The Major Transitions 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 The Major Transitions in Evolution write by John Maynard Smith. This book was released on 1997-10-30. The Major Transitions in Evolution available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. During evolution there have been several major changes in the way genetic information is organized and transmitted from one generation to the next. These transitions include the origin of life itself, the first eukaryotic cells, reproduction by sexual means, the appearance of multicellular plants and animals, the emergence of cooperation and of animal societies. This is the first book to discuss all these major transitions and their implications for our understanding of evolution.Clearly written and illustrated with many original diagrams, this book will be welcomed by students and researchers in the fields of evolutionary biology, ecology, and genetics.
The Major Transitions in Evolution Revisited
The Major Transitions in Evolution Revisited - 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 Major Transitions in Evolution Revisited write by Brett Calcott. This book was released on 2011-04-22. The Major Transitions in Evolution Revisited available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Drawing on recent advances in evolutionary biology, prominent scholars return to the question posed in a pathbreaking book: how evolution itself evolved. In 1995, John Maynard Smith and Eörs Szathmáry published their influential book The Major Transitions in Evolution. The "transitions" that Maynard Smith and Szathmáry chose to describe all constituted major changes in the kinds of organisms that existed but, most important, these events also transformed the evolutionary process itself. The evolution of new levels of biological organization, such as chromosomes, cells, multicelled organisms, and complex social groups radically changed the kinds of individuals natural selection could act upon. Many of these events also produced revolutionary changes in the process of inheritance, by expanding the range and fidelity of transmission, establishing new inheritance channels, and developing more open-ended sources of variation. Maynard Smith and Szathmáry had planned a major revision of their work, but the death of Maynard Smith in 2004 prevented this. In this volume, prominent scholars (including Szathmáry himself) reconsider and extend the earlier book's themes in light of recent developments in evolutionary biology. The contributors discuss different frameworks for understanding macroevolution, prokaryote evolution (the study of which has been aided by developments in molecular biology), and the complex evolution of multicellularity.
Major Transitions in Vertebrate Evolution
Major Transitions in Vertebrate 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 Major Transitions in Vertebrate Evolution write by Jason S. Anderson. This book was released on 2007-09-11. Major Transitions in Vertebrate Evolution available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. New discoveries of ancient vertebrates, filling in gaps in the fossil record, are quickly eroding the traditionally recognized differences between the principal groups of vertebrates—for example, between dinosaurs and birds—and radically changing our understanding of the evolutionary history of the major group of animals to which our species belongs. This book describes this changing scientific landscape and contributes to the revolution in our knowledge of the developmental mechanisms that underlie evolutionary transformation.
On the Origin of Autonomy
On the Origin of Autonomy - 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 On the Origin of Autonomy write by Bernd Rosslenbroich. This book was released on 2014-04-15. On the Origin of Autonomy available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. This volume describes features of autonomy and integrates them into the recent discussion of factors in evolution. In recent years ideas about major transitions in evolution are undergoing a revolutionary change. They include questions about the origin of evolutionary innovation, their genetic and epigenetic background, the role of the phenotype and of changes in ontogenetic pathways. In the present book, it is argued that it is likewise necessary to question the properties of these innovations and what was qualitatively generated during the macroevolutionary transitions. The author states that a recurring central aspect of macroevolutionary innovations is an increase in individual organismal autonomy whereby it is emancipated from the environment with changes in its capacity for flexibility, self-regulation and self-control of behavior. The first chapters define the concept of autonomy and examine its history and its epistemological context. Later chapters demonstrate how changes in autonomy took place during the major evolutionary transitions and investigate the generation of organs and physiological systems. They synthesize material from various disciplines including zoology, comparative physiology, morphology, molecular biology, neurobiology and ethology. It is argued that the concept is also relevant for understanding the relation of the biological evolution of man to his cultural abilities. Finally the relation of autonomy to adaptation, niche construction, phenotypic plasticity and other factors and patterns in evolution is discussed. The text has a clear perspective from the context of systems biology, arguing that the generation of biological autonomy must be interpreted within an integrative systems approach.
The Origins of Life
The Origins of Life - 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 Origins of Life write by John Maynard Smith. This book was released on 2000. The Origins of Life available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Presents, for the general readership, the novel picture of evolution proposed in the 1995 book, The major transitions in evolution.
