In its scope and emphases, Evolution is a readily recognized descendant of the author's previous textbook, Evolutionary Biology. However, it is much shorter and is exclusively directed toward an undergraduate audience. Teachers and students will find the list of important concepts and terms in each chapter a helpful guide, and will appreciate the radically different dynamic figures and lively photographs. The content of all chapters has been updated, and material has been reorganized into new chapters such as "Conflict and Cooperation" and "How To Be Fit." Contributors Scott M. Edwards and John R. True have provided authoritative chapters on "Evolution of Genes and Genomes" and "Development and Evolution," two of the most rapidly developing subjects in evolutionary biology. A new final chapter on "Evolutionary Science, Creationism, and Society" treats such topics as the nature of science and the practical applications of evolutionary biology.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
Review
Because it strikes the right balance between breadth and detail, and is conscientiously written with the student in mind, Futuyma s Evolution will resonate in the classroom. --Joel Cracraft, American Museum of Natural History
Doug Futuyma [makes] me want to be an undergraduate again, so that I can dedicate more hours to poring over the pages of his wonderful text. ... it is really a one-stop-shop for up-to-date assessments of what we do and do not know about evolution. ... There is hardly a page of this book lacking in skillfully chosen and crafted imagery. ... there is a carefully selected beauty here of a kind that could serve to inspire and inform students at so many levels, including those of us who are students for life. --Rich Mooi, Integrative and Comparative Biology
Doug Futuyma [makes] me want to be an undergraduate again, so that I can dedicate more hours to poring over the pages of his wonderful text. ... it is really a one-stop-shop for up-to-date assessments of what we do and do not know about evolution. ... There is hardly a page of this book lacking in skillfully chosen and crafted imagery. ... there is a carefully selected beauty here of a kind that could serve to inspire and inform students at so many levels, including those of us who are students for life. --Rich Mooi, Integrative and Comparative Biology --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Doug Futuyma [makes] me want to be an undergraduate again, so that I can dedicate more hours to poring over the pages of his wonderful text. ... it is really a one-stop-shop for up-to-date assessments of what we do and do not know about evolution. ... There is hardly a page of this book lacking in skillfully chosen and crafted imagery. ... there is a carefully selected beauty here of a kind that could serve to inspire and inform students at so many levels, including those of us who are students for life. --Rich Mooi, Integrative and Comparative Biology
Doug Futuyma [makes] me want to be an undergraduate again, so that I can dedicate more hours to poring over the pages of his wonderful text. ... it is really a one-stop-shop for up-to-date assessments of what we do and do not know about evolution. ... There is hardly a page of this book lacking in skillfully chosen and crafted imagery. ... there is a carefully selected beauty here of a kind that could serve to inspire and inform students at so many levels, including those of us who are students for life. --Rich Mooi, Integrative and Comparative Biology --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
About the Author
DOUGLAS FUTUYMA Ph.D. 1969, University of Michigan , Douglas Futuyma's research interests in evolution focus primarily on speciation and the evolution of ecological interactions among species. He has been a Guggenheim and a Fulbright Fellow, the President of the Society for the Study of Evolution and the American Society of Naturalists, and the editor of Evolution
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
74 of 77 people found the following review helpful
By DR P. Dash
Format:Hardcover
This looks to be the major text on evolution for undergrads, and it's a good one. However, it is essentially a text on evolutionary science and principles, and so if your interest is in a more detailed account of the specifics of organismal evolution at the level of the family or order you will find only spotty examples. There's quite a bit of population biology and quantitative genetics. Only in the final chapters is there a discussion of evo-devo and the importance in evolution of mechanisms such as mutations in regulatory regions of proteins, gene duplication and divergence, and the modularity of protein structure and how exon shuffling can instantly produce new proteins with new functions. These genetic mechanisms are much more important in evolution than mutations in the structural regions of proteins, which tend to be highly conserved even at the phylogenetic level. The book has plenty of color illustrations and is well written. It's a sad commentary on our times that the final chapter had to be written on refuting creationist nonsense, but DJF does a particularly excellent job here, and for those interested it can be read without having to read the rest of the text. In fact I think this chapter should be published as a small monograph and made required reading for all high school students so as to inoculate them against the pernicious lies creationists try to propogate. An understanding of evolution is critical for everybody, and yet only a tiny perentage of US citizens have a grasp of even the most basic evolutionary facts and principles.
