The Origin of Animal Body Plans: A Study in Evolutionary Developmental Biology [Paperback]

Wallace Arthur (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0521779286 | ISBN-13: 978-0521779289 | Publication Date: September 11, 2000 | Edition: 1

While neo-Darwinism has considerable explanatory power, it is widely recognized as lacking a component dealing with individual development, or ontogeny. This lack is particularly conspicuous when attempting to explain the evolutionary origin of the thirty-five or so animal body plans, and of the developmental trajectories that generate them. This significant work examines both the origin of body plans in particular and the evolution of animal development in general. Wallace Arthur ranges widely in his treatment, covering topics as diverse as comparative developmental genetics, selection theory, and Vendian/Cambrian fossils. He places particular emphasis on gene duplication, changes in spatio-temporal gene-expression patterns, internal selection, coevolution of interacting genes, and coadaptation. The book will be of particular interest to students and researchers in evolutionary biology, genetics, paleontology, and developmental biology.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"...excellent new book on evolution and development. He steers a pragmatic middle course between two complementary approaches to 'evo-devo'." Heredity

"Arthur's book is an outstanding contribution to unifying developmental and evolutionary biology. The integration of popular genetics and ecology is particularly strong, and begins to fill a big gap in literature. Arthur does not shy away from making predictions, and rarely misses an opportunity to point out fruitful areas for future work. His writing is clear, concise, and insightful, making the book a delight to read. This book is required reading for anyone interested in the evolution of development." Gregory Wray, State University of New York, Stony Brook

"The Origin of Animal Body Plans is an attractive, well-articulated and highly readable argument for expanding our current awareness of evolutionary processes. It helps to usher in a fully-fledged discipline of Evolutionary Developmental Biology which, among other things, emphasizes the importance of 'internal selection.'" Alessandro Minelli, University of Padua

"...it takes a brave soul to tackle the subject. Authors venturing into this area must have a sound command of the breadth of several disciplines, combined with the depth that a historical perspective offers. They must be able to use language flawlessly...Wallace Arthur, though, scoops the pool...He sets out what he is going to say, says it with precision, and moves on. Concepts are summarized in handy tables and diagrams. No metaphysics, no sliding panels, Arthur just tells it like it is. For those who have found this subject daunting, this is the book for you." Biological Journal of the Linnean Society

"Neo-Darwinism, to Arthur, is not 'wrong' but it is incomplete and 'horribly lopsided'. This book helps to remedy that situation." Reports

Book Description

The neo-Darwinist body of evolutionary theory occupies a dominant position in biological thought but it lacks a component dealing with individual development, or ontogeny. This lack is particularly conspicuous in relation to attempts to explain the evolutionary origin of the 35 or so animal body plans, and of the developmental trajectories that generate them. This book examines both the origin of body plans in particular and the evolution of animal development in general. In doing so, it ranges widely, covering topics as diverse as comparative developmental genetics, selection theory and Vendian/Cambrian fossils.

Product Details

• Paperback: 360 pages
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press; 1 edition (September 11, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0521779286
• ISBN-13: 978-0521779289
• Product Dimensions: 10 x 7 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #121,291 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #42 in Books > Professional & Technical > Professional Science > Biological Sciences > Biology > Developmental Biology
  • #51 in Books > Professional & Technical > Professional Science > Evolution > Organic

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Body plans, hox genes, and developmental biology, December 18, 2000

By 

John C. Landon "nemonemini" (New York City) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Origin of Animal Body Plans: A Study in Evolutionary Developmental Biology (Hardcover)

This work is a technical introduction to evolutionary developmental biology and introduces a very different perspective on evolution from what one is used to in the usual biology texts. In spite of its moderate difficulty, to a non-specialist, it is actually much clearer than simplified versions of Darwinism, and one can recommend it strongly as a perspective on the separate current to the Neo-Darwinian synthesis that has flowed from its nineteenth century origins parallel to Darwin. In the age of the Genome this dark side of the moon as to theoretical paradigms is coming into full view. The book starts with an exhortation to the reader "to believe that current evolutionary theory based on natural selection and adaptation in natural lineages is, at the very least, incomplete..." The author asks, did "evolution really have an early 'morphogenetic' phase during which most major body plans originated?" The difficulty of explaining the fact that no phylum-level body plans have arisen in the last 500 my becomes one of the starting points of the book. In general this perspective asks for the creative aspect of development beyond the destructive aspect of natural selection models. From there the book proceeds to the issues of cladism, body plans, genetic regulation, and many other topics in a comprehensive presentation. The crucial significance of all this for understanding evolution and extricating oneself from disinformation in the Darwin debate are obvious. Much of the boilerplate and blah-blah of the public discourse on evolution can be left behind in a fast getaway into some better fare than the current offerings. We are beginning to catch a glimpse of a new world of evolution, one that has been with us all along in embryo, as forseen by such biologists as Soren Lovtrup in Darwinism: Refutation of a Myth. That day is now arriving.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Different evolutionary contexts when body plans originated, July 2, 2005

By 

Rick Pierson (Dothan, AL United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Origin of Animal Body Plans: A Study in Evolutionary Developmental Biology (Paperback)

Let's see, my take on the book in a nutshell: the conditions under which evolution operated during the Cambrian/Vendian times were different from the conditions following that time in two main ways, and these differences can potentially account for the origin of the many animal body plans during those early periods and the lack of new ones since.

First, ~550 million years ago most animals were very much simpler (fewer cells, for example) than they are today, so changes to their developmental programs would have been better tolerated. The more complex any system is (the more parts it has, the more coordinated and well-matched those parts must be, etc.), the more rigidly constrained and less amenable to a given magnitude of change it is. So the simpler developmental processes (simpler adult-form end product, fewer interactions between developmental genes, etc.) of early animals would have allowed for a 'large-scale' change to be incorporated into that animal's ontogeny, though if a change of the same magnitude were to occur today, it would be too disruptive to the complex developmental program and would be eliminated (note that 'large-scale change' refers to the adult form: the actual change that caused that altered end result could be a typical small scale mutation, in an early developmental stage). The author is not proposing Goldschmidt's "hopeful monsters" that occur due to 'macromutations', but rather an intermediate position between that and the "only micromutations" view of gradualistic neo-Darwinism. And, as just mentioned, mutations in developmental processes (even ones that resulted in 'macromutations' in the adult form) would have been more tolerated in the simpler animals that existed ~550 mya than they would be in today's.

Second, ~550 million years ago animal diversity was extremely more limited than it is today, so there was a huge number of open niches: a plentitude the likes of which has never again existed on our planet. An organism that happened to find itself in one of the multitude of open niches (by means of a "semi-macro" mutation, the product of a change in a developmental gene) would have faced little if any competition. The reduced external competition would potentially allow the morpholigical variation(s), that would otherwise likely have been eliminated, to persist. (The sudden change could leave the organism with a lower level of internal coordination: over time, internal cooadaptation could evolve to 'catch up' with the change in morphology: these internal adjustments would leave no trace in the fossil record).

Combining these two ideas produces a reasonable explanation of the 'explosion' in new body plans in Vendian/Cambrian times.

Of course there's much more to the book than my above "nutshell" presentation. The Evo-Devo perspective presented in the book allowed me to view evolution in a new way: it gave me a better understanding of the "creative" side of evolution than I had before when viewing things solely from a gradualistic, neo-Darwinian frame of reference.

PS: The book is "aged" (1997) but is not outdated.