num_pages: 418
description: Since 1869, when its inaugural issue appeared, the international journal Nature has been at the forefront of research in the life sciences, publishing sometimes controversial, even revolutionary work in such fields as genetics, molecular biology, and evolutionary theory. Its first issue included T. H. Huxley's report on Triassic dinosaurs, which brought public attention to the new discipline of paleontology; subsequent issues helped rehabilitate the reputation of Gregor Mendel and revise the human fossil record, among other achievements. Lately, through exponents such as senior editor Henry Gee, Nature has advocated work in cladistics, a taxonomic system that considers ecological relationships as well as evolutionary lineages in classifying living things, which Gee has elsewhere called "a revolution in thought as profound as that of Darwinian evolution by natural selection." In Shaking the Tree , useful as both reference and survey text, Gee offers 19 review articles from recent issues of Nature , addressing such topics as the theory of punctuated equilibrium, the origin of terrestrial plants, the evolution of birds from carnivorous dinosaurs, and the manifold causes of mass extinction in distant geological epochs. The contributors include Stephen Jay Gould, John Maynard Smith, Caro-Beth Stewart, and other leading scientists, all of whom fulfill Gee's promise to "provide added spice to nourishing-but-bland textbook fare." --Gregory McNamee
language: English
title: Shaking the tree
titlecomplete: Shaking the tree
genres: Nonfiction
ratings_count: 1
publisher: Springer