The Discovery of Evolution

This 2007 book explains what the theory of evolution is all about by providing a historical narrative of discovery.

David Young (Author)

9780521687461, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 9 August 2007

306 pages, 132 b/w illus. 16 colour illus.
24.6 x 18.8 x 1.8 cm, 0.55 kg

'It is written by a talented specialist from Australia, who tells amazing stories about evolutionary developments in the natural sciences. … Young is [an] inspired writer who [has given] us an outstanding possibility to learn the history of … evolutionary knowledge and to feel those incredible efforts applied to obtain its framework … Reading this book will be a great pleasure for every specialist in the bio- and geosciences as well as for all amateurs …' Phylogenie und Evolution

Originally published in 2007, The Discovery of Evolution explains what the theory of evolution is all about by providing a historical narrative of discovery. Some of the major puzzles that confront anyone studying living things are discussed and it details how these were solved from an evolutionary perspective. Beginning with the emergence of the early naturalists in the seventeenth century, the scientific discoveries that led up to and then flowed from Darwin and Wallace's theory of evolution by natural selection are then discussed, and finally the modern evolutionary studies at the close of the twentieth century are detailed. This new edition of The Discovery of Evolution is fully updated and contains a new chapter on the evolutionary studies of the twentieth century. By approaching the topic of evolution in this way, it is made accessible to the non-specialist and no previous study of biology is required in order to read and understand this book.

Introduction
1. Evolution - journey's guide
2. Puzzles for the naturalist
3. Matters of place and time
4. A natural history of creation
5. The species question
6. Life's genealogy and natural selection
7. A rich inheritance
8. Synthesis and species
9. The continuing journey
10. Evolution, truth, theory or myth?
Evolutionary who's who
Evolutionary reading
References.

Subject Areas: Evolution [PSAJ]