Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
  1. Home
  2. Browse subjects
  3. Life Sciences
  4. Evolutionary biology
  5. Content listing

Refine search

Refine search

Access:
Content type:
Publication date:
Apply   From and To filters
Journals Show more
Publishers: Show more
Societies Show more
Series: Show more
Collections: Show more

Actions for selected content:

Select all | Deselect all
  • View selected items
  • Export citations
  • Download PDF (zip)
  • Save to Kindle
  • Save to Dropbox
  • Save to Google Drive

Save Search

You can save your searches here and later view and run them again in "My saved searches".

Please provide a title, maximum of 40 characters.
Cancel
×

423 results in Evolutionary biology

Page 1 of 22

Understanding the Tree of Life
  • Kevin Omland
  • Published online:
    19 September 2025
    Print publication:
    18 September 2025
  • Challenge outdated views of evolution and embrace a clearer understanding of life's incredible diversity with this enlightening exploration of evolutionary trees. Far from being a linear ladder of progress, evolution is a vast, branching tree where all species-humans included-are evolutionary cousins, not ancestors or descendants. Every organism alive today shares the same 3.5 billion years of evolutionary history, uniquely adapted to its own environment. This book takes readers on a journey through the tree of life, beginning with humanity's closest relatives and expanding outward to the most distantly related organisms. By unravelling the misconceptions perpetuated by news articles and traditional depictions of evolution, it offers a fresh perspective on life's interconnectedness. With engaging insights and vivid illustrations, this book fosters a deeper appreciation for the remarkable complexity and diversity of life on Earth, making it an essential read for anyone curious about our evolutionary story.

Charles Darwin
  • No Rebel, Great Revolutionary
  • Michael Ruse
  • Published online:
    05 December 2024
    Print publication:
    28 November 2024
  • Charles Darwin's theory of evolution was one of the most significant revolutions in the history of science. Widely debated after the publication of the Origin of Species in 1859, it continues to be controversial.  In this volume, Michael Ruse offers the definitive history of the theory of evolution through natural selection. Tracing Darwin's intellectual journey and experiences that lead him to his novel insights, Ruse explores his scientific contributions as well as their relationship to philosophical issues and religious implications, as well as being both inspiration and challenge to novelists and poets. He also shows how the Darwin's ideas continue to have contemporary relevance, as they shed light on social issues and problems, such as race, sexual orientation and the connections between Darwin's thinking to that of Sigmund Freud, and the status of women, including the possibility and desirability of social change. Written in an engaging, non-technical style, Ruse's volume serves as an ideal introduction to the ideas of one of the key figures in the history of modern science.

The Biodemography of Ageing and Longevity
  • Edited by Jean-François Lemaître, Samuel Pavard
  • Published online:
    14 November 2024
    Print publication:
    21 November 2024
  • Why and how we age are probably two of science's oldest questions, echoing personal beliefs and concerns about our own finitude. From the earliest musings of ancient philosophers to recent pharmacological trials aimed at slowing ageing and prolonging longevity, these questions have fascinated scientists across time and fields of research. Taking advantage of the natural diversity of ageing trajectories, within and across species, this interdisciplinary volume provides a comprehensive view of the recent advances in ageing and longevity through a biodemographic approach. It includes the key facts, theories, ongoing fields of investigation, big questions, and new avenues for research in ageing and longevity, as well as considerations on how extending longevity integrates into the social and environmental challenges that our society faces. This is a useful resource for students and researchers curious to unravel the mysteries of longevity and ageing, from their origins to their consequences, across species, space and time.

Evolution of the Arborescent Gymnosperms
  • Pattern, Process and Diversity
  • Volume 1, Northern Hemisphere Focus
  • Christopher N. Page
  • Published online:
    11 November 2024
    Print publication:
    05 December 2024
  • The arborescent gymnosperms are the most prevalent trees in one-third of the world's forests, and have dominated the Earth's forest ecosystems through much of evolutionary time. They encompass over 70 living genera and nearly 700 species of evergreen conifers and related trees, and include the largest and longest-lived organisms on this planet. This two-volume treatise provides detailed descriptions of each genus based on first-hand surveys of their structure, adaption, ecology, function and development. It also incorporates evidence from molecular studies, palaeobotany and environmental data to provide a holistic understanding of their overall evolution and diversity. Covering the world's temperate and tropical forests, Volume 1 principally focuses on Northern Hemisphere genera while Volume 2 covers those with a predominantly Southern Hemisphere range. Together, the set provides a comprehensive, global reference for researchers in palaeobotany, plant science, geobiology, evolutionary biology, ecology and plant genetics, as well as arboriculturists and conservation managers.

