Biased Embryos and Evolution

The first book on Evolutionary Developmental Biology that is for undergraduate and general readership.

Wallace Arthur (Author)

9780521541619, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 27 May 2004

248 pages, 38 b/w illus.
22.8 x 15.3 x 1.3 cm, 0.41 kg

'… 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

What determines the direction of evolutionary change? This book provides a revolutionary answer to this question. Many biologists, from Darwin's day to our own, have been satisfied with the answer 'natural selection'. Professor Wallace Arthur is not. He takes the controversial view that biases in the ways that embryos can be altered are just as important as natural selection in determining the directions that evolution has taken, including the one that led to the origin of humans. This argument forms the core of the book. However, in addition, the book summarizes other important issues relating to how embryonic (and post-embryonic) development evolves. Written in an easy, conversational style, this is the first book for students and the general reader that provides an account of the exciting new field of Evolutionary Developmental Biology ('Evo-Devo' to its proponents).

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.

Subject Areas: Developmental biology [PSC], Evolution [PSAJ]