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Print Price: $99.99

Format:
Paperback
488 pp.
210 full colour illustrations, 195 mm x 265 mm

ISBN-13:
9780198712572

Copyright Year:
2015

Imprint: OUP UK

The Evolution of Life

Graham Bell

The Evolution of Life stands alone amongst the major textbooks by focusing on key principles to offer a truly accessible, unintimidating treatment of evolutionary biology.

With adaptation through natural selection - how the integrated complexity of living organisms comes about - as its central theme, the book adopts a lucid, crystal-clear narrative to explain the mechanism of evolution and its main outcomes.

Chapters are grouped into six themed parts - basics, history, origins, adaptation, selection, and interaction - and the text is regularly interspersed with descriptive headings that set out a clear path through the subject.

The Evolution of Life is written to instil a true understanding of the essential principles of evolutionary biology without that understanding being compromised by peripheral detail. As such, it is the ideal introduction for any student encountering this fascinating subject for the first time.

Online Resource Centre
The Evolution of Life is supported by the following online resources:

For registered adopters:
* Figures from the book in electronic format for use in lectures
* A set of exam questions for each chapter
* Journal Clubs: discussion questions that guide students through research papers related to each chapter

For students:
* Programs and interactive spreadsheets related to activities posed in the book

Readership : First and second year undergraduates taking a first course in evolutionary biology. Also a useful primer for more advanced students, particularly at graduate level, who may be encountering evolutionary biology for the first time.

Section 1: Basics
1. The Evidence for Evolution
2. The Engine of Evolution
Section 2: History
3. The Tree of Life
4. The Diversity of Life
5. The Ancestry of Life
Section 3: Origins
6. The Origin of Variation
7. The Origin of Species
8. The Origin of Innovation
Section 4: Adaptation
9. Adaptation and Evolved Design
10. Evolving Bodies
11. The Dynamic Genome
Section 5: Selection
12. Artificial Selection
13. Experimental Evolution
14. Selection in Natural Populations
Section 6: Interaction
15. Sexual Selection
16. Cooperation and Conflict
17. Symbiosis and Struggle

Online Resource Centre Click here

Graham Bell is a Professor and Chair of the Department of Biology at McGill University, Montreal, where his research explores genetic variation and species diversity in environments that vary in space and time. Having published over 120 research papers in refereed journals, he is also the author of Selection: the mechanism of evolution (second edition, OUP, 2007).

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Special Features

A clear account of the central issue of evolutionary biology - adaptation through natural selection - that is tailored to the needs of a one semester course.
Its tight focus makes it perfect for those needing to grasp the essentials without being burdened by excessive detail.
Written by an eminent evolutionary biologist known both for his clarity of thinking and clarity of writing.
Augmented by additional teaching and learning resources on an accompanying Online Resource Centre.