -- in our fast-paced, sophisticated modern lives, the arts encourage us to show that we care about important things.

    In Evolution’s Eye Oyama elaborates on her pioneering work on developmental systems by spelling out that work’s implications for the fields of evolutionary theory, developmental and social psychology, feminism, and epistemology. Her approach profoundly alters our understanding of the biological processes of development and evolution and the interrelationships between them. While acknowledging that, in an uncertain world, it is easy to “blame it on the genes,” Oyama claims that the renewed trend toward genetic determinism colors the way we think about everything from human evolution to sexual orientation and personal responsibility. She presents instead a view that focuses on how a wide variety of developmental factors interact in the multileveled developmental systems that give rise to organisms. Shifting attention away from genes and the environment as causes for behavior, she convincingly shows the benefits that come from thinking about life processes in terms of developmental systems that produce, sustain, and change living beings over both developmental and evolutionary time. Providing a genuine alternative to genetic and environmental determinism, as well as to unsuccessful compromises with which others have tried to replace them, Evolution’s Eye will fascinate students and scholars who work in the fields of evolution, psychology, human biology, and philosophy of science. Feminists and others who seek a more complex view of human nature will find her work especially congenial.

    The word phylogeography was coined in 1987, and since then the scientific literature has reflected an exploding interest in the topic. Yet, to date, no book-length treatment of this emerging field has appeared. Phylogeography: The History and Formation of Species fills that gap.The study of phylogeography grew out of the observation that mitochondrial DNA lineages in natural populations often display distinct geographic orientations. In recent years, the field has expanded to include assessments of nuclear as well as cytoplasmic genomes and the relationships among gene trees, population demography, and organismal history, often formalized as coalescent theory. Phylogeography has connections to molecular evolutionary genetics, natural history, population biology, paleontology, historical geography, and speciation analysis.Phylogeography captures the conceptual and empirical richness of the field, and also the sense of genuine innovation that phylogeographic perspectives have brought to evolutionary studies.This book will be essential reading for graduate students and professionals in evolutionary biology and ecology as well as for anyone interested in the emergence of this new and integrative discipline.