Evolution

Douglas Futuyma is recognized as one of the world's leading evolutionary biologists. His research is focused on the evolution and coevolution of ecological interactions among different species, especially between plants and herbivorous insects. His work with insects and host plants began as research to account for all of the genetic variation that has occurred in evolution. He is well known as the author of a leading college textbook on biological evolution and of a trade book that addresses creationist opposition to teaching avolution. Mark Kirkpatrick is T.S. Painter Centennial Professor of Genetics at the University of Texas, Austin and heads the Kirkpatrick Lab. His work uses mathematical models and develops statistical tools to test hypotheses. Topics of focus include: chromosome evolution, speciation, sexual selection and species ranges.

• Chapter 1: An Idea that Changed the WorldChapter 2: The Tree of LifeChapter 3: Natural Selection and AdaptationChapter 4: Mutation and VariationChapter 5: The Genetical Theory of Natural SelectionChapter 6: Genetic Drift: Evolution at RandomChapter 7: Quantitative TraitsChapter 8: Evolution in SpaceChapter 9: Species and SpeciationChapter 10: The Evolution of Genes and GenomesChapter 11: Evolution and DevelopmentChapter 12: All about SexChapter 13: Cooperation and ConflictChapter 14: Evolutionary Ecology: How to be FitChapter 15: Interactions among SpeciesChapter 16: Phylogeny: The Unity and Diversity of LifeChapter 17: The History of LifeChapter 18: The Geography of EvolutionChapter 19: Macroevolution: Evolution above the Species LevelChapter 20: The Evolutionary Story of Homo sapiensChapter 21: Evolution and SocietyChapter 22: A Statistics Primer

Evolution is good at providing a lot of empirical examples for each major concept, and I generally like the organization, particularly in the early units, where chapters build on each other in a good natural progression.