42 of 46 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
This is the up-to-date edition of a standard in the field, recommended reading for the serious biologist. An understanding of biology hinges on an understanding of evolution. The book reads very easily, but is not "dumbed down" in any way. It covers the subject widely. It is well illustrated.
55 of 62 people found the following review helpful
By Ned
Format:Hardcover
This is probably the fourth or fifth book I've used as a teaching assistant for a senior level course in evolutionary biology. And to be honest, I was very, very, disappointed with this book from a teaching perspective. I have two main issues with this book, organization of topics and depth of discussion.
There's not a lot to say about the organization that can't be gleaned from the TOC. How do you discuss the geography of evolution and patterns of biodiversity prior to discussing mechanisms of speciation (let alone what a species is)? How do you effectively discuss phylogenetic trees without first discussing speciation and species concepts? Worse, how can you discuss molecular clocks prior to ANYTHING about molecular evolution?
You can't.
Futuyma's previous book was often criticized for being too in depth for undergraduates. I never understood that criticism since you can always tell your students what parts of which chapters to read. Regardless, this book goes drastically in the opposite direction. When a student wants to discuss limits to the molecular clock, don't expect the text to discuss mutational saturation (the term isn't in the index and I didn't find it anywhere in the text). This sort of omission is all too common and the discussion of most topics is overly superficial.
I would recommend the newest Freeman and Herron Evolutionary Analysis over this text. F&H had some problems in earlier versions but many have been fixed. F&H also have the best figures around, for example they manage to present multivariate selection gradients in an approachable way! I didn't even know that was possible. They also provide really useful boxes for a wide variety of topics (e.g. algebraic treatments of mutation-selection balance or stable equilibria). I'm currently having to teach using Futuyma's book and routinely use F&H figures and make copies of their boxes for my students.
Better yet, have your students find used copies of Futuyma's old text which was great.
There's not a lot to say about the organization that can't be gleaned from the TOC. How do you discuss the geography of evolution and patterns of biodiversity prior to discussing mechanisms of speciation (let alone what a species is)? How do you effectively discuss phylogenetic trees without first discussing speciation and species concepts? Worse, how can you discuss molecular clocks prior to ANYTHING about molecular evolution?
You can't.
Futuyma's previous book was often criticized for being too in depth for undergraduates. I never understood that criticism since you can always tell your students what parts of which chapters to read. Regardless, this book goes drastically in the opposite direction. When a student wants to discuss limits to the molecular clock, don't expect the text to discuss mutational saturation (the term isn't in the index and I didn't find it anywhere in the text). This sort of omission is all too common and the discussion of most topics is overly superficial.
I would recommend the newest Freeman and Herron Evolutionary Analysis over this text. F&H had some problems in earlier versions but many have been fixed. F&H also have the best figures around, for example they manage to present multivariate selection gradients in an approachable way! I didn't even know that was possible. They also provide really useful boxes for a wide variety of topics (e.g. algebraic treatments of mutation-selection balance or stable equilibria). I'm currently having to teach using Futuyma's book and routinely use F&H figures and make copies of their boxes for my students.
Better yet, have your students find used copies of Futuyma's old text which was great.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
1.0 out of 5 stars
This book is horrible
I finished my undergraduate in Biochemistry two years (meaning I am not a whiny student who doesn't have a strong science background), and decided to take a course in Evolution to... Read more
Published on April 28, 2011 by Upper-level Science Student
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great seller
I highly recomend this seller. The book i bought was brand new, and yet the price was in the range of used books. Delivery was very fast
Published on August 14, 2009 by marija puric
4.0 out of 5 stars
Evolution
I purchased this product for my daughter to use for one of her college courses. The book was sent in a timely manner and in good condition.
Published on January 27, 2009 by Phyllis E. Vernon
2.0 out of 5 stars
Material is not what it could be
Although I am not a Geneticist or any kind of Biologist, I strongly contend that this book is poorly organized, grammatically incomprehensible, unclear at points, and extremely... Read more
Published on October 6, 2007 by N. J. Quinn
5.0 out of 5 stars
Evolution explained
Great book of knowledge towards understanding evolution and it's concepts. Even if your just curious and want to know how evolution works this is the book for you.
Published on January 28, 2007 by Carl
5.0 out of 5 stars
A brilliant textbook on evolutionary biology
I must say that this is one of the best evolutionary biology textbooks available for an undergraduate student. Read more
Published on April 9, 2006 by Andre Kaur
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