Evolution of the Arborescent Gymnosperms
  • Pattern, Process and Diversity
  • Volume 2, Southern Hemisphere Focus
  • Christopher N. Page
  • Published online:
    11 November 2024
    Print publication:
    05 December 2024
  • The arborescent gymnosperms are the most prevalent trees in one-third of the world's forests, and have dominated the Earth's forest ecosystems through much of evolutionary time. They encompass over 70 living genera and nearly 700 species of evergreen conifers and related trees, and include the largest and longest-lived organisms on this planet. This two-volume treatise provides detailed descriptions of each genus based on first-hand surveys of their structure, adaption, ecology, function and development. It also incorporates evidence from molecular studies, palaeobotany and environmental data to provide a holistic understanding of their overall evolution and diversity. Covering the world's temperate and tropical forests, Volume 1 principally focuses on Northern Hemisphere genera while Volume 2 covers those with a predominantly Southern Hemisphere range. Together, the set provides a comprehensive, global reference for researchers in palaeobotany, plant science, geobiology, evolutionary biology, ecology and plant genetics, as well as arboriculturists and conservation managers.

Understanding the Nature‒Nurture Debate
  • Eric Turkheimer
  • Published online:
    07 November 2024
    Print publication:
    21 November 2024
  • There are arguably few areas of science more fiercely contested than the question of what makes us who we are. Are we products of our environments or our genes? Is nature the governing force behind our behaviour or is it nurture? While it is now widely agreed that it is a mixture of both, discussions continue as to which is the dominant influence. This unique volume presents a clear explanation of heritability, the ongoing nature versus nurture debate and the evidence that is currently available. Starting at the beginning of the modern nature-nurture debate, with Darwin and Galton, this book describes how evolution posed a challenge to humanity by demonstrating that humans are animals, and how modern social science was necessitated when humans became an object of natural science. It clearly sets out the most common misconceptions such as the idea that heritability means that a trait is 'genetic' or that it is a justification for eugenics.

Understanding Visuals in the Life Sciences
  • Han Yu
  • Published online:
    31 October 2024
    Print publication:
    21 November 2024
  • From photographs to micrographs, from the various types of graphs to fun, interactive visuals and games, there are many different forms in which science can be visualised. However, all of these forms of visualisation in the Life Sciences are susceptible to misunderstandings and misinformation. This accessible and concise book demonstrates the misconceptions surrounding the visuals used in popular life science communication. Richly illustrated in colour, this guide is packed with examples of commonly used visual types: photographs, micrographs, illustrations, graphs, interactive visuals, and infographics allowing visual creators to produce more effective visuals that aspire to being both attractive and informative for their target audience. It also encourages non-specialist readers to be more empowered and critical, to ask difficult questions, and to cultivate true engagement with science. This book is an invaluable resource for life scientists and science communicators, and anyone who creates visuals for public or non-specialist readers.

Evolutionary Physiology of Algae and Aquatic Plants
  • Edited by Mario Giordano, John Beardall, John A. Raven, Stephen C. Maberly
  • Published online:
    24 October 2024
    Print publication:
    07 November 2024
  • Photosynthetic organisms have an enormous influence on our environment through their effects on the development of other life on Earth and the way they alter the planet's geology and geochemistry. This book takes a unique approach by examining the evolutionary history of the major groups of aquatic photoautotrophs in the context of the ecophysiological characteristics that have allowed them to adapt to the challenges of life in water and thrive under past and present environmental conditions. The important role played by aquatic photoautotrophs on a planet undergoing unprecedented anthropogenic-induced change is also highlighted, in chapters on their critical function in mitigating environmental change through their physiological processes, and on the role of algae in biotechnology. This invaluable resource will be appreciated by researchers and advanced students interested in the biodiversity and evolutionary physiology of the full range of aquatic photoautotrophs, and their interaction with the environment.

Understanding Human Diversity
  • Jonathan Marks
  • Published online:
    31 August 2024
    Print publication:
    04 July 2024
  • No two people are the same, and no two groups of people are the same. But what kinds of differences are there, and what do they mean? What does our DNA say about race, gender, equality, or ancestry? Drawing on the latest discoveries in anthropology and human genetics, Understanding Human Diversity looks at scientific realities and pseudoscientific myths about the patterns of diversity in our species, challenging common misconceptions about genetics, race, and evolution and their role in shaping human life today. By examining nine counterexamples drawn from popular scientific ideas, that is to say, examinations of what we are not, this book leads the reader to an appreciation of what we are. We are hybrids with often inseparable natural and cultural aspects, formed of natural and cultural histories, and evolved from remote ape and recent human ancestors. This book is a must for anyone curious about human genetics, human evolution, and human diversity.

