Description
Book SynopsisFor more than a century, we were restricted to studying evolution from the outside, observing its progress only through the fossil record. No longer. We can now also read the DNA record. As well as containing the operating instructions for everyday existence and for making the next generation, DNA contains a vast and detailed history of the three-billion-year development of life on Earth. It is a living chronicle
of evolution, pinpointing the precise changes that have enabled Earth's marvelous creatures to inhabit the planet's shifting environments, from the freezing waters of the Antarctic to the lush canopy of the rainforest.
Captivating and lucid, The Making of the Fittest delves deep into the DNA record to reveal not just how the fittest survive but also how they are made.
Trade ReviewDazzling work, passionate and magisterial. Nothing of more lasting importance than the core narrative of this book will be published this year - Guardian * Guardian *
Table of ContentsPreface Beyond Any Reasonable Doubt. Chapter 1 Introduction: The Bloodless Fish of Bouvet Island. Chapter 2 The Everyday Math of Evolution: Chance, Selection, and Time. Chapter 3 Immortal Genes: Running in Place for Eons. Chapter 4 Making the New from the Old. Chapter 5 Fossil Genes: Broken Pieces of Yesterday's Life. Chapter 6 Deja Vu: How and Why Evolution Repeats Itself. Chapter 7 Our Flesh and Blood: Arms Races, the Human Race, and Natural Selection. Chapter 8 The Making and Evolution of Complexity. Chapter 9 Seeing and Believing. Chapter 10 The Palm Trees of Wyoming. Sources and Further Reading. Acknowledgements. Index.
