EVOLUTION AN INTRODUCTION

A major new textbook. A concise and clear introduction to evolutionary biology. This book introduces what is essential and exciting in evolutionary biology. It covers whole field and emphasises the important concepts for the student. Care has been taken to express complex and stimulating ideas in simple language, while the frequent examples and running summaries make reading fun. Its logical structure means that it can be read straight through, one chapter per sitting. * Concise, clear, and states what is important * Concentrates on the central concepts and illustrates them with telling examples * Running summaries in the margins make navigation easy * Suitable for a one-year or one-semester course in evolution * Summaries at chapter ends * Each chapter's links to neighbouring chapters are explained Evolution: an introduction takes a fresh approach to classical topics such as population genetics and natural selection, and gives an overview of recent advances in hot areas such as sexual selection, genetic conflict, life history evolution, and phenotypic plasticity. Detail of contents The Prologue is unique and uniquely motivating. It makes four central points about evolution in the form of four case studies told as brief stories. Chapters 1-3 describe natural selection and the essential difference between adaptive and neutral evolution with unmatched clarity and simplicity. Chapter 4 emphasizes the essential message of population genetics without burdening the students with any of the unessential details and places unique emphasis on the role of the genetic system in constraining the response to selection. Chapter 6 is not found in any other evolution textbook, although there are a number of recent books on the subject, and it therefore provides an introductory overview of a topic that has been the object of much recent interest and promises to generate much more insight: the expression of genetic variation analysed with the concept of reaction norms. Chapters 7-9 co