Human Behavioral Ecology
  • Edited by Jeremy Koster, Brooke Scelza, Mary K. Shenk
  • Published online:
    07 March 2024
    Print publication:
    14 March 2024
  • Human behavioral ecology (HBE) applies the principles of evolutionary theory and optimisation to the study of human behavioural and cultural diversity. Among other things, HBE attempts to explain variation in behaviour as adaptive solutions to the competing life-history demands of growth, development, reproduction, parental care, and mate acquisition. This book is a comprehensive introduction to the theoretical orientation and specific findings of HBE. It consolidates the insights of evolution and human behaviour into a single volume that reflects the current state and future of the field. It brings together leading scholars from across the evolutionary social sciences to provide a comprehensive and thought-provoking review of the state of the topic. Throughout, the authors explain the latest developments in theory and highlight critical debates in the literature, while also engaging readers with ethnographic insights and field-based studies that remain at the core of human behavioral ecology.

The Philosophy of Evolutionary Theory
  • Concepts, Inferences, and Probabilities
  • Elliott Sober
  • Published online:
    01 February 2024
    Print publication:
    08 February 2024
  • Natural selection, mutation, and adaptation are well-known and central topics in Darwin's theory of evolution and in the 20th - and 21st -century theories which grew out of it, but many other important topics are used in evolutionary biology that raise interesting philosophical questions. In this book, Elliott Sober  analyses a much larger range of topics, including fitness, altruism, common ancestry, chance, taxonomy, phylogenetic inference, operationalism, reductionism, conventionalism, null hypotheses and default reasoning, instrumentalism versus realism, hypothetico-deductivism, essentialism, falsifiability, the principle of parsimony, the principle of the common cause, causality, determinism versus indeterminism, sensitivity to initial conditions, and the knowability of the past. Sober's clear philosophical analyses of these key concepts, arguments, and methods of inference will be valuable for all readers who want to understand evolutionary biology in both its Darwinian and its contemporary forms.

Understanding Obesity
  • Stanley Ulijaszek
  • Published online:
    04 January 2024
    Print publication:
    25 January 2024
  • Most people have some dissatisfaction or concern about body weight, fatness, or obesity, either personally or professionally. This book shows how the popular understanding of obesity is often at odds with scientific understandings, and how misunderstandings about people with obesity can further contribute to the problem. It describes, in an approachable way, interconnected debates about obesity in public policy, medicine and public health, and how media and social media engage people in everyday life in those debates. In chapters considering body fat and fatness, genetics, metabolism, food and eating, inequality, blame and stigma, and physical activity, this book brings separate domains of obesity research into the field of complexity. By doing so, it aids navigation through the minefield of misunderstandings about body weight, fatness, and obesity that exist today, after decades of mostly failed policies and interventions.

Life in the Posthuman Condition
  • Critical Responses to the Anthropocene
  • Edited by S. E. Wilmer, Audronė Žukauskaitė
  • Published by:
    Edinburgh University Press
    Published online:
    20 October 2023
    Print publication:
    31 January 2023
  • This collection reconsiders the notion of life and conceptualizes those forms of life which have been excluded from modern philosophy, such as post-Anthropocene life, the life of non-human animals and the life of inorganic objects.

    The contributors, who include prominent contemporary philosophers and theorists ask a wide range of questions including: what new forms of subjection can we see with the return of the 'Anthropos'?, what can animals teach us in the Anthropocene?, can we reconstruct the perceptual world of animals and take a look into their 'subjectivity'?, what happens to inorganic matter (waste or digital objects) when no longer used by any subject and can we think about inorganic matter in terms of subjective self-awareness?

    The first section, Life Beyond the Anthropocene, critically questions Anthropocene theory and outlines alternative scenarios, such as Gaia theory or post-Anthropocene forms of life on Earth and other planets, as well as new forms of subjectivity. The second part, Human and Non-Human Interactions, investigates the obscure boundary, between life and non-life, and between human and non-human animal life forms. The third part, Forms of Life and New Ontologies, concentrates on new ontologies and discusses life in terms of vitalism, new materialism, movement, form-taking activity and plasticity.

Understanding Charles Darwin
  • Erik L. Peterson
  • Published online:
    31 August 2023
    Print publication:
    14 September 2023
  • The legend of Charles Darwin has never been more alive or more potent, but by virtue of this, his legacy has become susceptible to myths and misunderstandings. Understanding Charles Darwin examines key questions such as what did Darwin's work change about the world? In what ways is 'Darwinism' reflective of Darwin's own views? What problems were left unsolved? In our elevation of Darwin to this iconic status, have we neglected to recognise the work of other scientists? The book also examines Darwin's struggle with his religious beliefs, considering his findings, and whether he was truly an atheist. In this engaging account, Peterson paints an intimate portrait of Darwin from his own words in private correspondence and journals. The result is the Darwin you never knew.

