Description
Book SynopsisDevelopmental Plasticity and Evolution is the first comprehensive synthesis on development and evolution: it applies to all aspects of development, at all levels of organization and in all organisms, taking advantage of modern findings on behaviour, genetics, endocrinology, molecular biology, evolutionary theory and phylogenetics to show the connections between developmental mechanisms and evolutionary change. This book solves key problems that have impeded a definitive synthesis in the past. It uses new concepts and specific examples to show how to relate environmentally sensitive development to the genetic theory of adaptive evolution and to explain major patterns of change.In this book development includes not only embryology and the ontogeny of morphology, sometimes portrayed inadequately as governed by regulatory genes, but also behavioural development and psychological adaptation, where plasticity is mediated by genetically complex mechanisms like hormones and learning. The book
Trade ReviewNo other treatment of development and evolution since Darwin's offers such a comprehensive and critical discussion of the relevant issues. * Ethology Ecology & Evolution *
The arguments of this book call for a new view of the major themes of evolutionary biology. * Ethology Ecology & Evolution *
This book satisfies the need for a truly general book on development, plasticity and evolution that applies to living organisms in all of their life stages and environments. * Ethology Ecology & Evolution *
This book solves key problems that have impeded a definitive sythesis in the past. * Ethology Ecology & Evolution *
The first comprehensive synthesis on development and evolution. * Ethology Ecology & Evolution *
Table of ContentsPart 1: Framework for a Synthesis ; 1. Gaps and Inconsistencies in Modern Evolutionary Thought ; 2. Material for a Synthesis ; 3. The Nature of the Phenotype: Plasticity ; 4. The Nature of the Phenotype: Modularity ; 5. Development ; 6. Adaptive Evolution ; 7. General Principles of Development and Evolution ; 8. Darwin's Theory of Development and Evolution ; Part 2: The Origins of Novelty ; 9. The Nature and Analysis of Phenotype Transitions ; 10. Duplication ; 11. Deletion ; 12. Reversion ; 13. Heterochrony ; 14. Heterotopy ; 15. Cross-sexual Transfer ; 16. Correlated Shifts in Quantitative Traits ; 17. Combinational Evolution at the Molecular Level ; 18. Phenotypic Recombination by Learning ; 19. Recurrent Phenotypes ; Part 3: Alternative Phenotypes ; 20. Alternative Pheontypes as a Phase of Evolution ; 21. Divergence without Speciation ; 22. Maintenance without Equilibrium ; 23. Assessment ; Part 4: Developmental Plasticity and the Major Themes of Evolutionary Biology ; 24. Gradualism ; 25. Homology ; 26. Environmental Modifications ; 27. Speciation ; 28. Adaptive Radiation ; 29. Macroevolution ; 30. Punctuation ; 31. One Final Word: Sex
