Author Description

Previous editions of Evolutionary Biology, widely used and translated into five other languages, were praised for their broad scope, synthetic overview, and even-handed treatment of controversial topics. The Third Edition, while maintaining these features, reflects the ever greater breadth and depth of evolutionary science by providing expanded treatment of many topics and by emphasizing the new intellectual and molecular perspectives that have revolutionized evolutionary studies in the last decade. Equally significant, the book has been made more accessible to student readers by a more expansive style of presentation, by a completely new two-color art program (and a full-color portfolio), and by extended examples that convey not only the evidence for hypotheses, but also the ways in which evolutionary hypotheses are framed and tested. After introducing the historical, ecological, and genetic foundations of evolutionary study, the text progresses from the history of evolution as inferred from phylogeny and paleobiology, through the genetic mechanisms of evolutionary change and speciation, to the large, challenging themes of macroevolution, the evolution of diversity, and human evolution. Topics that were treated only sparingly in previous editionsóform and function, coevolution, the evolution of life histories, the evolution of behavior, and the evolution of genetic systemsónow receive full-chapter coverage. Abundant cross-referencing emphasizes the unity and coherence of evolutionary biology, highlighted text and a glossary provide easy access to definitions of technical terms, and an extensive bibliography provides interested readers with an entry into most of the topics embraced by evolutionary biology. Reflecting its theme that evolution both draws on and illuminates all the biological sciences, Evolutionary Biology is the most comprehensive textbook in its field.