Evolution Making Sense of Life

About this Book
Cover Page
Half Title Page
Title Page
Copyright Page
Dedication
Brief Contents
Contents
Preface
Visual Preface
Acknowledgments
About the Authors
Chapter 1: The Whale and the Virus
1.1 Whales: Mammals Gone to Sea
Evolution as a Gradual Process
Visualizing Evolutionary History
Chemistry of Whales
Embryos and Teeth
Cetacean Brains
Whale Diversity Through Time
1.2 Viruses: The Deadly Escape Artists
Anatomy of a Virus
Viral Reassortment
Detecting New Viruses
1.3 Evolution: A Tapestry of Concepts
To Sum Up …
Multiple Choice Questions
Interpret the Data
Short Answer Questions
Additional Reading
Primary Literature Cited in Chapter 1
Chapter 2: From Natural Philosophy to Darwin
2.1 Conceptions of Nature Before Darwin
The Great Chain of Being
Linnaean Classification
The Fossil Record
Natural Theology
2.2 Evolution Before Darwin
Fossils and Extinctions
Lamarck’s Theory of Evolution
2.3 The Unofficial Naturalist
Common Descent
Natural Selection
2.4 Darwin’s Ideas in the Twenty-First Century
To Sum Up …
Multiple Choice Questions
Interpret the Data
Short Answer Questions
Additional Reading
Primary Literature Cited in Chapter 2
Chapter 3: What the Rocks Say
3.1 Debating the Age of Earth
3.2 A Curious Lack of Radioactivity
Radioactive Decay
3.3 A Vast Museum
3.4 Bringing Fossils to Life
Applying Physics to Paleontology
A Wealth of Data
3.5 Traces of Vanished Biology
3.6 Setting the Stage for Life on Earth
3.7 Life’s Early Signatures
3.8 The Rise of Life
3.9 Life Gets Big
3.10 The Dawn of the Animal Kingdom
3.11 Climbing Ashore
3.12 Recent Arrivals
To Sum Up …
Multiple Choice Questions
Interpret the Data
Short Answer Questions
Additional Reading
Primary Literature Cited in Chapter 3
Chapter 4: The Tree of Life
4.1 Tree Thinking
Constructing Phylogenetic Trees
Reading Phylogenetic Trees
4.2 Phylogeny and Taxonomy
4.3 Reconstructing Phylogenies
Synapomorphies
Homoplasy
Parsimony
Consensus Trees
4.4 Fossils, Phylogeny, and the Timing of Evolution
4.5 Charting the Major Transitions of Evolution with Phylogenies: From Sea to Land
4.6 Homology as a Window Into Evolutionary History
The Mammalian Ear and Its Homologies
4.7 How Feathered Dinosaurs Took Flight
To Sum Up …
Multiple Choice Questions
Interpret the Data
Short Answer Questions
Additional Reading
Primary Literature Cited in Chapter 4
Chapter 5: Raw Material