In search of the causes of evolution
Subtitle: from field observations to mechanisms
By: edited by Peter R. Grant & B. Rosemary Grant
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Published: 2010
Place of publication: Princeton
Language: eng
Number of pages: 380
ISBN-13: 9780691146812; 9780691146959
Subjects: Evolution (Biology); Species diversity
Description: From the publisher. Evolutionary biology has witnessed breathtaking advances in recent years. Some of its most exciting insights have come from the crossover of disciplines as varied as paleontology, molecular biology, ecology, and genetics. This book brings together many of today's pioneers in evolutionary biology to describe the latest advances and explain why a cross-disciplinary and integrated approach to research questions is so essential. Contributors discuss the origins of biological diversity, mechanisms of evolutionary change at the molecular and developmental levels, morphology and behavior, and the ecology of adaptive radiations and speciation. They highlight the mutual dependence of organisms and their environments, and reveal the different strategies today's researchers are using in the field and laboratory to explore this interdependence. Peter and Rosemary Grant-renowned for their influential work on Darwin's finches in the Galapagos-provide concise introductions to each section and identify the key questions future research needs to address.
Notes: Outgrowth of a symposium held on Sept. 5, 2008, at Princeton University, on the occasion of the editors' retirement from teaching. Cf. pref.

Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: The; title: big picture : a tripartite view of life and environments through time  -- Andrew H. Knoll and David T. Johnston; title: Macroevolutionary trends in time and space  -- David Jablonski; title: Dinosaurs live!  -- Philip J. Currie; title: Phylogeography and phylogenetics in the nuclear age  -- Christopher N. Balakrishnan, June Y. Lee, and Scott V. Edwards -- The; title: flexibility of butterfly wing color patterns and evolution in morphospace  -- Paul M. Brakefield and Mathieu Joron; title: Genetics, geology, and miracles  -- David Kingsley; title: Evolutionary genetics of pigmentation loss in the blind Mexican cavefish  -- Joshua B. Gross and Clifford J. Tabin -- A; title: developmental view of exaggerated growth and conditional expression in the weapons of sexual selection  -- Douglas J. Emlen; title: How does morphology affect performance in variable environments?  -- Mimi A.R. Koehl; title: In search of the elusive behavior gene  -- Hopi E. Hoekstra; title: There must be finches -; title: Charles Darwin, prickly pears, and pollination biology  -- May R. Berenbaum -- The; title: adaptive radiation of coevolving prodoxid moths and their host plants : Greya moths and yucca moths  -- John N. Thompson; title: Ecological and geographical influences on the allopatric phase of island speciation  -- Trevor Price ... [et al.]; title: Geographical mode and evolutionary mechanism of ecological speciation in cichlid fish  -- Ole Seehausen and Isabel Santos Magalhaes -- A; title: tale of two radiations : similarities and differences in the evolutionary diversification of Darwin's finches and Greater Antillean Anolis lizards  -- Jonathan B. Losos; title: Clarifying the mechanisms of evolution in sticklebacks using field studies of natural selection on genes  -- Rowan D.H. Barrett and Dolph Schluter -- The; title: book and the future : perspective and prospective  -- Peter R. Grant and B. Rosemary Grant -- A; title: festival for Rosemary and Peter Grant -- David B. Wake.