Biased Embryos and Evolution

by Wallace Arthur

Overview

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521833820
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	05/27/2004
Pages:	248
Product dimensions:	6.22(w) x 9.29(h) x 0.67(d)

About the Author

Professor Wallace Arthur is in the Integrative Biology Group at the University of Sunderland, UK. He is the author of six previous books.

Table of Contents

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.

Editorial Reviews

"It is written with exemplary clarity and charm..." Nature

From the Publisher