Understanding Reproduction
  • Giuseppe Fusco, Alessandro Minelli
  • Published online:
    27 July 2023
    Print publication:
    10 August 2023
  • Our understanding of reproduction and reproductive processes is often biased towards the behaviour of organisms most familiar to us. As such, the amazing disparity of the phenomena of reproduction and sex is often overlooked. Understanding Reproduction addresses all the main facets of this large chapter of the life sciences, including discussions of asexual reproduction, parthenogenesis, sex determination, reproductive effort, and much more. The book features an abundance of examples from across the tree of life, including animals, plants, fungi, protists and bacteria. Written in an accessible and easy to digest style, overcoming the intimidating diversity of the technical terminology, this book will appeal to interested general readers, biologists, science educators, philosophers and medical doctors.

Understanding Living Systems
  • Raymond Noble, Denis Noble
  • Published online:
    22 June 2023
    Print publication:
    06 July 2023
  • Life is definitively purposive and creative. Organisms use genes in controlling their destiny. This book presents a paradigm shift in understanding living systems. The genome is not a code, blueprint or set of instructions. It is a tool orchestrated by the system. This book shows that gene-centrism misrepresents what genes are and how they are used by living systems. It demonstrates how organisms make choices, influencing their behaviour, their development and evolution, and act as agents of natural selection. It presents a novel approach to fundamental philosophical and cultural issues, such as free-will. Reading this book will make you see life in a new light, as a marvellous phenomenon, and in some sense a triumph of evolution. We are not in our genes, our genes are in us.

Understanding the Christianity–Evolution Relationship
  • Michael Ruse
  • Published online:
    18 May 2023
    Print publication:
    01 June 2023
  • The relationship between science and religion is a topic that runs rife with misconceptions, misunderstandings and debates. Are science and religion always in conflict? Is Darwin's theory of evolution through natural selection atheistic? How does history shape current debates around science and religion? This book explores these questions in a neutral and balanced way, focusing on the Christianity-evolution relationship. It shows that two paradigms – the world as an organism and the world as a machine – have critically informed and guided the discussions. The author uses his deep understanding of the history and philosophy of science, particularly Darwinian evolutionary theory and its controversies through the past 150 years, to bring fresh ideas to the debate and to wider discussions such as environmental issues and hate. Understanding the Christianity-Evolution Relationship provides a lively and informative analysis and lays out multiple views so that readers can make their own judgements to increase their understanding.

Understanding Species
  • John S. Wilkins
  • Published online:
    06 April 2023
    Print publication:
    20 April 2023
  • Are species worth saving? Can they be resurrected by technology? What is the use of species in biomedicine? These questions all depend on a clear definition of the concept of 'species', yet biologists have long struggled to define this term. In this accessible book, John S. Wilkins provides an introduction to the concept of 'species' in biology, philosophy, ethics, policymaking and conservation. Using clear language and easy-to-understand examples throughout, the book provides a history of species and why we use them. It encourages readers to appreciate the philosophical depth of the concept as well as its connections to logic and science. For any interested reader, this short text highlights the complexities of a single idea in biology, the problems with the concept of 'species' and the benefits of it in helping us to answer the bigger questions and understand our living world.

Understanding Natural Selection
  • Michael Ruse
  • Published online:
    09 November 2022
    Print publication:
    17 November 2022
  • Natural selection, as introduced by Charles Darwin in the Origin of Species (1859), has always been a topic of great conceptual and empirical interest. This book puts Darwin's theory of evolution in historical context showing that, in important respects, his central mechanism of natural selection gives the clue to understanding the nature of organisms. Natural selection has important implications, not just for the understanding of life's history – single-celled organism to man – but also for our understanding of contemporary social norms, as well as the nature of religious belief. The book is written in clear, non-technical language, appealing not just to philosophers, historians, and biologists, but also to general readers who find thinking about important issues both challenging and exciting.

The Evolution of Everything
  • The Patterns and Causes of Big History
  • Brian Villmoare
  • Published online:
    03 November 2022
    Print publication:
    24 November 2022
  • Big History seeks to retell the human story in light of scientific advances by such methods as radiocarbon dating and genetic analysis. This book provides a deep, causal view of the forces that have shaped the universe, the earth, and humanity. Starting with the Big Bang and the formation of the earth, it traces the evolutionary history of the world, focusing on humanity's origins. It also explores the many natural forces shaping humanity, especially the evolution of the brain and behaviour. Moving through time, the causes of such important transformations as agriculture, complex societies, the industrial revolution, the enlightenment, and modernity are placed in the context of underlying changes in demography, learning, and social organization. Humans are biological creatures, operating with instincts evolved millions of years ago, but in the context of a rapidly changing world, and as we try to adapt to new circumstances, we must regularly reckon with our deep past.

Page 1 of 22