Biased Embryos and Evolution

ISBN-13: 9780521833820 / Angielski / Twarda / 2004 / 248 str.

Wallace Arthur

Opis

Aimed primarily at a general readership and college students of biology, this book focuses on the question of how embryonic development changes in the course of evolution, thus giving rise to new types of creatures. It takes the view that biases in the ways that embryos can be altered are as important as natural selection in determining the directions that evolution has taken, including the one that led to the origin of humans.

Recenzje

'… an excellent account of how development influences evolution … I highly recommend Arthur's book to all fellows of developmental and evolutionary biology.' Ralf J. Sommer, Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology

Spis treści

Preface; 1. The microscopic horse; 2. What 'drives' evolution?; 3. Darwin: pluralism with a single core; 4. How to build a body; 5. A brief history of the last billion years; 6. Preamble to the quiet revolution; 7. The return of the organism; 8. Possible creatures; 9. The beginnings of bias; 10. A deceptively simple question; 11. Development's twin arrows; 12. Action and reaction; 13. Evolvability: organisms in bits; 14. Back to the trees; 15. Stripes and spots; 16. Towards 'The Inclusive Synthesis'; 17. Social creatures; Glossary; References.