The Evolution of Complexity by Means of Natural Selection - read free eBook in online reader or directly download on the web page. Select files or add your book in reader. Download and read online ebook The Evolution of Complexity by Means of Natural Selection write by John Tyler Bonner. This book was released on 2020-12-08. The Evolution of Complexity by Means of Natural Selection available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. John Tyler Bonner makes a new attack on an old problem: the question of how progressive increase in the size and complexity of animals and plants has occurred. "How is it," he inquires, "that an egg turns into an elaborate adult? How is it that a bacterium, given many millions of years, could have evolved into an elephant?" The author argues that we can understand this progression in terms of natural selection, but that in order to do so we must consider the role of development--or more precisely the role of life cycles--in evolutionary change. In a lively writing style that will be familiar to readers of his work The Evolution of Culture in Animals (Princeton, 1980), Bonner addresses a general audience interested in biology, as well as specialists in all areas of evolutionary biology. What is novel in the approach used here is the comparison of complexity inside the organism (especially cell differentiation) with the complexity outside (that is, within an ecological community). Matters of size at both these levels are closely related to complexity. The book shows how an understanding of the grand course of evolution can come from combining our knowledge of genetics, development, ecology, and even behavior.
Biology's First Law
Biology's First Law - read free eBook in online reader or directly download on the web page. Select files or add your book in reader. Download and read online ebook Biology's First Law write by Daniel W. McShea. This book was released on 2010-07-15. Biology's First Law available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Life on earth is characterized by three striking phenomena that demand explanation: adaptation—the marvelous fit between organism and environment; diversity—the great variety of organisms; and complexity—the enormous intricacy of their internal structure. Natural selection explains adaptation. But what explains diversity and complexity? Daniel W. McShea and Robert N. Brandon argue that there exists in evolution a spontaneous tendency toward increased diversity and complexity, one that acts whether natural selection is present or not. They call this tendency a biological law—the Zero-Force Evolutionary Law, or ZFEL. This law unifies the principles and data of biology under a single framework and invites a reconceptualization of the field of the same sort that Newton’s First Law brought to physics. Biology’s First Law shows how the ZFEL can be applied to the study of diversity and complexity and examines its wider implications for biology. Intended for evolutionary biologists, paleontologists, and other scientists studying complex systems, and written in a concise and engaging format that speaks to students and interdisciplinary practitioners alike, this book will also find an appreciative audience in the philosophy of science.
Randomness in Evolution
Randomness in Evolution - read free eBook in online reader or directly download on the web page. Select files or add your book in reader. Download and read online ebook Randomness in Evolution write by John Tyler Bonner. This book was released on 2013-03-24. Randomness in Evolution available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. John Tyler Bonner here challenges a central tenet of evolutionary biology.
Natural Selection
Natural Selection - read free eBook in online reader or directly download on the web page. Select files or add your book in reader. Download and read online ebook Natural Selection write by Mario A. Fares. This book was released on 2014-11-21. Natural Selection available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. This book summarizes the knowledge in the field of methods to identify signatures of natural selection. A number of mathematical models and methods have been designed to identify the fingerprints of natural selection on genes and genomes. Such methods are provided in a simple and direct way so that students of different disciplines can navigate thr
Darwinian Populations and Natural Selection
Darwinian Populations and Natural Selection - read free eBook in online reader or directly download on the web page. Select files or add your book in reader. Download and read online ebook Darwinian Populations and Natural Selection write by Peter Godfrey-Smith. This book was released on 2009-03-26. Darwinian Populations and Natural Selection available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. In 1859 Darwin described a deceptively simple mechanism that he called "natural selection," a combination of variation, inheritance, and reproductive success. He argued that this mechanism was the key to explaining the most puzzling features of the natural world, and science and philosophy were changed forever as a result. The exact nature of the Darwinian process has been controversial ever since, however. Godfrey-Smith draws on new developments in biology, philosophy of science, and other fields to give a new analysis and extension of Darwin's idea. The central concept used is that of a "Darwinian population," a collection of things with the capacity to undergo change by natural selection. From this starting point, new analyses of the role of genes in evolution, the application of Darwinian ideas to cultural change, and "evolutionary transitions" that produce complex organisms and societies are developed. Darwinian Populations and Natural Selection will be essential reading for anyone interested in evolutionary theory
