Evolution Making Sense of Life

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