Natural selection
Subtitle: domains, levels, and challenges
By: George C. Williams.
Series: Oxford series in ecology and evolution
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Published: 1992
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 208
Subjects: Natural selection
Description: "In this work, George C. Williams - one of evolutionary biology's most distinguished scholars - examines the mechanism and meaning of natural selection in evolution. Williams offers his own perspective on modern evolutionary theory, including discussions of the gene as the unit of selection, clade selection and macroevolution, diversity within and among populations, stasis, and other timely and provocative topics. In dealing with the levels-of-selection controversy, he urges a pervasive form of the replicator-vehicle distinction. Natural selection, he argues, takes place in the separate domains of information and matter. Levels-of-selection questions, consequently, require different theoretical devices depending on the domain being discussed. In addressing these topics, Williams presents his synthesis of three decades of research and creative thought which have contributed greatly to evolutionary biology in this century."--BOOK JACKET.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. [154]-189) and index.