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Populations, Species, and Evolution: An Abridgment of <i>Animal Species and Evolution</i> (Belknap Press)
 
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Populations, Species, and Evolution: An Abridgment of Animal Species and Evolution (Belknap Press) [ABRIDGED] (Paperback)

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Editorial Reviews

Product Description

Representative of the international acclaim accorded Ernst Mayr's Animal Species and Evolution, published in 1963, is Sir Julian Huxley's description of it as "a magistral book... certainly the most important study of evolution that has appeared in many years--perhaps since the publication of The Origin of Species." In his extraordinary book, Mr. Mayr fully explored, synthesized, and evaluated man's knowledge about the nature of animal species and the part they play in the process of evolution.

Now, in this long-awaited abridged edition, Mr. Mayr's definitive work is made available to the interested nonspecialist, the college student, and the general reader. The author has retained the dominant themes of his original study--themes now more widely accepted than they were in 1963: the species is the most important unit of evolution; individuals (and not genes) are the targets of natural selection, hence the fitness of "a" gene is a nebulous if not misleading concept; and the most important genetic phenomena in species are species-specific regulatory systems that give species internal cohesion.

Each of the twenty chapters of the original edition has been revised; six have been extensively reworked. Discussions of peripheral subjects and massive citations of the literature have been eliminated, but the glossary has been greatly expanded. The focal point of the volume is, naturally, the species--a reproductively isolated aggregate of interbreeding populations. Presenting an overview of evolutionary biology in Chapter 1, Mr. Mayr then considers the nature of species, their population structure, their biological interactions, the multiplication of species, and their role in evolution.

Because of the impossibility of experimenting with man and because an understanding of man's biology is indispensable for safeguarding his future, emphasis throughout the book is placed on those findings from higher animals which are directly applicable to man. The last chapter, "Man as a Biological Species," is of particular interest to the general reader. Mr. Mayr concludes that while modern man appears to be as well adapted for survival purposes as were his ancestors, there is much evidence to suggest that he is threatened by the loss of his most typically human characteristics.



About the Author

Ernst Mayr is Alexander Agassiz Professor of Zoology, Emeritus, at Harvard University. He is also the recipient of numerous honorary degrees and awards, including the Crafoord Prize for Biology, the National Medal of Science, the Balzan Prize, and the Japan Prize.

Product Details

  • Paperback: 453 pages
  • Publisher: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press; Abridged edition (January 1, 1970)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0674690133
  • ISBN-13: 978-0674690134
  • Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.5 x 1.5 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
  • Amazon.com Sales Rank: #883,519 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Absolutely Wonderful Introduction to Evolutionary Biology, July 11, 2008
I cannot praise this book highly enough. It is slightly outdated, of course, since it was originally published in 1970. For example, you should ignore the entire last chapter (on human evolutionary history), and Mayr is incorrect about the evolutionary history of human head and body lice, but the basic ideas of the book still apply today.

This book is great because Mayr is a master of laying out comlex material straightforwardly, interestingly, in a well-organized fashion, and with lots of helpful illustrations. Mayr talks about how variation in traits is maintained in animal populations(mutation, sexual recombination), how variation is lost (natural selection, genetic drift), and also talks about genetic mechanisms which tend to shield genetic variation from being lost. He talks a lot also about biogeography and populations, clines and isophenes (this last word was a new one on me). As one might expect from one of the architects of the modern synthesis, his explanation of the relationship between genetics and the origin of novel species is a miracle of clarity. Again: I cannot recommend this book highly enough.

This book is especially nice because it bridges the gap between the modern evolutionary synthesis of the '30s and '40s and what came after. Mayr wrote this at a time when people were just beginning to realize how regulatory genes work, and what their evolutionary importance might be. This book represents the midway point between work by Dobzhansky and the population geneticists in the '30s and '40s and the birth of evolutionary developmental biology (evo-devo) in the '80s and '90s.

I have only two problems with the book. First, the last chapter is garbage by today's standards. Those parts of it which have not been superseded by more recent scientific work are facile arguments which are out of place in a book of this nature. Mayr argues vehemently, for example, that human overbreeding should be seen as every bit as morally reprehensible as murder.

My second problem is that the book is a bit outdated--something for which Mayr cannot be faulted. You might want to follow it up with something more recent, maybe something by Douglas Futuyma. Mayr's book is so well-written, well-illustrated, well-organized, and informative, however, that I must still give it five stars in spite of these problems.

A word of warning: this is not a beach read. It is an abridgement of one of Mayr's earlier works, but it is still a bit technical, and thus should not be the first book you ever read about the theory of evolution. If you understand how DNA transcription and translation work, however, and you know the basic ideas about natural selection and speciation, and have taken at least one or two college-level biology classes, you should be fine. You will definitely find yourself using the glossary.

Buy it, read it, kiss it, cook it dinner. This book is spectacular.
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