Evolution Making Sense of Life

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About this Book Cover Page Half Title Page Title Page Copyright Page Dedication Brief Contents Contents Preface Visual Preface Acknowledgments About the Authors Chapter 1: The Whale and the Virus 1.1 Whales: Mammals Gone to Sea Evolution as a Gradual Process Visualizing Evolutionary History Chemistry of Whales Embryos and Teeth Cetacean Brains Whale Diversity Through Time 1.2 Viruses: The Deadly Escape Artists Anatomy of a Virus Viral Reassortment Detecting New Viruses 1.3 Evolution: A Tapestry of Concepts To Sum Up … Multiple Choice Questions Interpret the Data Short Answer Questions Additional Reading Primary Literature Cited in Chapter 1 Chapter 2: From Natural Philosophy to Darwin 2.1 Conceptions of Nature Before Darwin The Great Chain of Being Linnaean Classification The Fossil Record Natural Theology 2.2 Evolution Before Darwin Fossils and Extinctions Lamarck’s Theory of Evolution 2.3 The Unofficial Naturalist Common Descent Natural Selection 2.4 Darwin’s Ideas in the Twenty-First Century To Sum Up … Multiple Choice Questions Interpret the Data Short Answer Questions Additional Reading Primary Literature Cited in Chapter 2 Chapter 3: What the Rocks Say 3.1 Debating the Age of Earth 3.2 A Curious Lack of Radioactivity Radioactive Decay 3.3 A Vast Museum 3.4 Bringing Fossils to Life Applying Physics to Paleontology A Wealth of Data 3.5 Traces of Vanished Biology 3.6 Setting the Stage for Life on Earth 3.7 Life’s Early Signatures 3.8 The Rise of Life 3.9 Life Gets Big 3.10 The Dawn of the Animal Kingdom 3.11 Climbing Ashore 3.12 Recent Arrivals To Sum Up … Multiple Choice Questions Interpret the Data Short Answer Questions Additional Reading Primary Literature Cited in Chapter 3 Chapter 4: The Tree of Life 4.1 Tree Thinking Constructing Phylogenetic Trees Reading Phylogenetic Trees 4.2 Phylogeny and Taxonomy 4.3 Reconstructing Phylogenies Synapomorphies Homoplasy Parsimony Consensus Trees 4.4 Fossils, Phylogeny, and the Timing of Evolution 4.5 Charting the Major Transitions of Evolution with Phylogenies: From Sea to Land 4.6 Homology as a Window Into Evolutionary History The Mammalian Ear and Its Homologies 4.7 How Feathered Dinosaurs Took Flight To Sum Up … Multiple Choice Questions Interpret the Data Short Answer Questions Additional Reading Primary Literature Cited in Chapter 4 Chapter 5: Raw Material