Customer Reviews

Evolution, Second Edition

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

I must say that this is one of the best evolutionary biology textbooks available for an undergraduate student. I personally used the previous edition before graduation thus this one was not available yet but the new edition seems to be even more elegant and informatic. And the most imortant thing of all - it is quite easy to understand as other Futuyma's textbooks as well.

Of course, it is a kind of thin and most ceartinly it is not enough for a person willing to get e.g. a PhD on evoltonary biology or ecology. It still remains a good companion for those whose field is not specifically evobio and of course, as I mentioned before, it is brilliant for undergraduates. If anyone asked me what should be the student's first gate to evolution I would surely recommend this texbook.

The book was sent promptly and it was still in the shrink wrap. The edition was correct also. I would recommend this buyer to others.

It got here in time and in great condition. You get exactly what you pay for. I thought the transaction went over fast and without any problems.

I'm a senior in biology, and have been using this book for my evolution class. Well, not much can be said other than it's great. Well written, good use of the technical language, very nice examples, etc, etc, etc...

I found this book informative and engaging. Futuyma covers a wide breadth of biology and provides case studies and recent research to illustrate his points.

Also, I found the loose-leaf version useful. It was slightly cheaper, and I was able to split it up in a 3-ring binder so I could read the portions I needed wherever I was at the time. However, be aware that the pages can become crumpled because there is _literally_ no binding, just 3 holes on the left-side margin. I was surprised when I received the book.

I understand that Futyma (author) is somewhat of a big shot in the Evo world. However, this addition is far from perfect and it appears that the following addition is about the same. It is dirt cheap so getting the book was no brainer, however, it mostly put me to sleep - although I love any subject in Biology. If you have any worries about not getting the newest addition then do not worry - just get this one! Good luck with the course!

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 beef up my credentials. The professor decided to use this book in an introductory Evolution course. Futuyma works at Stony Brook, and is a renowned evolutionary biologist himself, so one expects that the book would be outstanding.

However, what one finds is a fragmented book that is too jargon heavy. The chapters are poorly organized, and instead of explaining complicated concepts in terminology that an undergraduate student with limited background in the subject could understand, he uses vocabulary too field-specific. He is also extremely wordy and biased in his presentation of some concepts. What should be presented as a debate is sometimes presented as a fact.

This leads me to ask, "What is the purpose of the book then if it can't reach and interest undergraduates?" Also, there are a plethora of examples and studies in the book, but these are poorly related to the purpose of each chapter, and require reading a couple of times before you understand what concept he is relating the examples to. The online quizzes that come with the book are equally sufferable and detail-oriented rather than concept oriented.

The only commendable parts of this book are the pictures/graphs and their captions (which explain in two sentences what three paragraphs weren't able to convey), and the end-of-chapter summaries, which succintly capture the ideas that are belabored and poorly explained in the chapter itself.